Clayton County Schools may lower its goals of directing almost a third of its construction projects toward small- and locally-owned businesses.
The south metro Atlanta school system, which asks companies bidding on construction projects to have as much as 30% of its contractor workforce hail from local small businesses, says it may now have to cut that goal in half because the requirement is hurting its ability to attract applicants.
At a board of education meeting Monday, the district said reducing the goal to 15% would increase the number of competitive bids it receives.
“The request to lower at 15 percent is to have more firms pursue Clayton County work, to be more competitive,” said Ronick Joseph, the school system’s director of construction. “In essence, the market has spoken.”
School construction contractors are some of the most lucrative in the building sector and Clayton, like a lot of districts, have sought to diversify its applicants to include small businesses and those owned by minorities, women and veterans.
Board member Jasmine Bowles pushed back on Clayton altering its goals, saying if anything the district should embrace the challenge.
“Dialing it back seems counterintuitive in my opinion,” she said. “I’d rather us have high goals that we constantly strive for and fall short of than to lower our goals and make it feel like that’s something that we should be OK with.”
Board vice chairman Benjamin Stryker agreed. He said the 30% goal is not a mandate, but a recommendation that the school system hopes will encourage construction companies to include subcontractors from a variety of walks of life.
“We’re saying do your best effort at hitting that number and putting it out there as a goal,” he said.
But board member Mary Baker said she has spoken to construction company officials who have told her that they would not bid on Clayton projects because of the 30% goal. She said lowering the goal to 15% may be too big a drop, but that it’s important to have the discussion because it’s running off potential clients.
“When I go to places and they say, ‘Oh, we would love to work with you,’” Baker said. “I say, ‘Oh, OK, that would be great.’ And then they can’t because they don’t qualify. It’s a rocky area.”
Clayton Schools Superintendent Anthony Smith said it has been a struggle to encourage companies to put in bids. He said the school system is trying to uphold its goals and has impressed its importance to construction companies.
“This is difficult trying to solve this,” he said.
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