91视频

As Portland Public Schools works to limit construction cost increases, its contract with Andersen Construction to rebuild Jefferson High School has come under fire.

In a blistering internal school board memo in late January, district officials criticized Andersen鈥檚 performance at Benson High, alleging inadequate management of subcontractors, 鈥渄eficient鈥� management of the construction schedule, a construction schedule that reflected plans rather than the actual state of construction, and the death of a subcontractor鈥檚 employee, Samantha 鈥淪am鈥� Deschenes, in June 2024.

The unsigned staff memo advised terminating and rebidding Andersen鈥檚 construction manager-general contractor contract for Jefferson High.

The memo was obtained and published last week by The Oregonian/OregonLive. PPS this week denied a public records request by the 91视频 for the same memo, citing legal exemptions.

Brian Knudsen, president of Andersen鈥檚 Portland office, defended the contractor鈥檚 record.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very proud of the work we鈥檝e done on Benson High School and the preconstruction work we鈥檝e put together on Jefferson High School 鈥� and proud of the work we did on Grant High School,鈥� Knudsen said Wednesday.

Andersen completed the $138 million Grant High renovation in 2019. The Benson project is largely done but has not been closed out as some work is continuing, according to the memo.

Andersen in January notified PPS of $49 million in additional cost claims stemming from work at Benson. The district was unhappy.

鈥淎lthough some of those costs are likely legitimate increases to the construction costs, it is reasonable to infer that Andersen inadequately managed construction changes with their subcontractors for such a large number of claims to have accumulated,鈥� the memo stated.

The leaked district memo contains inaccuracies, according to Knudsen.

鈥淲e do find it distorted and inaccurate, but I don鈥檛 want to get into the details,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly one-sided, but we鈥檙e not going to get into it in a public forum.鈥�

The memo also detailed changes in cost projections for the Jefferson High project, which began at $514 million, dropped to $366 million after a value-engineering exercise, bounced back to $491 million, and most recently reverted to a $366 million target.

The Andersen memo was the subject of a Jan. 21 executive session of the PPS board. Then the board held a special meeting on Tuesday, but did not directly address Andersen鈥檚 contract or take action related to it.

It鈥檚 unclear when the board may vote whether to rebid the Jefferson High project. The board鈥檚 next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, but an agenda was not posted by press time.