Seattle Public Schools is one of the first school districts in Washington to try a new, collaborative approach to managing major school construction projects. The district has received the go-ahead to begin the General Contractor/Construction Manager (GC/CM) process for upcoming renovation and construction projects at Cleveland, Nathan Hale, and Roosevelt high schools.

Projects with complex schedules and a restricted budget stand to benefit most from GC/CM, a cooperative process used by the district, design team, and general contractor. By getting the general contractor involved early, construction expertise is brought to areas such as site planning, construction review, project scheduling, and value engineering. In addition, the general contractor shares a financial stake in keeping the project within budget and on schedule.

Signed into law during the 2002 Legislature, Substitute Senate Bill 6597 authorizes the School District Project Review Board to designate GC/CM contracting for up to 10 school district projects costing $5 million or more. Other school districts initially approved to use GC/CM include Northshore, Lake Washington, Tacoma, Griffin, and Eastmont.

The GC/CM alternative construction contracting method is widely used in the private sector, and has been implemented by nine public agencies on 36 projects with a total value of $1.6 billion in Washington state.