The Part of the Story You Really Need to Hear

The Education Empowerment Act that enables school districts to seek a waiver from the Separations Act is set to expire June 30, 2010.

The General Contractors Association of Pennsylvania (GCAP) strongly supports school districts having the unencumbered option to use single-prime contracting. That is why GCAP has joined with the AIA Pennsylvania, ACECPA, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officers and the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators to form a coalition of construction and education professionals who support the school mandate waiver program and would like to see it continue WITHOUT any new mandates on how schools bid their construction projects if they seek a waiver.

Unfortunately, the group, Concerned Contractors of Pennsylvania, seems committed to distorting the facts about the benefits of single prime contracting.

To make sure legislators, school officials and contractors get the full picture on why choosing single prime is a good idea, GCAP and its coalition intend to tell all interested parties, “the rest of the story” (first installment included below).

GCAP sent this document to all the members of the General Assembly and key staff to make sure they understand why a new mandate requiring school entities to bid projects both multi-prime and single-prime before awarding a contract will not give school officials an apples-to-apples comparison on bid day.  More specifically, such a mandate fails to consider the actual issues and conditions that determine the numbers included in a proposal on bid day, and ultimately how those numbers can change during the course of a project.

If you want to raise this issue with your own state House Member or Senator, feel free to forward a copy of The Rest of Story with a note telling him or her why you support schools getting a waiver from the Separations Act WITHOUT having to bid a project both ways.

GCAP will post future installments of The Rest of the Story” to the website. In the meantime, for more information about these efforts, please call contact Terry McDonough at 717-731-6272 or keystonecontractors@verizon.net.