High School Building Committee (HSBC) Meeting #10 Minutes - DRAFT

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Wayland High School – L1

Attendees

HSBC members: Lea Anderson, Josh Bekenstein, Dianne Bladon, Brian Chase, Jim Howard, Mary Lentz, Joe Lewin, Cindy Lombardo, Eric Sheffels, Steve Tise

(Absent: Steve Breit)

Ex Officio members: Gary Burton, Fred Knight, Allyson Mizoguchi, Charlie Ruopp

Turner team: Dick Amster, Julie Bezoetdebie, Bob Ho

HMFH team: George Metzger, Doug Sacra

Prior to the HSBC meeting, Charlie Ruopp and Doug Sacra presented an information session on “The Effect of the Existing Facility on the Quality of the Educational Program.”

(Copies of the presentation will be available in the HSBC notebook at the Wayland Public Library and on the website www.waylandschoolcommittee.org/whs/hsbc.)

Chairman Lea Anderson called the tenth meeting of the HSBC to order at 7:40 p.m.

SBAB Update – Lea reported encouraging information that had been presented at the Suburban Coalition Legislative Breakfast at the State House on April 13 regarding School Building Assistance. The House and Senate have proposed compromise legislation that would clear the SBAB backlog of approved projects within 3.5 years with a combination of rainy day funds and 25-year bonds, dedicate a revenue source (a percentage of the sales tax) for future projects, and propose construction reform. The moratorium would continue for three years.

HMFH/Turner Report (Dick Amster and George Metzger)

Activities of HMFH and Turner over the past two weeks:

- Information session on Green Schools – 4/7

- HSBC meeting on goals – 4/8

- Meeting with Police Chief and Fire Chief – 4/8

- Maintenance tour of Groton-Dunstable High School – 4/13

- Meeting with Park and Recreation Director and WHS Athletic Director – 4/14

- Information Session on existing facility and educational program – 4/15

- On-going programming meetings with students, administration, HSBC, cable

Upcoming activities:

- Meeting with Director of Student Services – 4/21

- Engineering charette after dissection of Language Building – 4/23

- Meeting with Highway Dept. Superintendent – 4/29

- HSBC meeting – 5/13 at 7:30 p.m. in School Committee conference room

- Information session on Challenges of Public Construction – 5/20 at 6:30 p.m. in L1

- HSBC meeting – 5/20 at 7:30 p.m. in L1

- Conservation Commission – Doug and Julie will attend meeting sometime in May

Status of documents:

- TCCo contract: executed by TCCo and approved by WSC

- HMFH contract: draft in progress

New business:

- Room utilization study

George reviewed classroom utilization and presented Steve Friedlaender’s analysis requested at the 4/1 meeting – to show the effect of 80% and 85% utilization for 1000 and 1100 students. The information presented was for academic classrooms only. HMFH is recommending that the HSBC authorize the designers to proceed to develop final educational specifications based on 1100 students at 85% utilization with an average class size of 20, which is consistent with planning an ideal school for an enrollment of 1000 students with an average class size of 20 and an overall classroom utilization factor of 80%. (SBAB requires utilization between 80% and 85%.) The same number of classrooms would suffice, if necessary, for a peak enrollment of 1200 students with an average class size of 23. In Steve’s view, this provides maximum flexibility for possible enrollment fluctuations for the foreseeable future.

In simple terms: 1000@80% and 20/class ~ 1100@85% and 20/class ~ 1200@85% and 23/class.

There was much discussion about enrollment projections. Mary expressed the importance of being very clear on reasons for building for 1000-1100. It was pointed out that enrollment is only part of the equation. Bringing the facility up to space standards for the current program and current enrollment has a greater impact than building extra space for future enrollments. George said that Jeff Wolfson of the State Dept. of Education and Christine Lynch of SBAB are being very tough on enrollment projections. Eric raised the importance of avoiding miss-steps in the programming process. The process starts with classroom allocation for the given enrollment, then determination of classroom sizes, then assessment of the match with existing space, which leads to a recommendation to renovate or build new.

Doug was asked to provide a comparison to the Dore and Whittier Feasibility Study for classroom space.

- Impact of changing schedule

Dick presented a draft schedule that leads to a mid-September conclusion. The reaction of the HSBC was that this schedule is probably unrealistically tight, especially regarding the time set aside for consideration of options and the selection of one option. Dick made the point that trying to shorten the already tight draft schedule to accommodate an August 4 ballot question submission to the Secretary of State is not advised. The HSBC concurred.

Mary reported that there could be a separate ballot for a debt exclusion at the November election that would not be due until mid-September. There was discussion about the amount of time that should be allocated to the process. It was agreed that the first responsibility of the HSBC is to take the time to understand the issues and to come up with the best plan, not to race to a deadline that compromises a methodical, diligent analysis and communication of the high school building project. Joe brought up the point that a process that is too long can cause other problems such as contractual issues and communications momentum being lost.

Dick was asked to revise the schedule with more realistic estimates for option analysis and selection.

Old business:

- Goal setting process – George Metzger distributed a draft summary of the goal setting session of April 8. The HSBC suggested slight modifications and requested that the chairman send the edited goals statement to the Wayland School Committee before distributing it to a wider list. Mary and Eric agreed to report the goals to the Board of Selectmen and Fincom after the School Committee has reviewed them.

- Middle School lessons learned – Cindy Lombardo spent a few minutes advising the HSBC based on her experience as the Middle School Building Committee Chair. She noted that the HSBC is on the right track meeting early with Town departments. She suggested that we let the professionals do their work, that a thorough existing conditions study is very important, and that the HSBC members should trust each other.

- Out-of-town tours - Dick offered to set up tours at Newton South, Groton-Dunstable High School, and Lexington High School. It was suggested that showing the HSBC pictures of the modulars at Dennis-Yarmouth would suffice.

Minutes – A motion was made by Josh Bekenstein and seconded by Cindy Lombardo to approve the minutes of HSBC meeting #9 on April 8, 2004.

Vote - Ten in favor; none opposed.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 p.m.

The next regular meeting of the HSBC is scheduled for Thursday, May 15, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. in the School Committee conference room in the Town Building.

Observer: Jeff Sklar