_{Thumbnail photo: Two years ago members of Smith River School’s student government showed the school board the gopher hole-ridden field they and their peers played on. | Courtesy Smith River School’s student government}

Two years after Smith River School students described an athletic field riddled with gopher holes and uneven ground and said they raised nearly $3,000 for its renovation, the project has hit a snag.

Two contractors submitted proposals for the work last month. But the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees was forced to reject both bids. 

The proposal from the lowest bidder, Hemmingsen Construction, lacked supporting documents. Meanwhile, the bid amount from the other contractor, McKinleyville-based Hooven & Co., exceeded the statutory threshold for informal bidding under the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act, or CUPCCAA, DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris said Thursday.

“We can’t accept either bid at this point,” he said. “One was non responsive and one was over the limit.”

The Board asked staff to continue to advertise a request for proposals for the Smith River School track modernization project. Trustee Area 5 representative Michael Greer was absent.

Of the two proposals DNUSD received by its March 20 deadline, Hemingsen’s was the lowest at $209,400. However, the contractor didn’t submit a bid proposal form, a list of the sub contractors it would work with or a bid bond. According to the bid results attached to the Board’s agenda Thursday, Hemmingsen didn’t include any documents with its bid.

On the other hand, Hooven & Co. did include the required documents and offered to do the work for $352,800. According to CUPCCAA, public agencies can use an informal bidding process for projects that are under $220,000 “to expedite the completion of small projects,” according to the CUPCCAA Commission.

When they first approached trustees in March 2024, Smith River School’s student government presented a $106,000 cost estimate for project supplies, a list of needed materials and a project timeline. The Board urged them to proceed but declined to pledge funding.

The students returned to them the following month asking trustees to commit a minimum of $20,000 up to $50,000 toward the field renovation project.

On Thursday, Smith River School special education teacher Marcus Endert, who also advises the student government program, said the students had taken a “hands off approach” once the project was approved and funding was secured.

When the students were initially trying to figure out how much renovating the field would cost, Endert said they had spoken with Hemingsen. He said he didn’t recognize the name of the other bidder.

“Is this something where students could get involved and talk to some of these companies or would that be considered an impropriety,” Endert asked Harris. “Hemmingsen seemed willing to work with us at the time two years ago when we were presenting the idea.”

Harris said the district can’t support one contractor over another, though students can reach out and encourage those submitting bids to complete the process. He noted that going through a formal bidding process under CUPCCAA would “add time to the process.”

“You have to have site walks, you have to have advertisements,” he said, “you would have to have a variety of things that are more time consuming than an informal bid.”

Earlier in the meeting, Trustee Area 2 representative Abbie Crist reported back on a visit she and her colleague Don McArthur made to Smith River School on Wednesday. She praised the work that the Klamath Promise Neighborhood initiative is doing at the school site, noting they were helping with the soccer field too.