Did Bidding Irregularities Stall Red Pump Elementary?
When the Harford County Board of Education cancelled plans to build Red Pump Elementary School last December, the school board was just days away from approving nearly $23 million in construction contracts that would have put shovels in the ground. The decision sparked a public debate over the fate of the school. Now The Dagger has learned that contractors who bid on Red Pump before it was cancelled filed an unusual number of protests over the bid process, raising the potential for legal action against Harford County Public Schools in the weeks leading up to the decision to scrap the school. Was the specter of legal action the real reason Red Pump was ditched? And if it was not a factor, why wouldn’t the possibility of a court battle have been among the board’s considerations? More importantly, were the allegations of impropriety surrounding the bid process true? And if so, were they the result of one-time errors, or ongoing, systemic problems within HCPS? At issue was the handling of
