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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-02-01-PBC-min.pdf TOWN OF LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS PERMANENT BUILDING COMMITTEE Minutes of Saturday February 1 . 1997 Meetina in School Administration Building, as approved November 4, 1997 The meeting was called to order by Chairman Bruckman at 8 15 a m with other committee members Kelley, Johnson, Poinelli and Touart present Also present were School Committee members Neumeier and Peltz and Capital Expenditures members Grammont and (ex-PBC) Kennedy as well as Director of School Buildings Operation Moynihan Middle Schools class size determination was revisited Poinelli asked if the School Committee could determination for purposes of the HMFH study Noted that the teachers ' contract sets teacher-pupil ratio for purposes of staffing Class size is most affected by the team organization of the middle schools Peltz said that 90-pupil teams were envisioned when this organization was set up, she foresaw no problem with 100-student teams A class size of 23 would be OK Chairman asked how with 80 percent or more classroom utilization there could be a square footage of 165 or more per pupil at both middle schools The state guideline of 135 s f per pupil (with five percent above or below allowance) refers to new construction, not accounting for space inefficiencies in old buildings being rehabilitated? Is there 20 ,000 s f too much in each building? Poinelli noted that the state upgraded its space requirements for each space/use but did not adjust the total square footage amount Chairman Bruckman said he is still bothered by the overage of space in the middle schools Poinelli agreed to do a detailed analysis of core subject (four subjects that meet five times a week each) use of spaces Many uses such as custodial spaces , ESL and Metco are not in guideline allowances There are now planned 51,000 s f of additions at the middle schools , 19, 600 at Clarke and 31 , 300 at Diamond Peter Kelley expressed concern about the extent of the additions and asked if there could be more efficient use of the space Principals of both middle schools will appear at the next PBC meeting Tuesday, February 4, when the justification process will be considered in detail and with more finality Diamond Middle School as the older (about 40 years) of the two at that level , presents special problems such as wide variations in classroom size from 650 and even 567 s f to 900 Committee asked how many walls are to be moved to address this differential and also wondered out loud if it might be more practical to build a new school on the same site Told that a new school would cost about $19 million whereas renovation typically costs about 50 to 60 percent of a new school price tag Poinelli suggested that a new addition might be positioned to close a circulation loop and bring the school program closer to its administration Asked if the old library location would serve better than the present one Basically fixing the present school will cost something like $11 million while a new school could cost somewhere between $16 and $19 million In renovation a considerable amount of gutting and rebuilding inner walls will be needed to address classroom size inequities Noted that the enrollment bulge will be at the middle schools in three years PBC Minutes of 2/1/97 - Page 2 Chairman reminded that the committee must finish its work on the planning phase in the next three to four weeks There possibly should be an information meeting during Town Meeting Also the committee considered how the project should be approached in terms of funding - whole or piecemeal In discussion it was emphasized that HMFH is producing a master plan Timeline sheet from HMFH was distributed and criticized, especially for the delay in planning for the elementary schools Warned that reimbursement rates may drop and that the Governor has recently proposed stretching out the funding Poinelli explained how Category II reimbursement (to meet enrollment increases) works Following acceptance of new projects for each year, the list is frozen Then the waiting list for actual funding is lengthened About 100 to 175 project applications are expected by June 1997 Moynihan urged submitting all schools to be designed at the outset Poinelli and Kennedy also advocated the whole project approach In doing this a "Let 's try to really solve the problem, " attitude was recommended Kelley and Bruckman commented on the benefit of the Thursday morning "all town building committee" meetings (to be Wednesday in the coming week) as an avenue for communication A finalization of square footage and dollar estimates will be needed In this process, the downward revision of the final space requirements for elementary schools is in progress by HMFH; the level of confidence on middle schools may be boosted in next Tuesday's meeting Questioned if the high school space requirements were sufficient PBC members agreed around the room that plans should not be shown The committee pondered how to evaluate what is really needed as relates to what the state insists on and what are maybe items that the state could reimburse Admitted that there are some subjective elements in these judgments In arriving at rule-of-thumb estimates , about 10 percent was deemed needed for design work A missing element in amounts so far discussed site issues , that would make a difference in scope of work Poinelli clarified the difference between Archetype and BFC estimates project costs were lopped off the BFC numbers (30 percent) Kennedy advised that the PBC should not try to reconcile with the BFC report Advocacy should focus on the project ' s pragmatic approach to addressing the town' s enrollment swell with a state-reimbursable project Recommended that the PBC consult a professional estimator on its own The cost estimator used by HMFH was Daedalus A highly respected estimator, John Himmel , lives in Lexington and perhaps could help Kelley offered to call him Meeting adjourned at 11 53 a m until Tuesday, February 4 Respectfully submitted,J C J lV/r e.P/44-ta— Erna S Greene, Secretary