Designer Selection Next Step in Clarksburg School ProjectBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
02:01AM / Friday, August 26, 2016 | |
 The School Building Committee is hoping to have a design team on board by October. |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The School Building Committee is anticipating voting on a school project next spring.
But first it has to get a design team on board.
Some 27 companies have indicated interest in the school district's request for services, said Brian Laroche of Potomac Capital Advisors, the school district's owner's project manager.
The application date is Aug. 31; the committee will review the applicants on Sept. 14 and three representatives — Superintendent Jon Lev, Select Board Chairman Jeffrey Levanos (as authorized by the board) and Laura Wood, filling the procurement seat on the committee — will meet with the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Designer Selection Panel on Sept. 27 to choose the finalist.
"After we get our architects we have a very tight frame to get through our feasibility study," Laroche told the School Builidng Committee on Thursday. "The overall feasibility phase should be about 22 weeks, so within two weeks of executing the contract we do a kick off."
He gave the committee a rough time line on Thursday night that sets a completed contract by mid-October and the beginning of preliminary meetings to rough out the overall need. Development of plans will take about eight to 10 weeks; then a winnowing down of options to about three; a series of community tours and meetings; approval of a final design by the MSBA, and a special town meeting sometime in May.
The target construction cost is between $8 million to $10 million, with a full project cost of up to $12 million. The MSBA has set a reimbursement rate for eligible costs of 62 percent; Town Administrator Carl McKinney said the town's pursuit of Green Communities designation could give it another point.
Should that happen, the town would be responsible for 37 percent of the reimbursable costs. The state does not fund certain other costs, such as more than 8 percent of site work, relocation, land purchases and sports fields.
The design team will come up a range of solutions, with estimated costs, that could mean renovation, addition, renovation and addition, building new, etc., with input from staff and the committee. The new or renovated building will serve an enrollment of 150 in K-8 and 12 to 15 in a new preschool.
"We're going to be looking at all those different options and coming up with seven or eight," Laroche said. "There are a lot of ways to solve for the problem."
The committee in early winter will review the options and preferably toss out the ones that don't make sense to leave the three best plans, which will be developed in more detail with more precise cost estimates.
At that point, the plans will be presented to the community with a series of meetings and tours of the current school by early spring. After gathering input, the School Committee will vote on its preferred plan but the MSBA board will make the determination.
Laroche said the MSBA will be working in conjunction with the School Building Committee throughout the process.
The hope is to have a special town meeting by May to vote on borrowing but not at the same time as the annual town meeting. A vote on a debt exclusion from Proposition 2 1/2 may also be required.
McKinney thought it would be more advantageous to hold the school vote prior to the annual town meeting.
"I think we'll have a pretty good handle on the [town] budget from the governor's budget and one of the [state] houses," he said.
Lev said the School Building Committee will the core of the outreach effort to ensure voters are fully apprised of the need and the opportunity for a new school.
"I'm hoping that we will do a good enough job that the special town meeting will be a formality that we will have made our case and the people will feel good about it," said Lev. "By the fall of 2019, we could have a new building."
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