High School Building Committee (HSBC) Meeting #78 Minutes

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wayland Town Building

School Committee Conference Room

Attendees

HSBC members: Lea Anderson, Josh Bekenstein, Brian Chase, Jim Howard, Fred Knight, David Lash, Joe Lewin, Mary Lentz, Eric Sheffels, Jennifer Steel

Absent: Dianne Bladon, Cindy Lombardo

HMFH Team: George Metzger, Steve Millington

KVA Team: David Saindon

Ex Officio members: Gary Burton, Louis Jurist, Allyson Mizoguchi, Pat Tutwiler

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

Project Update - David Saindon, Project Manager, reviewed the activity of the past two weeks:

David and Lea met with John Jumpe, Katie DiCristofaro, and Carl Brown of MSBA on July 13^th. Wayland received confirmation on the following points:

MSBA directed Wayland to design 154,350 square feet of new construction.
MSBA will participate in a renovated field house that corresponds to the cost equivalent of 19,800 s.f. minus 3,150 s.f. of new construction or 16,650 square feet.
MSBA will not participate in funding a WWTP (waste water treatment plant), demolition of existing buildings, swing space, or hazardous materials abatement. They also will not fund a community cable station.
Wayland is in the capital pipeline and is therefore covered at 40% of the reimbursable project through construction. The funding floor has been lowered to 31% for future projects not in the pipeline.
Wayland can decide to use either Mass CHIPS or LEED standards. The MSBA has not decided which way to go.
Wayland can proceed with a two-building scheme, but should expect to fund the cost premium of two buildings vs. one building at 100%. (The premium is currently $750,000 according to our consultants. This will be a negotiation between Wayland and MSBA.)

David, Steve Millington, Allyson Mizoguchi, Gary Burton, Pat Tutwiler, Scott Parseghian, and Lea met on July 9^th to carefully review the Ed Spec. Lea reported that the meeting had been called to make sure that nothing had been left out and to consider priorities. Steve had said two things that resonated with her. First, if the architect does not receive clear direction from the owner, then he makes logical decisions. Second, when the project is complete, owners wonder why spaces they had before are no longer there.

Steve was directed to make space for a large lecture hall with 100 seats. The administration felt that this space is currently used extensively for meetings, combined classes, lectures, student presentations, performances, drama classes, and testing. It was an oversight to leave it out. There were additional concerns expressed about the number of Teacher Planning Centers. An additional TPC was added. After Monday’s MSBA meeting, Steve revised the ed spec to come in at the bottom line number of 154,350 s.f. and incorporated the requested changes. He will submit the revised version to MSBA by this weekend, if the committee agrees.

David informed the HSBC that a suggestion to consider saving the Math/English building for town use had been made. The lack of funding for demolition, the location and layout of the M/E building, and the need for a permanent home for WayCAM all generated the beginning of this conversation. Gary Burton said that potential uses for the M/E building are relocation of Central Office to free up space in the Town Building for other town uses, space for the technology hub, WayCAM, storage, and future enrollment growth. (The M/E building is 16,537 s.f. and was built in 1965.) Lea reported that MSBA made it clear that any renovation of the M/E building would have to be completely separate from the high school project. There was some discussion on the rough cost of renovation.

Steve reported the following:

The WWTP engineer has put the initial report together and submitted it to MSDP today. It includes the calculation of the amount of waste water we need to treat. It is a request to downsize from the very high amounts in the tables.
Parking lots are being laid out. If the M/E building is demolished, there will be 80 more parking spaces. The total number of spaces should the M/E building be saved will be around 420. Pat thinks this is enough. Steve will talk with the building inspector. Steve is assuming that the buses will be parked off the high school site. The landscape designer is trying to save trees. Zoning requires 10% of parking area to be planted. Civil engineers will address storm water management.
Geotechnical engineers should be released tomorrow to look at foundations. Steve is working with positioning of buildings relative to shadows.

The HSBC commented on the current drawings as follows:

If the geotech investigations hit organics, there can be settling issues with the buildings.
Try to position the buildings so that courtyard is as big as possible.
It is preferable to see the entrance on the main building when driving in.
We need an outline of specifications on mechanical systems. Please come to the committee for approval on this.

Ed Spec Review and Recommendation

Steve reviewed the updated ed spec and noted that changes to the version submitted to MSBA on June 30 are highlighted in yellow. The changes reflect the scrubbing done last week and the direction from MSBA to design 154,350 square feet of new construction with a renovated field house. The major changes are:

Large group lecture hall added at 2,250 s.f.
Greenhouse removed at 300 s.f.
Teacher Planning Center added at 800 s.f.
3^rd art classroom removed at 1200 s.f.
Fabrication/robotics shop reduced 500 s.f. to 1,500 s.f.
Metco office reduced, offset by increase in academic center space

There are additional nips and tucks.

Comments followed:

Pat will look at Metco office/academic center space with Steve to see if rearranging is in order.
Net to gross factor of 1.5 could use a lot of space.
Steve is still trimming. The design is still 10,000 s.f. too big. It is part of the process and not unusual at this stage.
Getting to 1.5 is very difficult.
Allyson is concerned about the number of general use classrooms.
We have many spaces that are new and tie to the Futures work. Sharing of space will be necessary when scheduling classes in the new buildings.
Flexibility of design is crucial. We have to ask ourselves what we do if enrollment goes up. Are there ways to reconfigure spaces? MSBA has the same goal.
Specialized spaces would have to be used for general classrooms if needed in the future.
First challenge is, how do we get to 1.5.
Use dotted lines to show space for future gym.

Motion: A motion was made by Mary Lentz and seconded by Josh Bekenstein to recommend the revised ed spec to the Wayland School Committee.

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

Schedule Update – David presented an updated schedule. He reported that everything has been delivered to MSBA for the July 29^th Board Meeting. The public is invited to the Board Meeting at 10 am, but there will be no presentation by Wayland. Lea, David, and Gary will attend and welcome any other HSBC members who are interested. The committee thanked HMFH and KVA for getting this accomplished under such a tight schedule and within the MSBA guidelines. It is a major step.

David reported that MSBA has expressed concern about Wayland being able to submit the schematic design deliverables by the end of August for the Sept. 30^th Board Meeting. The team will continue working toward its goal. David is concerned that MSBA will not be able to turn around our submittal in a month. If the Sept. 30^th meeting is not met, the schedule will slip by two months. MSBA does not meet in October, so the next meeting is at the end of November. Joe asked David to scrub the schedule and consider it on a day-by-day basis.

Eric reminded the group that it will all come down to a negotiation on the bottom line price tag.

Meeting dates are as follows:

7/27/09 – School Committee meeting

7/29/09 – MSBA Board Meeting to vote on Wayland preferred alternative
7/30/09 - HSBC meeting
8/13/09 – HSBC meeting
8/27/09 - HSBC meeting
8/31/09 – Wayland submits schematics package to MSBA
9/10/09 - HSBC meeting
9/24/09 - HSBC meeting
9/30/09 – MSBA Board votes on Wayland project scope and budget
11/?/09 – Town Election and Special Town Meeting

Lea asked the HSBC to consider attending upcoming meetings of town boards, committees, and other working groups with an interest in the high school project. She will work with David and Steve to plan this.

Conservation Commission on July 30 or August 13
Department of Public Works on August 10
Health Commissioners on August 18
Planning Board on August 4 or 18
Wellhead Protection on Thursday or Friday mornings (to be determined)

Motion: A motion was made by Jennifer Steel and seconded by Jim Howard to approve the minutes to HSBC meeting #77 held on July 2, 2009.

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

Adjournment – The HSBC adjourned at 9:31 p.m.

Next meeting – Thursday, July 30 at 7:30 pm in the School Committee conference room

Observers: Rep. Tom Conroy, Sam DiSavino, Ken Isaacson, Joe Karbowski, Cecily Kiefer

Comments from the Public: Please think about saving trees that provide a screen to the neighboring houses.