School building dispute may go to courts

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 12:22 p.m.

The Clark County School District is in the midst of a $5 million contract dispute with construction management firm Parsons-Fleming-Taylor.

The School Board on Thursday voted to ask state courts to step in and settle the matter.

"During the course of the work they were doing, they claim they have spent more money than they ought to have spent," school district lawyer Bill Hoffman said. "We think that under the contract, they had an obligation to inform us if they were going to spend extra money."

Parsons executives said they have had many "discussions" with the district about the scope of work they were to be doing. They declined comment about how much money the district owes them.

"I'm waiting to find out what they (the courts) do," said Jim Clark, of Parsons.

But Hoffman said Parsons wants $5 million more than the roughly $25 million the district agreed to pay the company. Parsons claims that managing the design and construction of schools has taken longer than expected, Hoffman said.

The district has one of the biggest school construction initiatives in the nation. Hoffman said district officials hired Parsons five years ago to oversee the construction of 25 new schools and the renovation of dozens of others.

The school board hired Parsons after some public pressure to be more accountable for the $605 million in taxpayer money the district received through the 1994 school bond issue to build and renovate the schools.

Parsons has about 18 months of work left, Hoffman said.

District officials, not satisfied with the work of Parsons, did not ask the company to oversee construction projects paid for by 1996 and 1998 school bonds, worth more than $4 billion combined. School district officials are overseeing those projects themselves.