[7:51] First and February 9th, 10th, 2026. We are having a special call meeting.

[8:01] Thank you for your patient. At this time, I would like to call this meeting to order. I will ask Dr. I mean Mr. Williams if we will establish a quorum.

[8:15] Okay, Madam Chair, we have two members on the.

[8:20] that's participating virtually.

[8:23] Dr. Edwards,

[8:26] she, okay, I think we just,

[8:28] let's just a minute.

[8:31] Okay. Dr. Edwards, we're doing,

[8:33] is she here?

[8:35] Can you hear him about that word?

[8:36] Can you hear him about that word?

[8:40] I can do it.

[8:42] Okay.

[8:43] Okay, we're doing a roll call.

[8:44] Dr. Edwards, if you just acknowledge

[8:45] that you are participating virtually,

[8:48] I say and I are here with

[8:53] a mute of phone now,

[8:54] also.

[8:57] She want me to answer this. Yes, Mr. President present. Okay. And do we have

[9:03] Ronda Teller on the on line. I'm sorry, virtually also. Okay. And so we have at the table,

[9:11] Mr. Turner Burnett. President. It's Catherine Moody. Sir Gary Elliott. Barbara Stevenson.

[9:18] She was truly Clinton Williams. And we also have at this table our attorney that we haven't

[9:24] We've seen in a while, Rob Malone, and we have Dr. Rosa Atkins superintendent.

[9:33] Thank you, sir.

[9:34] Madam Chair, we have the entire board participating.

[9:38] The Constitution say, four, thank you.

[9:41] Thank you, Mr. William.

[9:43] We're moving down to three business before the board for approval.

[9:48] And we will begin with 3.0 approval of the agenda.

[9:51] to make a motion madam chair to approve the agenda.

[9:55] Second.

[9:56] Okay, it was moved by Ms. Catherine Moody and second by Mr.

[10:00] Gary Elliott to approve today's agenda.

[10:03] Is there any discussion?

[10:05] Here are none. All those in favor?

[10:08] Aye.

[10:09] Aye.

[10:11] Okay, the odds have it.

[10:12] The motion is carried.

[10:14] Now we're moving to number three.

[10:17] Business before the board for approval.

[10:19] We will begin with 3.01 centric contract for renovations at Gaston Stem Leadership Academy.

[10:27] I will turn this over to Attorney Rob Malone.

[10:33] As the board is aware, you selected following an RFQ process, Centrics Energy Partners to be the design builder for the Gaston Stem leadership.

[10:49] Academy renovation. You asked Phil Matthews and myself to work with

[10:59] Syntax to put together a contract for this. We used the AA form contract as A-141

[11:08] 2014 edition to do this. We incorporated some revisions that are very similar to the revisions

[11:21] that we did a couple of years ago when this contract was awarded to a different contractor.

[11:30] The highlights in this version is that the budgetate number for the project, which appears

[11:40] in section 1.1.6, is $1.5 million, so that's the budget that we've established for this.

[11:49] The scope of work, as you guys know, is to, you know, convert some of these spaces to be able

[11:57] the house pre K kids. So that portion is identified in section. It's kind of 1.1.2 and 1.1.1.

[12:07] The rear of the contract. And then we've been back and forth with syntax over a completion date and what we are showing in this version of the contract as the proposed completion date is August the 15th of 2026.

[12:26] 26.

[12:28] With an October 15th of 2026 final completion date, with that said, the way these contracts

[12:37] work is the, if you approve it today, Centrex will begin working on the design to accommodate

[12:46] the proposed revisions. Once they get the design done and get some pricing of that, they will

[12:54] and bring that back to you for approval is what they call the what the

[12:59] agreement calls like exhibit A.

[13:10] Is this better?

[13:15] Oh, did you meet it back to that? Can you hear me now?

[13:21] Yes. Okay. Um,

[13:27] I forget. Oh, so they'll they'll bring forth an exhibit A.

[13:30] It will have the pricing in it, it will have a natural design, it will have the actual pricing in it, it will have a design of what will literally be built.

[13:42] At that time we will revisit the completion date, it is possible that by the time we get approvals from the Department of Public Instruction and the ability to get a permit from the Northampton County.

[14:00] that we may not be able to make this August 15th date, and if so, we'll make an adjustment of that date at

[14:08] at the time that exhibit A comes forward, but in the meantime,

[14:12] you know, Syntax is committed to trying to make that date, including

[14:18] meeting with Mr. Matthews tomorrow or kickoff meetings to kind of get the project going. So,

[14:23] So we are very comfortable with this version of the agreement.

[14:30] The only other thing I will point out is that the compensation for centrax or the design

[14:40] phase portion of this, and that's kind of between now and when they bring forth the exhibit

[14:44] today is $86,000 I believe.

[14:52] So that's what you will owe them in the event that you choose

[14:57] not to go for it with building the project.

[15:00] But to pay them for the time that they're going to spend designing the structure or the renovations.

[15:10] And otherwise, it's a fairly standard AIA document. We did make some, there was a little back and forth between Mr. Matthews and Syntax and trying to get some of the terms, but all of the recommended terms we're comfortable with and are finally making this recommendation to the board. I'm looking for the dollar amount.

[15:34] $85,000. Okay. Thank you. So the the compensation for the design work is $85,000 and that $85,000 is part of the $1.5 million budget at number that we are we're showing.

[15:55] I would like to make a motion that this board accepts the contract between Centrex.

[16:05] So on, let me get this straight. So I wanted to do this right between Centrex, Energy Partners, LLC and Northampton County Board of Education, slash school district.

[16:17] Madam Chairman.

[16:18] I'll take it with second emotion.

[16:21] Please move by Mr. Williams and second by Dr. Marjorie Edwards to approve the centric

[16:26] contract for renovation or gas and stability to chip.

[16:31] I mean, is there any discussion?

[16:36] Madam Chair Clinton, Williams, I do have some discussion.

[16:39] I'm assuming that this gentleman sitting here, you're a part of the representation for this

[16:43] contract.

[16:48] Yeah, so so I hear some of the information that our attorney just spoke about let me and I think I can speak for this boy very clearly here and they are correct me if not.

[17:00] We are not looking to have anybody designed a school for us and don't finish the job.

[17:05] We've been working on this for a very long time.

[17:07] This is very important for our students.

[17:09] And there's been a lot of discussion around how this design ought to be.

[17:14] And so I believe that we are looking forward to getting moving in this building by August.

[17:21] And if there's some completion stuff, certainly, we can make that happen by October.

[17:28] And so to the attorney here, just want to make that clear,

[17:32] We are interested in getting that part of that building to complete while we're young folks.

[17:38] And so attorney Malone, I probably haven't had a chance to find it if it's in here.

[17:43] Is there any type of pacing guide, if you will, for the lack of better terminology,

[17:50] so that we can kind of know where we ought to be in this project.

[17:53] And this is from experience of this board in terms of what we've had in the past.

[18:00] where we can kind of know what we ought to be that we're staying on on point and looking forward to being able to get our students in this building at the at least by the drop date.

[18:12] Yeah, so that's a great point. There are some milestone dates in section 1.1.7 that are intended to at least give us a sense of how realistic.

[18:28] The August 15th date is going to be, you'll see schematic design, this target it for March 4, 2026, 30 to 50% design development, kind of drawings, March the 30th.

[18:46] So you can see this is a very fast-paced project, you know, even on paper.

[18:50] submitting this to DPI for its review and approval on April 20th. The hope is that DPI will

[19:00] turn it around and get it back to the syntax and Dr. Matthews, and Mr. Matthews by April 30th.

[19:11] And then getting kind of final documents and everything. We've got May the 14th of 2026.

[19:19] So, you know, if we meet these milestones and if the scope ends up being something that

[19:26] syntax feels like they can make the August 15th day, you know, we feel like we've got a shot.

[19:34] But we are not, I mean, we will know that for sure when they bring forth exhibit A. If there's

[19:42] some reason to believe that August 15th is not going to be realistic, they will let us know at

[19:48] that time but in the meantime all the parties are working in good faith to

[19:53] try to to meet the August 15 date. I'm sure if I will since we already have

[19:59] been standing here can we hear from you from Sintek how you guys feel any do

[20:04] you feel like everything's going to come off as expected

[20:22] that the schedule, this is what we do every day.

[20:25] We do this across the United States,

[20:26] and this is, we feel comfortable with this,

[20:28] where we've got our partners in mind.

[20:31] I've already got a kickoff meeting scheduled tomorrow

[20:33] with this, that early address of the plan

[20:35] for just how we did the contract.

[20:37] We're playing on having on Tuesday,

[20:39] we're coming in through the scan of the building,

[20:41] they'll look at everything.

[20:42] So we feel very comfortable.

[20:45] We want to make you all feel very comfortable.

[20:47] So we're going to over communicate with

[20:48] Just to wrap you up, we're going to over communicate with you, we're going to keep you

[20:52] afraid to where we are and where we're at.

[20:54] You will know way ahead of time if we're not hit on dates.

[20:59] So we believe in having communication is the biggest thing.

[21:03] And that's what we're going to do.

[21:04] We're going to be open for you guys to know what we're doing, how we're doing it, why we're doing it.

[21:09] And feel free to mind.

[21:10] I'm available anytime if you need to talk to me.

[21:13] If you have questions or concerns, call me.

[21:18] Thank you, Mr. K.

[21:20] We're excited about this.

[21:22] Yeah, we're excited to be able to do this, but I mean, this is something that's, you know,

[21:26] you spend how many days here, here in New York, haven't consolidated.

[21:29] We're excited about having that opportunity to do this with you, with being in fact, the lives.

[21:35] Thank you.

[21:36] The board members, I encourage you if you have questions, and we'd have to pretend that Mr.

[21:42] to use.

[21:46] And they would ask if you all need any other discussion before we call for the question.

[21:53] We are going to make one change to the agreement on tomorrow morning. I just realized that

[21:59] I had asked my secretary to change the owner's name to the Northampton County Board of Education's.

[22:07] Well, it says Northampton County School District, but we'll clean that up in the version that gets signed,

[22:13] but other than that we're we're fine with the draft.

[22:18] All those in favor?

[22:20] I want to tell her I have it.

[22:27] The motion is carried.

[22:28] Thank you board members.

[22:29] And thank you, Mr.

[22:31] Hey,

[22:31] all right, we're moving down to 3.02.

[22:36] Granting of easement.

[22:39] The Virginia Electric and Power Company for the new high school project.

[22:49] Madam Chair and board members, you have attached the domain in energy right away agreement.

[22:56] And I am going to turn it over since it is a legal document to our attorney right, Malone.

[23:04] Happy to do this.

[23:05] So this is a fairly standard right-of-way agreement that domain in power, you know, do progress.

[23:12] All of the power companies require you to sign with them granting them the ability to put their power lines either above ground or underground to get it to your buildings.

[23:25] This agreement also gives them the ability to access that after they're installed to maintain it during emergencies.

[23:34] and it's effectively a 30-foot wide right of way from the street to the various buildings where they're going to be connecting the power.

[23:45] We have worked with Dominion on some changes to this agreement and some other places and we are engaged in those conversations at the moment with Dominion to tweak some of this language to get it a little more in line with the other agreements that we've got within.

[24:03] and with due power in other parts of the state, so we're working on that and then Mr.

[24:10] Matthews has asked the architects, the engineers, and Bordeaux to take a careful look at where

[24:20] Duke is showing this easement to make sure that it's not in an area of the project that would create

[24:28] either a problem for construction itself or kind of after the project is completed.

[24:34] So the lines that you see shown on the attachment may not be exactly where this ends up being.

[24:43] And the language that you see in the right of way document, you know,

[24:47] we are hoping will be revised to some language that's a little more customary with our agreements.

[24:52] But because this is potentially going to be a critical path item to get this work done,

[25:01] you know, as soon as the agreement is finalized, we're asking that the board go ahead

[25:05] and approve it today, subject to Dr. Atkins and the board attorney's final approval

[25:14] of the final version of this.

[25:18] then if it's okay to approve the grant of the easement to Virginia Electrical

[25:23] Dialogue.

[25:25] Point and wind second.

[25:27] Move by Ms. Katherine Moody and second by Ms. Clinton Williams to grant easement to Virginia

[25:33] Electrical Power Company for the new high school project.

[25:38] Is there any discussion?

[25:39] Yes, ma'am.

[25:41] It's kind of hard for me to vote on something I have not seen or had chance to study.

[25:51] I'm sure I think it has, I understand it, Ms. Moody.

[25:54] Do you have, I mean.

[26:00] Madam Chair, so, and I do understand, Mr. Elliot's concern.

[26:05] My concern is that we, we're, it looks like we're at a point if it's not hasn't already happened.

[26:12] And I thought that saw some likes out there, maybe was generated by some other power source,

[26:17] but this is going to be very important to us staying on track with our school district.

[26:23] And while I do trust the other attorney that generates it at the table,

[26:29] it appears to turn him alone has gone through this pretty well in Mr. Matthews,

[26:36] which trust him he's been doing a very good job for so far.

[26:39] And if this is something that we need to move on in order to manage this project to close on time, I would like to see us go ahead and move on this on the

[26:53] the, um, um, stranded. These individuals have, have done that due diligence.

[26:58] I'm sure. Uh, I'm sure that is where I like that.

[27:02] And Mr. Matthew said, right here, Mr. Matthew speaking, getting help, um, Mr, um, help get,

[27:08] yes, that would be great if Mr. Matthew, if you can't. Yeah.

[27:13] First

[27:22] of all, I'd like to thank you all for

[27:27] still being here all the state to the airline,

[27:33] Mr. Gideon, the company, not but in many holdings officially.

[27:41] So thank you for coming here.

[27:44] That too, the flight is in here.

[28:08] I

[28:12] can hear that part, are we finished with that or are there some of them, he's still talking, the plans are to,

[28:18] I'm sorry plans are to hook the electrical pile to the building

[28:24] During the middle of March and to the field has the first part of April

[28:29] The board meets again. I think

[28:31] March 9th or which would put that a real tight wonder to get this agreement in place in time to hook the pile up

[28:40] At the plan time of middle of March

[28:44] Mr Malone has worked on these before and we are working on it with the minion energy now to get it a little more friendly.

[28:54] It's fine like it is a standard, but you are giving up a 30 foot right of way of property over your land.

[29:03] So can I can I propose this because this is perfectly fine with us, number one, if any

[29:16] board members have any questions or concerns with any of the language in the easement since

[29:20] this is being, we're recommending that you approve its subject to our review. Just reach out

[29:27] to me by, let's say Monday is or Tuesday of next week, and we'll incorporate anything

[29:34] that we hear from board members into the document number one.

[29:39] And then two, once we get the final version, we can circulate that version to the board

[29:46] by email ahead of time, and then wait 24 hours or so to make sure that there are no concerns

[29:52] about it before we circulate it for signatures.

[29:56] That way, if board members have any concerns about the current draft.

[30:00] If they can communicate that to me now, then we'll do the same thing with the final version and give you, you know, 24 or so hours to look at it and to provide any feedback. I mean, obviously, if there are any concerns with the document, you know, we can either incorporate them or if we need to hold it until the next meeting because of the concerns are significant enough, then we can do that too. I mean, obviously we don't want to

[30:29] to have the board chair and superintendent sign a document that board members have concerns

[30:36] about, but we also are very conscious of the need for the owner not to delay permanent

[30:46] power to the building because that impacts a lot of the construction activities that are scheduled

[30:53] to follow.

[30:55] What I'm asking is if things, when things come up like this, all I've seen today is we

[31:03] have, we're granting an easement to Virginia power, Virginia Electric power company, the

[31:08] New High School Project.

[31:10] Didn't know anything about anything or any, you know, what, what, when, why, they wanted

[31:16] this.

[31:17] I mean, if when things come up and we have change orders or change orders, if, you know,

[31:23] When they come up individually, if they can be emailed to the group that oversees this,

[31:33] there will have chance to look at it before I come to a meeting and vote on something.

[31:39] I'm in favor of it.

[31:40] I don't have a problem with doing it because I don't want to understand it, but I just

[31:45] don't want this to be a continuous of coming up and not knowing what will come to a meeting

[31:56] I'm sorry, before you call for the question, what is an attorney you have answered this, there's Miss Mutteney to amend her motion to include this wait time for the board to.

[32:08] I will just do it. I mean, that's fine. It doesn't need to be part of the motion. I mean, obviously, it'll be a couple days anyway before we get it finalized. So you've got.

[32:17] But a couple of days between, you know, now and let's say Monday is any regardless, then

[32:24] when we get the final version, we'll email it to the whole board ahead of time.

[32:28] And yeah, yeah, no, it's not a problem whatsoever.

[32:31] I mean, obviously, this is all open and transparent and I, you know, if I've been thinking, I would

[32:40] have asked Phil to email, since we ended up, we had hoped to have the actual version, the

[32:46] final version of this easement in the board packet, but when we didn't have that, then we decided to put this one in the packet.

[32:52] And I think that's why you didn't get it earlier. We were just, you know, we just got a little caught up there. But next time, I'll recommend that we just send what we've got.

[33:01] Early on so that you can always see that.

[33:03] We can make changes exactly what changes to before we absolutely we can we can still what we're looking at.

[33:09] It is a very reasonable request and we are happy to work with the superintendent to accommodate.

[33:14] Appreciate it.

[33:15] We should.

[33:15] Not a problem.

[33:16] We should.

[33:17] All those in favor?

[33:18] Aye.

[33:19] Aye.

[33:21] Aye.

[33:22] Aye.

[33:23] Aye.

[33:25] Aye.

[33:25] motion is carrot. Thank you sir. Thank you for what members.

[33:32] Number four we know

[33:35] our next regular board meeting is March 9th and then we are looking forward to

[33:39] our 2026 conference in Louisville, Kentucky. That's March 13th through the 15th

[33:47] and then we have a North Carolina School Board Frame Virtual Conference that

[33:52] would be held March 19th through the 20th from 830 to 12. If there's no other discussion can I get

[34:01] a motion to adjourn? Chairman, I have my commotion that we adjourned.

[34:07] It was moved by several.

[34:09] I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[34:16] Okay, I'll tell a second in a discussion.

[34:20] You're in none, all those in favor?

[34:22] I have it.

[34:24] Motion carried.

[34:25] Thank you, Board Member.

[34:26] Thank you all.

[34:27] I just say they arrived.

[34:28] Thank you for coming.

[34:29] I'm sorry.

[34:29] I missed you in raw at our attorney.

[34:32] Thank you so much for turning my loan.

[34:34] I'm sorry.

[34:35] I missed you.

[34:36] You said okay.

[34:37] You got two board members.

[34:37] Thanks for watching.

Northampton County Schools, NC meeting

Transcript