At this moment, voters have the opportunity to decide the name of Jefferson City's second public high school.
The "2nd High School Naming Committee" made its recommendations Monday night to Jefferson City Public Schools' Board of Education, and voting opened immediately via the district's website, social media or at www.surveymonkey.com/r/39V76KY.
The naming committee's members ultimately gave the board three potential names to consider presenting to the public, out of a list of nine finalists, and the board went with the three suggestions.
Voters will have until Dec. 5 to choose between:
- Capital City High School,
- Mission High School,
- Stoneridge High School.
Only one vote per electronic device will be allowed.
Three naming committee members read the rationales for the final slate of three names now in front of the public.
"It represents our proud, unique status as the location of the Missouri State Capitol. It's synonymous with Jefferson City, personifies equality, but gives the second high school its own identity. 'JC' and 'CC' sound good together and complimentary as two district high schools. They received the most community votes, and they received unanimous votes among our committee, as well as our students," Delora Scaggs - administrative intern at Lewis and Clark Middle School - read to the board of the rationale for Capital City High School.
"The reason we came up with (Mission High School) was that the site of the new high school is adjacent to Mission Drive. The name Mission High School signifies Jefferson City Public Schools' mission to educate students, mission to learn and mission of many in the community to pass the April 2017 ballot measure. Lastly, (it) represents forward motion and betterment of the community," parent Derick Miles said.
"To start, there is a street near the facility location that is named Stoneridge. Stoneridge Parkway, shopping center and nearby rock quarry are all located in the general area. The name Stoneridge represents the historic ridge the facility will be built upon. This beautiful ridge sitting high on the hill overlooks our wonderful city. The Stoneridge name sounds strong, professional and attractive," Thomas Jefferson Middle School seventh-grader Brock Schofield read.
Schofield added Stoneridge was one of the favorite names among the Thomas Jefferson Middle School students he surveyed, although Capital City High School was their overall favorite.
After a lengthy discussion later in the meeting, the board voted 6-1 to utilize an owner-controlled insurance program, or OCIP, to cover the district's two high school construction and renovation projects.
Board member Pam Murray preferred the contractor-controlled insurance program option, or CCIP, offered by the projects' construction manager at-risk, Nabholz Construction, and their partnered insurance group.
The CCIP and OCIP options are both wrap-ups - financial products that consolidate insurance coverage on large construction projects. Just by using any wrap-up, the district will save more than $500,000 than it would have had to spend, according to numbers presented by the district's chief financial and operating officer Jason Hoffman.
The gist of the choice to be made between wrap-ups was the CCIP option would have shielded the district from liability that the contractor's insurance would have covered, in exchange for some likely amount of built-in profit for Nabholz for taking on the responsibility. In exchange for a higher level of risk exposure for that liability through the OCIP option, the district could save hundreds of thousands of dollars more if claims don't materialize as much as they could.
Put another way, the district could have paid more than $2 million to Nabholz one time up front to oversee the two projects' insurance coverage, but instead chose to pay about $1.25 million in fixed administrative costs, with liability potentially up to about another $1 million. Any liability less than that amount the district doesn't ultimately have to pay out will be realized as savings, versus a sunk cost of payment for Nabholz.
Willis Towers Watson will be providing brokerage and advisory services on the district's OCIP option, and Hoffman felt confident he'll get the support he needs from those advisors. General liability and workman's compensation coverage will be provided by Travelers Insurance.
"I think we came out on the right side," board President Steve Bruce said of the decision to go with the OCIP. "We believe the risk is manageable," and worth the potential reward, Bruce added.