DOE Completing Roof Repairs Under New Contracting Method

The Hawai‘i State Department of Education (HIDOE) is working through backlogged roof repair projects at schools utilizing a new contracting method to expedite common repairs.

A roofing contractor works on Castle High’s auditorium roof. (April 2019). PC: Department of Education

The Department successfully completed several roofing projects in recent weeks using a method known as Job Order Contracting (JOC), a key part of HIDOE’s Future Schools Now initiative.

The JOC method allows the Department to contract several vendors through competitive bidding to perform commonly encountered repair projects at fixed prices over the life of a multiyear contract, rather than having to bid out individual repair jobs. The aim is to eventually handle all roof repairs with this method, followed by heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and electrical upgrades in future rollouts.

Roofing contractors work on Castle High’s auditorium roof. (April 2019) PC: Department of Education

“Part of the Department’s commitment to ensuring equity and excellence in education involves providing safe and ready access to campuses and classrooms that promote world-class learning opportunities,” said Dann Carlson, assistant superintendent for the Office of School Facilities and Support Services. “Job Order Contracting is one strategy to help us tackle repair and maintenance projects more efficiently as we carry out our mission.”

Roofing contractors complete work on King Intermediate’s cafeteria roof. (April 2019) PC: Department of Education

The following eight school roof repair projects took on average 34 days to move through the procurement process using JOC. Construction completion ranged from eight days to 23 days. By comparison, the traditional design-bid-build method takes on average seven years to move through the appropriation, design, bidding and construction phases for DOE projects.

HIDOE partnered with Gordian Inc., the creators of JOC, to develop and implement a JOC program, and in January awarded three roofing contractors for O‘ahu and two roofing contractors for Hawai‘i Island. Over the last three months, HIDOE has procured more than $2 million in roof repair construction work.