After a public hearing, the Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District unanimously voted to set the retention for two Measure S projects at 10 percent for being substantially complex at Thursday’s meeting.

The first project in question was a fire alarm upgrade at Benicia High School— not Benicia Middle School as previously reported. Factors that make the project complex include the fact the construction timeline is critical, the system is unique in nature and requires specialized training, and the system is directly related to fire, life and safety at the school.

The other project is the district’s solar photo voltaic (PV) project to be implemented at Benicia High and three of the elementary schools. Factors that make the project complex include specialized training and experience working on solar PV projects for public school clients, design code understanding for solar PV projects with the Division of the State Architect, solar PV components including panels and inverters, contractors capable of working on multiple solar projects at the same time and contractors who are able to complete the Pacific Gas & Electric Time-of-Use Grandfathering deadline before Dec. 31.

As part of public contract code, school districts can withhold retention proceeds larger than 5 percent from the original contractor if the project is deemed substantially complex and in need of a higher retention amount.

Roxanne Egan, the Measure S bond director, gave a brief summary of both projects. President Gary Wing asked what the retention would do for the district.

“The retention is an amount that is withheld from the contract until the completion of the project, so it gives the contractor impetus to come back and finish all of the punch list items and do everything as it’s contracted,” Egan said. “It’s a more of a savings the district has to make them complete their work the way they’re supposed to.”

After the project is completed, a notice of completion is filed with the county, and then the money is released back to the contractors after 30 days of being cleared.

Trustee Celeste Monnette sought clarification on whether there were no additional costs and money was just being set aside. Egan confirmed that it was just an extra protection.

Trustee Peter Morgan sought to clarify that the fire alarm project was being funded through bond money and not the budget, and the solar PV project would be funded through Proposition 39.

“With the solar, we’re also looking to use the 0 percent loan,” Egan said. “We have to find this before we go to bid if we want to do the 10 percent. The next step they would do in the solar is start putting together the request for proposals and soliciting to get four quotes, and then they’ll be coming back to you with ‘Here’s what we found.’”

“The expenses will match the funding so it’s not getting our expenses this year,” Morgan asked. “Is that right?”

Chief Business Official Tim Rahill said they would come back with a financing schedule so the board could see the CEC loan and bonds.

“They would be paid based on the electricity savings,” he said.

In a public comment, Benicia High math teacher Joan Westerman asked if the solar project had been approved by the board.

“I heard the gentleman saying earlier (In a previous discussion item) that the savings from the electricity would be greater than or equal to the cost of the financing,” she said. “What I’m curious to know is if we’re signing a contract with them, would that be part of the contract? If that did not happen in any given year, would we have legal recourse to them so that we could recover anything that didn’t quite go that way?”

Likewise, Morgan asked if the district would have expenses they did not anticipate.

“There’s always a risk that you might not meet all your savings in that year, and it’s possible that year’s loan statement could be more than the savings,” Rahill said, “so we can make sure that when we come back to improve the contract that’s laid out for us.”

Egan said contractors would come back to the board when pricing was available.

The board unanimously voted to set the retentions for both projects at 10 percent.

In other business, the board unanimously voted to approve an application for an Alternative Schools Accountability Model for Benicia Community Day School. During the superintendent’s report, Charles Young noted that Benicia High and Benicia Middle School applied to become Gold Ribbon Schools and had moved forward with the visitation process.

The board will next meet on Thursday, March 16.