Cape school officials vote down consultant proposal

A proposal before the Cape Girardeau School Board to hire a special consultant to help make construction decisions for the district was voted down 4-3 during Monday night's meeting.

Discussion was lengthy among school board members, superintendent Dr. James Welker and administrative services director Neil Glass about the consultant position and hiring of Keith Fairchild.

Fairchild was terminated in May as a senior project manager with McCarthy Building Cos., which is overseeing construction management of the district's $40 million voter-approved school improvement plan. Glass said that according to the company the firing was not related to Fairchild's performance for the district.

Board members Paul Nenninger, Tony Smee, Don Call and Deneka Murphy voted down the proposal, while board members Kyle McDonald, Phil Moore and board president Stacy Kinder voted in favor.

The proposal was drawn up by Welker and Glass. Welker said the desire to hire Fairchild was because the district needs help on construction decisions.

"He was good at watching out for the district and saved the district money when he was a project manager with McCarthy," Welker said.

He said there was a tremendous amount of work that had been placed on Glass that a consultant could do.

Nenninger questioned Glass and Welker about the application process for hiring for the position. According to a school board policy, any service costing over $15,000 is supposed to be bid out publicly. The proposal included a fee of up to $35,000 for services Fairchild would have provided the district.

Welker said that after consulting with the district's legal counsel, he was told the policy has a clause that allows the superintendent to move forward without doing that if there is "a sense of urgency or some kind of emergency."

Currently, Welker said, around $12 million in construction bids are out, and there are decisions that need to be made quickly.

Board member Don Call questioned whether the district needed the position and said he'd been inundated with phone calls with inquiries about why the district wanted to hire someone who had been terminated by the same company the district was paying.

"If I spent over a million dollars to get something done, I can't see where $35,000 is going to make it any better," he said.

McDonald said he did not think the hiring of Fairchild would be out of line. He said the board should give the administration all the tools they need to be diligent with the dollars voters approved for the construction projects.

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301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO