FINAL School Committee Minutes November 16 2021.pdf

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Mr. Spalding expressed his gratitude to Dr. Bouquillon, the project managers led by Skanksa, the architects,Kaestle Boos,and the general contractor, Gilbane. He added that it has been a long road with them, but we now have the Certificate of Occupancy. There are a few items which need to be done including a corrective item covered by warranty that deals with part of the roof This will be addressed in the summer. The grass has been planted and we are in really good shape in terms of our building. Mr. Spalding shared that the stadium field has been completed, along with the track. The baseball field and the extended athletic field,which is the same size as our stadium field,is due to be completed by the end of next week, followed by the safety and performance testing. We will be receiving delivery of the turf for the softball field with an anticipated completion date for the end of December,weather permitting. This will complete the project, other than grass being planted in the spring. He noted that Heimlich Construction has been absolutely phenomenal. The roads around the fields will also be completed. Mr. Spalding discussed why we built the fields and shared that there were over 220 students who participated in fall sports which is remarkable. The girls' and boys' soccer and the football team were able to end their season on our fields. He added that it was quite thrilling for him to witness a game with fans watching. Girls soccer qualified for the MIAA state tournament. The team lost in the first round, but they had a phenomenal season. Coach Diane Dempsey was named the Commonwealth Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, and there were four all-stars on the team. The boys' soccer team is a young team, competed well with some close games, and they had 3 all-stars on their team. Cross country had 22 athletes competing. The cheerleading team continues to grow, and they were out there cheering at the football game. The golf team finished 8-6. The football team will host Keefe Academy for the Thanksgiving Day game beginning at 10 a.m. and he hopes to see fans there. The kids are the reason we built the fields, the building is complete, and we can move on to the next phase of expanding the campus. Ms. Nourse mentioned that Mr. Spalding should be added to those to thank for the Certificate of Occupancy. Mr. Spalding shared that it was a great committee,it was a team effort by the entire team of the building committee,which still meets and will for some time. Mr.Stulin added that Mr. Spalding's involvement was one of the factors that made the team so successful. Dr. Bouquillon added that one of the items related to the School Building Committee and the Certificate of Occupancy was that the Town of Lincoln charged permitting fees in excess of$1.1M. He noted that as we have the Certificate of Occupancy,he is requesting reimbursement from the Town of Lincoln. He will be sending a letter to the Town Administrator reiterating what we have discussed in emails and letters over the last 4 '/2 years because those permitting fees were paid not relinquishing our rights to go and revisit them once we received our Certificate of Occupancy. The level of refund that he is seeking is significant and the reason that he is confident in asking for that is because of the work of the School Building Committee, our owners project manager, our architects, and Gilbane because we logged every minute that every inspector was on our campus for any inspection whatsoever. We also logged the additional costs that were incurred by the district for requests made by various boards. He added that when you look at what we paid for permitting and what other projects have paid for the last 10 years,the amount of money that this district was charged by the community that is no longer a member, yet hosts our school building,is well above what is reasonable to expect. He will be sending out a letter of request to the Town Administrator and he will keep members informed on the progress of that. 9