High School Building Committee (HSBC) Meeting #27 Minutes - DRAFT

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Wayland Town Building

School Committee Conference Room

Attendees

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

Absent: Steve Breit, Jim Howard

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

Turner team: Dick Amster, Julie Bezoetdebie, Bob Ho

HMFH team: Doug Sacra

Call to order - Chairman Lea Anderson called the 27th meeting of the HSBC to order at 7:40 p.m.

Discussion on ballot question and warrant article ñ Dr. Burton reported that he had met with Mark Lanza, Town Counsel, to discuss the ballot question and warrant article language. The HSBC reviewed the current language and raised several questions and suggestions:

- Do we need to call out project management?

- If the $ amount is stated in the ballot question, is it possible to change it? Was the $ amount included in the ballot question in the spring of 2003? Is it usual to leave $ amount out of ballot questions?

- Does the term ìcontract documentsî convey all that is being included? It was suggested that the words ìreceive bidsî be added.

- The words ìrenovation and expansionî should be changed to ìnew construction and renovationî to more accurately reflect what is being proposed.

Dr. Burton offered to take these questions and comments to Town Counsel.

HMFH/Turner Report

General discussion and release to begin pricing, phasing, and schedule of selected option- Doug Sacra presented elevations of the selected option. He reported that the design team had taken some concepts and suggestions from the previous weekís discussion and presented a simplification, in contrast to the subjective rendering shown last week. For example, light shelves are not applied to the whole length of the buildings. He pointed out that a head-on view of an elevation will never be what is actually seen because of the lack of depth.

Doug said that the materials shown on the outside of the buildings are masonry below and a metal panel system above. Pricing will include about 20% of the masonry as ground face block. Classrooms have a continuous clerestory and skylights on the second floor to enhance daylight. Doug explained that eyelevel windows in classrooms are not the whole length of the outside wall because of glare. The goal is to provide some view and use the clerestory for lighting. On the second floor, skylights and clerestory will provide 100% daylight; on the first floor, less so.

Comments/questions were:

- For budgetary purposes, some brick, some metal will be the basis for the cost estimate. There will be lots of design decisions in the next phase. This pallet of materials will allow us to come up with a cost.

- What about un-air-conditioned spaces?

- Is there improvement to the traffic flow?

Doug said that skylights can be used for venting and actually enhance cooling in hot weather. He said that there will be roof-top mechanical units with screening. He reported that the design is tightening up to a total of around 232,000 square feet. The most recent design is back to a single story auditorium. He continues to look at grading to make sure draining occurs properly.

Doug said that the option pricing will include widening the road and the entrance to improve traffic out of the site. He is proposing that a traffic study be done. In discussions with the chiefs of police and fire, it was suggested that a traffic light at the entrance would improve safety. Doug and Julie Bezoetdebie pointed out that this is not necessarily the view of the boards. Julie said that they had looked at adding a second entrance, but that there is not enough frontage to do so. They will propose a gated emergency egress on the north side of the property.

In response to a question on community use, Doug said that community storage for athletic equipment will be provided in the old boyís locker room. There is space for the TEC (The Education Cooperative) program currently housed at WHS, cable TV, district kitchen office and computer support. An upgrade to the emergency generator to make the high school an emergency shelter will be presented as an alternate add-on.

It was suggested that the design team look at alternatives to PVC. Doug said that there is TPO (thermal plastic), but PVC is the longest lasting. Pricing will be included for alternatives to PVC.

Doug asked the group for direction to proceed based on the revised specifications. He will send specification to Fred Knight for posting on the web site.

Motion ñ Upon a motion duly made (Joe Lewin) and seconded (Josh Bekenstein), the Committee voted unanimously (9-0) to direct HMFH and Turner to release the revised specification for pricing, phasing, and scheduling of the selected option.

Steve Tise clarified a point he had made at a previous meeting that was misstated on the WVN website. He had expressed concern that the current campus landscape is not well-maintained. He wants to make sure that the new campus is maintained properly. There was no intent to imply that the new campus should be more difficult to maintain. Courtyard space is actually smaller and should be easier to keep up.

Stop Gap Study- Doug briefly reviewed the Stop Gap Study that had been presented in detail at the 10/7 meeting. He described it as a ìmajor repair projectî and pointed out that many of the spaces being renovated will not meet basic SBA requirements and that the new state funding regulations may not subsidize this renovation work. Gary Burton reminded the group that the repair work done on Claypit Hill and Happy Hollow in the early 1990s still has not been reimbursed and is not part of the Stateís ìcatch-upî funding that will occur over the next few years.

Dick Amster presented draft pricing for the stop gap study. His analysis assumes about 31,000 square feet of new construction and 165,000 square feet of renovation. Dick looked at possible reimbursement on portions of the stop gap project. Roofing and accessibility may be reimbursed as well as the new construction. He estimated that about $8.705 million might qualify as a reimbursable project. Dickís first pass shows a project costing around $36-$37 million dollars with possible reimbursement of $3.5 - $4.3 million resulting in a cost to the town of $32 - $33 million. It was noted that this is the same range of cost to the Town assuming expected levels of SBA reimbursement.

The group discussed the analysis and pointed out areas that should be looked at again. Specifically, soft costs appear to be much too high. Dick and Doug will look at this.

Comments from the HSBC were:

- Refine the draft, especially around design fees, though design fees will be higher with messy renovations.

- We want this to be very credible, even though it is a rough calculation.

- Once the data is scrubbed, this information can be presented in response to FAQs.

- Characterize why this was done when the information is posted. It is in no way a fulfillment of the charge to the HSBC.

- Update the cost using the same assumptions used before for reimbursement (40% - 46%) versus 40% to 50 %.

- Use ìqualifying project costî to describe the basis for reimbursement.

Enrollment ñ Lea reported that the October Enrollment Report is coming out next week. Gary reviewed a historical enrollment matrix and reported that there was a higher than normal number of students moving to private school this year. He said that reasons are typically family tradition, dissatisfaction, or looking for something else. He said that the project itself might be a cause for leaving. Gary was asked to check with other schools in the area that have gone through construction projects to see if there was a lasting or short term effect on exodus to private school. Lea pointed out that there are 900 ñ 970 children in four-year grade segments between grades 1 and 12. The group agreed that during the next design phase, they will review enrollment numbers again.

Last word ñ Joe reminded the group that in two weeks we will see two sets of cost numbers (one from Turner and one from Hanscomb) and a reconciliation.

Minutes

Upon a motion duly made (Cindy Lombardo) and seconded (Steve Tise) the Committee voted unanimously (9-0) to approve the minutes of HSBC meeting #26 held on October 7, 2004.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.

Observers: Rod Fletcher, Heather Pineault, Michael Short, Richard Turner

Comments and questions from observers:

Recommend that the dollar amount to be voted on be shown in the warrant.

The next regular meeting of the HSBC is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the School Committee Conference Room in the Town Building.