High School Building Committee (HSBC) Meeting #60 Minutes

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wayland High School

Commons Conference Room

Attendees

HSBC members: Lea Anderson, Josh Bekenstein, Dianne Bladon, Brian Chase, Fred Knight, David Lash, Mary Lentz, Cindy Lombardo, Eric Sheffels, Jennifer Steel

Absent: Steve Breit, Jim Howard, Joe Lewin, Karen Talentino

HMFH Team: George Metzger, Frank Locker

Ex Officio members: Pat Tutwiler

Call to order – HSBC Chairman, Lea Anderson, called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.

Educational Planning – Frank Locker reported to the HSBC on his work in Wayland this week. He met with the WHS staff for three hours on Wednesday, with about 20 community members that evening for two hours, and then began the first of two full days with the Futures Team on Thursday. This is a group of 57 people who volunteered to participate in planning the future of education at WHS. The group is composed of citizens with and without children in the schools, teachers, administrators, aides, custodians, recent graduates of WHS, and current students. Frank informed the Futures Team about model schools and evolving educational practices.

The Futures Team will do research over the next month and then get together again in February. The results of the planning work will be presented to the Wayland School Committee.

Comments from the HSBC were:

· When this process is over, we will need to communicate with the town on concrete steps to get from planning to a responsible project.

· The cost of building the school will pale next to long term operational costs. Is any thought being given to ways of shifting operational paradigms either with technology or class size or coordinating with other towns?

· It will be helpful if George gives a summary at the end of the two-day session to remind people that the state will limit projects in a prescribed way.

· How do we reconcile differences between today’s WHS and a future school?

· The modernized WHS should meet the educational needs today and be flexible enough to allow evolution to innovative teaching and learning in the future.

· Will we implement the suggestions of the Futures Team? The School Committee will direct the HSBC on this. We don’t want to build a school that precludes future change.

· A new communications plan will be necessary to insure that the community continues to participate once the educational planning exercise and ed spec are completed.

Owners Project Manager – Eric Sheffels reported that he, Joe Lewin, and Lea had completed negotiations with KVAssociates, the HSBC’s selected OPM. KVA has agreed to a timeframe from Feb. through October. This is longer than had originally been proposed, but fits with the HSBC’s expectation that a school project will most likely be brought before the town at a Fall Special Town Meeting. Eric reported that a not-to-exceed amount of $180,395 had been negotiated for the OPM services during the Feasibility/Schematic phase has been proposed. He feels that this is a reasonable fee given the scope of work to get through schematic design.

Lea reported that Wayland and KVA will attend the MSBA OPM Review Board meeting on Monday, Jan. 12 at 3 p.m. Joy Buhler, Dr. Burton, and Lea will attend with Frank Vanzler, Project Principal, and

David Saindon, Project Director. Frank and David will make a short presentation to the MSBA on their proposed team, capacity to do the Wayland project, and fees.

Eric reported that he has reviewed the proposed OPM contract changes that the AGC (Associated General Contractors) facilitated for a group of OPMs. The contract changes appear to be reasonable. Eric agreed to give feedback on the proposed changes to Mary Pichetti.

Feasibility Study Agreement – Lea asked the group for their reactions to the MSBA proposed Feasibility Study Agreement (FSA). Comments were:

• MSBA commits to pay-as-you-go for the Feasibility/schematic phase, but it sounds as if the town has to authorize the full amount through a vote. The FSA has been sent to Town Counsel, Mark Lanza, for his opinion.
• Lea will ask Mary Pichetti for understanding on timing of study and funding vote.
• The FSA will likely raise concerns on the part of communities similar to the indemnification concerns of the OPMs and Designers regarding their respective contracts.

Designer Selection - Lea updated the group on the requests from MSBA regarding the Designer Selection Process. MSBA has reviewed the selection of HMFH Architects and needs the following to complete the review:

• MBE/WBE (minority/women business enterprise) Participation – provide a plan that addresses the participation goals of minority-owned (8%) and women-owned (4%) businesses pursuant to M.G.L. c.7 – 40 N
• Updated application form from designer
• Standard contract – agreement by Wayland that standard contract will be executed
• Designer Fee – Wayland must provide detailed fee information for any negotiated fees, including dollar amounts, scope of services, descriptions, terms and conditions, specific exclusions, reimbursable services, etc.

George Metzger said that he will provide the first and second items. The contract is still in flux and when finalized by MSBA and the designers, it will be considered. George said that he will make some assumptions on scope of the project to be able to propose a fee. We are in a “chicken and egg” position with MSBA. Until we know the scope of the feasibility study, and how much of the previous study will be applicable, it will be difficult to propose a fee. Eric suggested that a fixed price fee would not make sense, given the open-ended nature of the feasibility study effort. George will look into the MSBA’s position on fixed fee.

Motion – A motion was made by Cindy Lombardo and seconded by David Lash to approve the minutes, as amended, of HSBC meeting #59 on December 11, 2008.

Vote – The motion was approved unanimously – 10 in favor, 0 opposed

Adjournment – The HSBC adjourned at 9:35 p.m.

Next meeting – Thursday, January 22

Observers: Pat Abramson, Lisa Valone