Responses to a request for proposals for a consultant to assist the Lindbergh School District in developing a strategic plan for communications and community engagement are due next week.

The Board of Education voted unanimously last week to approve the request for proposals, or RFP, for a strategic-planning consultant. Board members last month had asked Director of Community Relations Mary Meyer to formulate the RFP and present it to the board for approval.

“… This is the RFP that you asked me to develop at the last board meeting, and what we’re asking for is to develop a strategic plan for communications and community engagement that will be an umbrella under which everything we do in the Community Relations Office will fit. And this is to hire a consultant to help us put the plan together …,” Meyer told board members April 10.

The approved RFP states Lindbergh is seeking consultant services to help establish a comprehensive plan for strategic communications and community engagement that will “extensively engage its parents and community members and lead to support for district initiatives.”

The project’s goals are:

• “To inform the public about the district, its challenges and successes, and to invite public participation in the planning effort.

• “Create a long-range strategic communications plan for the district and school communications.”

• “Create a step-by-step plan that will guide the district in building community support.”

Responses to the RFP are due by 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 25, and the Board of Education is scheduled to select a consultant when it meets Tuesday, May 8.

In other business, Vic Lenz and David Peek took their oaths of office, and the board voted to award nearly $2.5 million worth of contracts for Proposition R projects.

Lenz and Peek were the top two vote-getters in the April 3 election, receiving 3,202 votes — 38.83 percent — and 1,863 votes — 22.59 percent — respectively, according to final election results. Lenz was elected to the school board three years ago while Peek was making his first bid for elective office.

Also running were Richard W. Meuser, who received 1,604 votes, and incumbent Bob Bader, who garnered 1,548 votes in his campaign for a third three-year term on the board.

Board officers remain unchanged as Mark Rudoff was named president, Ken Fey was elected vice president, Lenz was selected secretary and Katie Wesselschmidt was designated treasurer.

Three contracts totaling $2,458,506 were awarded by the Board of Education for Proposition R projects.

District voters last November approved Proposition R — described by Lindbergh administrators as a no-tax-rate-increase $32 million bond issue. The district’s debt-service tax rate will remain unchanged at 38 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, but it will be extended for a six-year period. The tax-rate extension from Proposition R will end in 2026, according to Pat Lanane, assistant superintendent for finance and the district’s chief financial officer.

Proceeds from Proposition R will fund a partial building replacement at Sappington Elementary School and a mi-nor building addition at Kennerly Elementary School.

Proposition R also will fund a variety of projects in schools throughout the district, including new roofs, the replacement of rooftop HVAC units, classroom doors that lock from the inside for elementary schools, fire alarms and security cameras in most buildings.

Board members voted unanimously to award a $636,906 contract to Koch Air for districtwide heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, or HVAC, equipment that will be in-stalled as part of Proposition R.

The board also voted unanimously to award two contracts for new roofs — a $1,093,000 contract to Young Roofing for work at Lindbergh High School and a $731,600 contract to Western Waterproofing for work at Crestwood Elementary and Long Elementary.

For the roofing work, the district received seven bids for each project, according to Karl Guyer, executive director of planning and development.

Regarding the contract for the roofing project at the high school, he said, “… It will replace the roofing on the 300-400 buildings starting at the Administration Building and working all the way and completely involving the rest of this building as you go to the east, including the auditorium. It does exclude the walkway canopy and the existing addition that was installed as part of Prop R ’95.”

For the roofing projects at Crestwood and Long, he said, “Again, it is replacing virtually the entire roof, but the existing library that was built as part of the Prop R ’95 bond issue will not require to be re-roofed. So that system will remain as is …”

Lanane told the Call that in awarding both contracts for the roofing work, the board accepted an alternate bid for a thermoplastic polyolefin, or TPO, FleeceBACK roof system.

The district sought base bids for a high-quality roof systems, he said, adding, “But we also in the course of this said: What else is out there that might provide a little bit even better roofing system for is? And then there’s always the question: Can we afford it? And so we looked at that and we liked this … TPO FleeceBACK system. So we thoroughly looked at that. They even brought me over after they finally got to where they thought this was one we wanted to add and explained to me that you get an extra amount of wind protection with it. It is much lighter. In fact, from a 50-year standpoint, when you go back to replace this roof, you go right back over it ….”

Lanane said, “I think there was a hail factor that was a little better. Now, is that roof a hundred percent better than the base bid? Heck, no. And I don’t even know how to quantify that. In my own mind, I’m thinking it might be 15-20 percent better than the base-bid roof. But then you have to say: Can we afford it?

“And the only way you really know that is, is to bid them both at the same time so that nobody is trying to take advantage or leverage one against the other, and you look at your numbers when you get them and you say: For the additional cost of this FleeceBACK, are we going to get the bang for the buck? And it ended up I think it was like between 2 and 3 percent more for the FleeceBACK overall and you’re getting a roof that I think is maybe 20 percent better. Well, that’s a pretty good value. Now if it had been 20 percent better and 50 percent more costly, well you walk away from that,” he said.

Regarding the selection of the alternate bid over the base bid, Lanane said, “… I have to worry about protecting the district and the taxpayers and getting the best bang for their buck, and for just a few more dollars, we felt like we got a much better roof …”