DISTRICT GETS FEW BIDS FROM CONTRACTORS FOR CAMPUS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Students, teachers and staff in the overcrowded Saugus Union School District are eagerly awaiting the completion of Plum Canyon Elementary School, but assorted builders and craftsmen seem less enthusiastic.

That appeared to be the case after the school district received no bids or only one bid on various aspects of the $5 million school construction project. Because of the lackluster interest in some of the subcontractor jobs, the board of education voted this week to put parts of the contract out to bid again.

The school's projected opening date has been pushed back a few months. ``Our new completion date is approximately July 1998. A school of this type takes 12 to 14 months to construct,'' said Anthony Grillo, project manager from the Agoura Hills architecture firm that designed Plum Canyon Elementary.

Construction is expected to begin next month at the school site, near Bouquet Canyon Road, Grillo said.

Meanwhile, of the 22 separate ``bid packages'' - for work ranging from plumbing, electrical and landscaping to asphalt paving, roofing and carpentry - the district got only 70 responses from companies interested in the work. ``We were expecting around 80 to 100 bidders,'' Grillo said.

He could only guess at the reasons for the tepid response.

``There is a ton of work going on right now. There's a boom in construction; the economy is picking up and housing starts are picking up,'' Grillo said.

State taxpayer-approved school construction bonds also have made funds for building and upgrading schools available. ``There's so much work out there that the contractors can pick and choose the work they want to bid on,'' Grillo added.

Another possible explanation is that the project plans and specifications were released to prospective bidders about three weeks before proposals were due, meaning companies didn't have much time to prepare cost estimates of the work, one firm said. Plans usually are released six weeks before the bidding period begins.

Santa Clarita Concrete was the sole bidder on one package. The Valencia company sought the structural concrete and site work, which would include pouring sidewalks and curbs, said business owner Wayne Crawford.

Crawford said much of Santa Clarita Concrete's business involves school construction. This month, the company is bidding on new high school projects in Diamond Bar and the Riverside School District, and they hope to land construction jobs at schools in Irvine, Fontana, Bakersfield and Apple Valley, Crawford said.

As is the situation at Plum Canyon, many school districts want their projects complete in time for the start of school in September 1998.

Scott Myler, owner of Myler Construction in Newhall, said many building trades might still be beefing up their ranks from the doldrums and layoffs the construction industry suffered during the recession. His company was the only bidder on one of the Plum Canyon jobs, he said.

``In the past, business has been slow but now it's starting to pick up again,'' Myler said.

He also speculated that fewer building trades may be seeking out public contracts because governments and school districts typically require that bidders have certified payrolls and be insured and bonded for satisfactory completion of the work.

Grillo said the second attempt at bids will close April 24, and companies are being sought to perform the following work: grading, masonry, structural steel, plaster and drywall, sheet metal, carpet and linoleum tile and painting.

Plum Canyon will be the 12th elementary school in the district. It will have 15 classrooms on its 8.5-acre site. All the students who live within Plum Canyon's attendance boundaries have been going to school at 29-year-old Emblem Elementary School.

Enrollment across the Saugus school district stands at 7,500 and classroom space is at a premium. That situation has only intensified in the past year, as public schools across California undertook a class-size reduction program that cut to 20 the number of students per primary-grade classroom.