There were several proposals for design and construction of Gibbs and Hardin Valley Middle Schools. Would you be surprised to find out that the evaluation team did not open all components of the proposals? How would you feel to know at least 4 proposals were not opened to check the pricing? The winning proposal for Gibbs Middle is $23.6 million. One of the proposals pricing on Gibbs Middle was capped at $20 million. Construction Plus, Inc. a CM company that has built many schools in East TN was not even considered for their pricing.

Thats like shopping for a car, same model, same features. But you do not consider it from one dealer, because you don’t check the price and it is half the price of the same identical car from another dealer.

So, who will benefit from spending $3.6 million more for Gibbs Middle?