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[Jenny Graham]: while blocking off and keeping students safe. So I would say student safety isn't really the concern when we're preparing sites because that is a given across all of our sites. There might be a little more planning that goes into the logistics of the phasing to make sure that everything works well and goes smoothly during construction. I think That, and I just want to be clear that we can also put together kind of. You know, we can put together this in frozen ponds about. You know, looking at these sites and the advantages and disadvantages if that is helpful. But I don't think that there is that trade off with student safety. 1 way or the other.
[Libby Brown]: I just want to mention, I don't think the cost savings of not doing extra surveys is really much compared to. The cost of the project, but 1 thing I, I would love in theory to study other sites and just think it helps us, like, you know, justify what we do in the end. We've done our due diligence. But if it ends up, there really is a feasibility to do it. I'd like said. It's not worth the time. I think we're going to take the study. And also, I think the, the issue with doing something like we built on place that is. You need to replicate those amenities somewhere else, like, a theory here. Which I assume MSBA wouldn't reimburse us for. So, like, we would have to build soccer fields and playgrounds and fields. here in a site that would be left, you know, a total mess. So that's, to me, that's why it's a big advantage to try and keep it along one site, especially a place that is not the perfect site otherwise, right? It's not gonna fit everyone.
[Jenny Graham]: And it's just in Medford Square, when we made this, like, sort of decision to put it into the conversation, and RFP hadn't yet been released for the city on parcel, it now has, project's been awarded, there's a whole, like, revitalization plan happening that is, like, you know, that train is moving down the track faster than our study is able to move. So that is another consideration. So I think Medford Square is like not an option anymore for that reason.
[Luke Preisner]: And just to be fair, I'm not hearing, I feel that they're advocating for one site or another. That comes from us. I just wanted to, I guess, state that, because that's the way I'm hearing it, right? Like, we'll tell you where we think, where we would like things surveyed.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, that's absolutely correct. And I will say, I think what left, especially for Columbus Park, this site right that we're on right now is almost 30 acres. Columbus Park was five acres, just for, you know, in perspective.
[Luke Preisner]: And can we have the city's survey? Because I remember the survey, and I remember Alicia kind of stepping through and explaining pros and cons. Certainly elevations are different throughout the city, and she studied it. The city, her department studied it. There is a presentation. Is that something that, I guess, would go in a repository, a library for our organization, for our reference?
[Jenny Graham]: We certainly do that. The meeting, the meeting was reported that we had at that time and it was, it is available on the YouTube channel as well. So if people want to go back and watch that meeting, they certainly can. I'm going to take a couple of questions from Zoom. Mayor?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Chair Graham. First of all, I just sorry I'm not there in person again I just came from CHS grand opening over at Cabot, and by the time I get there I might just go home while I'm in the car. Anyway, I wanted to. I think I lean towards the one side although I like. I understand Libby's comments, just comparison for long run discussion. My question, I guess, to left field is if we do only choose the one site, does that allow us more opportunity to explore different options on the Medford High School complex, such as building on maybe the field of dreams and trying to fit in as many fields as we can for our students and athletes, as well as doing it by piecemeal.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, I would say that by taking the other options off the table, especially if they don't seem as viable, we are able to take more time to study more options on this site. The MSBA requires us to at least study a code upgrade only. Renovation, we'll have renovation addition options and we'll have a full new construction so that there will be a number of options on this site that will be studied. So that it's not just us putting, not just the project team saying this is your one solution on this site. That is the process that MSBA takes you through to make sure that you have looked at all of the options.
[SPEAKER_10]: Great, thank you.
[Aaron Olapade]: Is there a way because I know that we had a conversation with some people at city hallway with Alicia. the Andrews Middle School, which is the other side of town, and put the high school there, for example, in that larger space, so that you had patrons both on one location, for example, and she kind of communicates to us like the various problems that could come up with that, not only because of the size issue, as you mentioned, obviously, acreage, but also because the ground itself is not actually vital for that size building to be able to handle that much weight, I guess. I don't know the science, of course, and so is there a way that better try like a soft kind of research within various areas so that we can of course like cover our due diligence but not necessarily commit as much resources to every single site location because if we know that some sizing like acreage wise is just not going to be viable within the first couple of hours of like doing basic research we understand that it won't work we can still say to the community we understand that we've tried other locations very quickly we realized this wasn't going to work we were still led to where we a little bit more drastic, but to kind of cover both things. I do agree. I think ultimately, if we, if we know that this size wise, the best place to do it, as well as we already have some of the more like occasional spaces, the pool's a bigger question mark, obviously. I think that there is value to maintaining one space, but also saving the community that we try our best to cover other spaces as well.
[Jenny Graham]: Is that, is that something that the left field team may be able to help us with, like from a like, sort of roughed all kind of assessment to say like really, you know, if we look at these sites and we can, we can point you to the direction of that meeting that was recorded and some of those sites it certainly I'm sure Director Hunt would be happy to chat with you, but even just some sort of a chart of like, here's all the sites that are like even possible and here's the Bedford and here's what they, here's what they look like. And, you know, from your Perspective, are they viable? Yes or no. So that when we rule them out, like, we're, we're doing that with a record of a recommendation of some kind. Is that helpful? And by the spoiler, we're going to have a little bit of free time here. So you might be able to do that. Without really changing the trajectory of the rest of the project. Absolutely, we would love to do that and I think that would be a really good. Good thing to do to your point of. Proving to the community that these are. Options that we looked at, but we'll have actual reasons to back up why they don't work and it'll be clear. It'll be in a document that provided pointed to, especially when you guys do come to a consensus on a single option. A lot of people at that point will ask, well, what about this? What about this? What it will have? The process laid out.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah, I do think that. The MSBA will still look for that as well. You know, just. You know, this is why we landed on this site. Yeah, look. you know, why we didn't pursue them any further.
[Linda Liporto]: Sorry to jump in, but I think one of the key points in order to determine what a high school site is, is if you make the determination, if the city is willing to have the school and the fields as two separate entities, then that opens up a lot of options, right? But if there's very little appetite for the city to have to bus kids for the fields, then that immediately takes us from this many options and these sizes down to this, right? We're going to be within a typical acreage of say 10 to 12, right? If you don't want to shift the students off for the fields, take those two pieces. By the time you add together the fields and building it, it could just be one or two fields, but it still narrows that down significantly.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Emily? Um, I love the idea of playing something out for the public. On city council, we've had a lot of conversations around zoning, where when we move to the next phase of zoning and it starts to affect a new neighborhood, a lot of people will say, this is going too fast. Why did this just start? This is out of nowhere. You just came out with this all of a sudden. And then we have to say, well, we've actually been doing this for quite some time. It just hasn't started to affect you until now. But we can then go back and say, Here's the website where, you know, so I think that's a great call with, like, maybe 1 version that's highly detailed 1 version that's very visual and simple. Maybe with, like, I don't have to tell you guys. But the 2nd thing I wanted to ask about is, I understand that the pool. Will not be part of the project at all. Do you speak or or could you speak to that a little bit more? I'm I'm. I think I don't have full clarity on it.
[Jenny Graham]: I think that's maybe another point about this site and a different site that would be worth understanding for all of us, that if we were to use a different site, how would that affect the pool? Absolutely, so the MSBA, there are certain spaces and certain guidelines of space allotment in spaces that the MSBA deems eligible costs, which means they will participate in funding. They will not participate in funding. An option, if you do stay on this site, is to renovate the whole area and separate that portion of the building and you know, create maybe a mostly new building with that as a renovated portion so that the cost of keeping the pool isn't as significant as building a new pool. You could, you do have the option to, to build a new pool. It would completely be on the City of Bedford's dime. But, and that's something that you'd have to work through, especially with the community to make sure they understand. You can renovate with, as part of the.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yeah, if the building stays here and the desire is to keep the pool, yeah, I think
[Matt Gulino]: put into the pool is going to be 100% non-diverse. So we want to be smart about that. And we've seen schools. I know out of our high school needs to have a pool. And I think they got rid of it because when they just redid their school, MSBA wouldn't contribute. And they just weren't getting the return on investment, so to say, from it. So we have seen pools go away because of how the MSBA has looked.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Cushing, did you have a question? I thought I saw Dr. Cushing's hand up. I just didn't want to distract.
[Matt Gulino]: Sorry, could you just repeat that?
[Jenny Graham]: Did you have a question? No, more just having worked on. We lost you. Oh, are we literally losing? OK. Now that he's speaking. He'll be back.
[Luke Preisner]: Luke? So in one of the forums that we filled out, I don't recall if it was the educational profile One of the others, we described how pool actually serves an important part of our curriculum that is deeply felt by the community. So we need to continue to have a pool for honoring that part of the curriculum. I wanted to ask about our gymnasium, which strikes me as very large, but I'm no expert. If we didn't stay at this site, could we recreate a gymnasium that large and be reimbursed? Is that something?
[Matt Gulino]: A lot of times the MSB will work with you on certain square footages, like if it's what you have now and it's maxed out and you can't go smaller, they may work with you if you're like, yeah, we want to double the size of that. Our gym is very big.
[Unidentified]: It is not a typical sized gym.
[Jenny Graham]: I was going to say, it's a field house. They allow up to 12,000 square feet for a high school for gyms, but that would be a conversation and we'll get into it in a little bit, but we're going to be working on an educational plan for the school and laying out spaces that are required, programs that use those spaces and usage rates. is all going to kind of factor into having that discussion with the MSBA. Another option, like the pool, if it's in good shape to keep, it might be worth renovating instead of building new in that case. We'll take a look at that. Nicole? As someone who didn't go to this high school, are the pool locker rooms separate from the field house locker rooms, or are they shared? OK. So in theory, because I'm thinking from my knowledge of Durfee, if you were to renovate the pool, Like would it, you could then make a multi-use locker room, like so you're not then like paying for it, like renovating the pool and paying for a new pool locker room, like in theory, is that something that could happen?
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah, in theory, yeah. It really depends on, you know, the layout of the building, the design, how it all fits, but yeah, in theory.
[John Falco]: So, I mean, on the one hand, I definitely think we need to have something that we can tell the public, we considered this in comfortable with spending any money to do that. Because if you tell me we have a 30 acre site, if you spend money to study at a five acre site, I'm going to be like, what? It's kind of like, you know, you have 12 kids and you're going to study, but you can afford to live in a, whether a one bedroom is the right choice for you. It would be kind of wild. If they were, they were close, I would be like, let's spend the money. But five acres is the larger of those sites. And I just, I don't want us to say, oh, we only spent $100,000 determined by the site. Is that too small for something, but we're already on a 30 acre site that. We should be able to say that that's the case, but I don't think we should spend money.
[Jenny Graham]: So, so I guess I think that's a good question for just for us to understand, like. if we were to ask you all to help us build that chart, whatever it is, chart, one pager, like I've talked about a lot of one pagers today, so I'll just call it that for lack of a better term. But if we were to do that, is that in the scope of your current services as our OPM? Yes, okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: Maria? One thing that I have heard about this location over the years, not just because of this project, is that we're in the least populated area of the city, And the more dense populations in other areas want to be closer to their school. We're at the opposite, you know, complete opposite end on the Winchester line. It has, you know, some people would like to see it somewhere else and they might even suffer the size of the property to have it closer. Oh, I know.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, we did have that conversation, but we did have that conversation so I think that would be a great meeting to go rewatch. Director Hunt was really insightful about that while Columbus Park is not unlike this site. It does, it could move the school to an economically disadvantaged area and provide access to people who lack that access to our high school today on foot, right? So there is value to looking at that site from that perspective, but it is one sixth the size of this site. If we would be making real trade-offs, pool, playing fields, we'd probably have like a five-story high school. There would be no parking. all the things, right? So I think it is a good, we had that, we actually did have a detailed conversation about like, where are those places? That's why we talked about like the Andrews-McLinton complex, because that could serve that purpose, but the complexities of that, and frankly, the cost of doing a swap is like exponentially like outside of this VA is going to entertain for reimbursement. So that made it sort of not on the list, but to your point, like we know what those sites are that the community talks about. So I don't think it would be that hard for them to put together something that just provides those talking points. So when people say, but did you ever consider like, yes, we, we did. And we did that multiple steps. We did that as a group a year ago. We did it when we signed off unanimously on our education profile, we're going to do it again. Here, but what we're not going to do is a design study that. Spends money, putting a building together on a property that is not right. So I feel like this is this is part of why we have an. Use our services to do that. That might make sense.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a question just so with the Columbus site, you mentioned that the hospital and having fields at a different location was that site chosen partly because, like, the tough. park next to the club, the Curtis Tufts was like considered for fields or is that not? Was that not part of?
[Jenny Graham]: Medford does not have lots of free space. So there were very few options essentially that would like there's very few pieces of big swaths of property that Medford has. So there's just only a handful of choices. So that's sort of how it was identified. And sort of similarly, Medford Square being fairly undeveloped right now is how it got identified and certainly there's huge value from a planners perspective and Alicia talks a lot about this meeting like there's huge value from a planner's perspective to putting a high school like near the middle of the city right like there's just tons of economic advantage to that. However, there's a lot of economic advantage to the current proposal that is like moving forward too. So again, like the timing of saying that's part of why we put Medford Square on the list because it is the middle, right? Like for all intents and purposes of the city, it would increase access to lots of people, but you would be trading or playing fields on profit and all those other things. The city has moved forward in sort of a different direction since then, which is just sort of what happens When there's, you know, these press are a bit longer, right? So.
[John Falco]: Um, I wasn't, I just wasn't there. I was not in that meeting. Um, but did we consider any taking cities like. I mean, I know that the additional cost takings, I don't know, does MSBA help cover those? No, we're in our room. All right, well, everything costs so much today, so.
[Jenny Graham]: Well, just scores. Yeah, that's good.
[SPEAKER_15]: Fred? I just wanted to say, I think any viable design firm that's looking at these feasibility studies is doing the same thing. They're out there looking at sites, and if they have any brilliant ideas.
[Jenny Graham]: They're listening to our meeting right now.
[SPEAKER_15]: They know what we know, and they could come to the same conclusion. Or bring something to the table and say, have you thought it out? And you can say, yes, we have 10 years off this.
[Libby Brown]: So piggyback on that. It would be easier for everyone if we were building on a new site. Probably cheaper, too. Well, I don't know about that. But I think everyone would love to do it if there were some great place to just leave this place undisturbed for three years of construction. But if we can't find it, we can't force it. it's like we're making it, we're not making it any easier on ourselves by staying here. So it's not like the easy way out or anything like that. We'll know that we're not making it easier.
[John Falco]: We're not making it easier. We're not spitting a bottle full of money.
[Libby Brown]: Right. And we're not also making it harder than it needs to be. Like, that's just kind of the reality of it. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah. That's our talk for us.
[Suzanne Galusi]: And I do apologize. I do apologize if this was already discussed, but, and I was not at that meeting. But Columbus Park, was there a discussion about what would happen to the mistletoe?
[Jenny Graham]: No, no, no. It was a very cursory discussion of like, what even are the places that are big enough for us to entertain?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Because I think it's important to know if you don't know the Mistletoe that there are stairs in the playground of the Mistletoe that lead to Columbus Park.
[Jenny Graham]: So if you were taking that away, you would be taking away space from the Mistletoe.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Well, you would be taking the field, that adjacent field that the school does use regularly. But I think just also having a high school right attached.
[John Falco]: Yeah, it would be literally.
[Suzanne Galusi]: If we're keeping them, it's the top where it is.
[John Falco]: Yeah.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Right. And I don't know then where you would put parking. Right. Because it is in the middle of a neighborhood.
[Luke Preisner]: Yeah. Luke? What I don't recall being discussed in the past, but something that jumps out at me every time I think about this project, is when this school was sized initially in the late 60s, it was constructed for a school population of, I think, 36,000. And at one point, they actually had 4,400 kids at its peak, I think in the early 80s. Maybe it was 4,000. At any rate, very large numbers. Today, we don't have even half that population. So we have twice the space we need for the number of kids.
[Jenny Graham]: Well, I think that is a simplistic view of the space because education has changed dramatically since the 70s. And our vocational spaces have ignorantly different space requirements than classrooms do. So I can't wait actually to find out how big the high school should be, because I think there's a lot of opinions about how the building's going to be half the size. And I think there will be facts about that soon enough.
[Luke Preisner]: Sure, but just to finish my point. So the thing that I've heard discussed is in a pitch during a construction period, would it be feasible to move HAB-Michael Lecceserer-Moderator): All the kids to one half knock down the old half build and then when that's complete we pop populate the new building and potentially renovate or knock down the other half right there's advantages. HAB-Michael Lecceserer-Moderator): I think to size that I haven't heard discussed yet, but I wanted to bring up in case others have thought about it or have feedback yeah I would say.
[Jenny Graham]: That is definitely going to be something that is considered, especially when the architect is brought on, because they will be able to analyze what spaces you have right now. How that, how that applies against that guidelines and see how much space you need. And then obviously discussions with the school on what spaces would be to stay in a phased construction situation like that. In theory. very possible to move kids around a building and either renovate or tear it down and build. That's all going to be something that we discuss during the logistics and phasing discussions. Definitely later in the project, but we'll have a better idea of what's going on about what your space looks like versus what you should have. Great. One last question. I promised we would take till 830.
[John Falco]: I have to do that. Alumni feel that all night.
[Adam Hurtubise]: It's not the one that's. That one, I don't describe it.
[John Falco]: Oh, that's just property. Sorry. I think it's also. OK, sorry.
[Jenny Graham]: So I think I'm hearing that we might want to make a motion to request that OPM do a simple analysis of available properties. Yeah. Is there somebody who wants to make that motion?
[Luke Preisner]: Luke? I make a motion that Westfield form appear due of prior service.
[Jenny Graham]: Great. And is there a second? Seconded by Libby. Okay. Well, I'll call the roll. Jenny Graham. Yeah. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Pelosi. Yes. Dr. Pushing.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: All right. Yeah. Yes.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Brian Dorsey. Yes. Brian Hilliard. Yes. Tracy King. Emily Lazzaro said no. Yeah. No, this is about to continue looking at other spaces. To have left field do a cursory look at the other spaces available and create a chart for us.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Create the chart about the spaces that we looked at and why we decided that. Sorry, Aaron's surprised, but he did it wrong. Sorry.
[Aaron Olapade]: So I think to clarify, my intent is that we can do this quickly-ish, and we can still take things off the table officially before it becomes something we're going to spend money on in the design study.
[Jenny Graham]: and the feasibility study. So yes to both. Nicole Morell.
[Unidentified]: Yes. Aaron Lopate. And Joe Bowen. Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: 15 in the affirmative, zero in the negative.
[Unidentified]: Yes, well, sure, it was Luke.
[Jenny Graham]: It was a motion to do a peer review of available spaces at that part.
[Unidentified]: There is a form of peer review of the city's prior study available spaces.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay, moving on. So the left field team has an update for us about the designer selection panel and the next steps. So we did officially get the green light to bring left field on board, we've signed the contract, all that was done in record time, thanks to the mayor's office. And we're like, eager and ready to go, and we have some updates about what's next. So I'm going to turn it over into the left field.
[Matt Gulino]: Can you go to the next slide? Yeah. All right. So this was the same schedule that we showed at our last meeting. Over on the left, far left, the designer selection are the only dates that have been updated. We had been hopeful that we would be able to push out the design RFS very quickly after being brought on board officially. uh, after the, uh, MSBA OPM panel and talking with the MSBA, they were not fond of that idea. And just based on how many projects that they currently have, um, they're, they're backed up essentially. They're just having a hard time kind of keeping up with getting all of the projects through the process. So, um, they did unfortunately push us out to the, uh, August, uh, I'm sorry, uh, September. Yeah, September 23rd and October 7th. So we were hoping to get on the August designer selection panel meetings. July was going to be tough to me, but we definitely could get on August. It's certainly something that we're capable of doing and have the time to do it. But we are kind of at the MSBA's mercy when it comes to their schedule.
[Jenny Graham]: So their designer selection panels until the end of September were completely full. We didn't tell them that if anything changes to let us know, we'll be ready to move at a moment's notice, but they do not foresee that happening.
[Matt Gulino]: So the dates that you see there, what they sent us, they were very specific in their email that these dates cannot change. So they have heard us pushing. And it just wasn't as successful as we were hoping. That being said, that gives us quite a bit of time between now and getting a designer on board. So we want to be really proactive in what we're doing. I think this site discussion was perfect because that's definitely something that we're able to do and take on and get ahead of something that the designer would typically do. But given the kind of the case that we have here, I think it should be pretty simple and good for us to kind of get a head start on that. Uh, we also want to really dive into the educational program and I'll let Jen talk on this a little bit. Um, but that's something as well that we want to start working with the, with the school on, uh, get their educational program, start to look at it, start to put it into some of the MSBAs space summaries that will tell us, you know, school size and just start doing some of that legwork so that when we do get the designer on board, they kind of already have a really good starting point and don't have to kind of go back and do some of this stuff. So. trying to maintain as much of the schedule as we can. All the other dates and the feasibility schematic and funding the project have not changed. We are confident that we can still hit the January 2026 submission of the PDP, which is the Preliminary Design Program. That's the first big MSBA submission. So we had been planning, originally scheduled stuff and hopefully get a signer on board that's willing to really work with us on kind of these expedited submissions. Do you want to just talk on the ed plan quick?
[Jenny Graham]: Absolutely. So as Matt summarized, we are looking to move full speed ahead with that educational program. So that, to bring everybody up to speed, what that is, the educational program is really, it's what the design of your building is based on. So it is a layout of what programs you have now, or once the schools are officially combined their schedules next year, it'll lay out that program, and then also the future hopes and goals for the school. And that is what the designer will take and they'll tell you how many spaces you need to achieve those goals and keep those programs or expand programs, add programs. So we're going to start working with Dr. Glucy and your team and try to get a good draft of that going by the time we have the designer on. I would say 95% of it should be complete by then. We've sent over some today, I've sent over some Yes, it's very long email. So yeah, wait, Jen. Some examples from other schools, from similar schools, from other MSBA projects of ours that have Received praise, so things to look out for things to consider when we're. Putting together and the district's putting together the plan for the project. The 1st draft of that is due with that 1st, January submission, the PDP, the preliminary design program. That that point, the school committee will have signed off and then this group will sign off as it. Is part of the package that goes to the MSBA. And then that's, again, just a draft. So at that point, you'll still have the whole next phase, the preferred schematic report phase. As you're narrowing down to a single preferred solution for the building, you'll have time to edit that plan based on feedback we've heard from the NSBA at that point, based on things that the OPM, the design team, everybody is taking a look at it. So there will be time to edit it, until next June, I believe. But we're starting the process now. I think we can make some really good headway on it between now and bringing the design team on. Handing that to them will save a ton of time. And I think that we're going to hit the ground running. Yeah, we want to keep things moving.
[Matt Gulino]: Any questions on either design or selection You have a few slides on designer selection. I believe we've kind of eliminated the July building committee meeting right now just because of the time that we have, but we'll meet in August and we'll go through a much more detailed kind of how to go about the proposals. But we did want to give just a quick overview of kind of the major steps that we'll be taking.
[Jenny Graham]: And just for all of you to know that has proposed meeting scheduled for us for the next year so that we can have a standing schedule and. I will pass this off to to Lisa to ask her to schedule calendar holds for you all. In general, we try to stick to Monday night, but like, every holiday is on Monday and we have school committee to 2 meetings a month. So on the on those weeks where we had to have a meeting. Um, or those months where we had to have a meeting and there wasn't a Monday, it's generally like a Wednesday. So that's. Roughly what we're going to try to hold to, but. I will ask Lisa to send this full list out to you all as well as a list of. a calendar, a list of calendars.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah, so just quickly on the designer selection overview, important concepts is, you know, we've already submitted the design RFS to the MSBA, so they're already reviewing it, and we have, you know, all of the major aspects of this project described in it, very similar to the OPM RFS that you had issued previously. We'll be advertising at the end of June, what the MSBA is anticipating. We can advertise earlier. I just don't think it's going to necessarily buy us anything in the MSBA world. If we get the review of the RFS back from the MSBA and we want to advertise for six weeks instead of four, that's fine. That just gives the designers more time to look at it. But we can talk about that when we get there. Once we advertise, interested designers will submit their proposals, both kind of their master file brochure and their application. After we receive all of those, we'll submit them to MS&AB for their review, and then this committee or a smaller subcommittee will also start to review the the most beneficial for the project. It's important to remember that the designer RFS and the designer review is all qualification based. It is not based on dollars and cents. So it's if we look at it strictly from a qualification standpoint. It's not until after you select the designer that you can go into the negotiation similar to what we did with the OPM. So just keep that in mind as you start to review the proposals. It's all based on qualifications. The designer selection panel meetings, like we said, are end of September, first week of August. The first meeting of the DSP is to review the proposals. The MSBA will typically ask, you know, who your top three or four firms are, and then those three firms will be interviewed at the following meeting on the first week of August. And then at that meeting, you'll rank your designers from 1 through 3, 4, however many you have. And if the designer selection panel all agrees, you'll go into negotiations with your top-ranked firm and hopefully reach an agreement with them.
[John Falco]: Can I ask a quick question on that? Yeah. When we were selecting an LPM, Brady really had it was unanimous but it wasn't like you were like three times the points as the next person. Does that seem kind of like is the number one usually a little ahead of the number two or is it like typical for number one to be like so far ahead that there's no conversation?
[Matt Gulino]: No, I think they're usually pretty close. It definitely varies from project to project. I think we'll get a lot of interest on in rankings. Yeah, I don't think super common is one that's like way far ahead.
[Jenny Graham]: I could just add to that a little bit. We'll talk about the makeup of the designer selection panel, because the group that has the ultimate say is unfortunately not this group here at the table. There is a designer selection panel that is mostly made up of MSBA and state designated committee members. We will have 3 people at that scene and then the ranking happens with all that group. So. I've seen things where there is the 1st, 3 ranked. Highest usually the last to do the 2nd, 2nd meetings. And then the 4th is like a far drop off based on where the conversation is headed with the DSP and all. It really does vary, but. But it won't just be this group, unfortunately.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah, and actually, if you go to the next slide. Yeah, so this is exactly what Jen was just talking about. It's the 13 members appointed by the executive director of the MSBA and then 3 members from the city. The 3 members are listed there, the mayor, the superintendent of schools.
[Jenny Graham]: We will have lots of meetings with everyone to make sure that we're reviewing and what's important and things that this group finds important that should be brought forth to the larger DSP committees so that they hear some of the local thoughts and concerns from the review. Will you be part of that DSP process like in the room?
[Matt Gulino]: We'll be in the room, but we can't, we won't say anything. It's a Zoom meeting, so yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: It's being recorded, I can't see.
[SPEAKER_15]: But before the three members of the, from this committee go to the DSP, you'll have a really
[Matt Gulino]: of your kind of leaning towards, or at least your top three. As you start to look and kind of get familiar with how the proposals are laid out, they're all going to be fairly similar in terms of how they're laid out. So you'll be able to really compare each of the proposals to each other and say, okay, this one definitely speaks way more about CDE. Like this architect has never done CDE programs. That type of stuff, like you'll start to really you know, shift towards one or two architects just by looking at how to, you know, stop making your own decisions.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So.
[Suzanne Galusi]: So that I understand this, the MSBA chooses 13 people from wherever, like from a different, what? They choose 10. Oh, okay.
[Jenny Graham]: So they choose 10 people, but they're not from here? They're just from wherever they are, so there are a standing committee. Okay. So it's they do they have the 10 people and they have 13 and we get. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yes. Yeah. Yes. There's just so many of them. But they have 13 that are appointed. There are. Architects, engineers, people in the building industry. MSBA folks. What makes them not choose people that they're friends with? This is so frustrating. What makes them not choose people?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I don't know. Whatever.
[Jenny Graham]: I can't fight this right now. This is the way the game is.
[Suzanne Galusi]: This is the way it's played.
[Jenny Graham]: But I think the point, their goal from an MSBA perspective is that there are people in industry weighing in on, practically speaking, what needs to happen in these design studies because they have a really prescriptive way that they want case design studies completed, right? So, yeah.
[John Falco]: And the other thing that I heard, I think it might've been one of you all from that field, is that, look, they're paying for half of this building. Right. So they should probably have a say. So, you know, I mean, the mayor, the superintendent of schools, and whoever we appoint to the school committee can all likely, zero of them will know anything about building a high school. No, totally. But they'll know everything about Medford and what our school district is. But I assume the other 13 members will all have, literally, this is their career. So if I was the person writing half the check for this, I would not want it to be just elected people. one person who's got a doctorate in education deciding anything about the core of who's capable of actually designing this building. Because honestly, I wouldn't know. I mean, I would look at their website. I'd be like, oh, yeah, they're all great. They've done another building. Seems good. Yeah. Yeah. So all right. My take on that? We can't change it. Let's pick her.
[Libby Brown]: Yeah. Let me just make sure I understand everything you said. So we will all get to look at the proposals ourselves. So while we only have three seats, we get to talk about the concerns of Medford. They're just gonna make sure that they're qualified to do the job and they haven't gotten like all the high school projects in the last year and have a monopoly on those projects. But we all get to look at them and give our thoughts in this forum.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah.
[Libby Brown]: I think that's, I think it'll be fine.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah. Yeah. We'll have, we'll, we'll have know, evaluation spreadsheets where, you know, everybody goes through and kind of gives rankings of, you know, which one required, uh, third section of the proposal, uh, so that, yeah, we can have a good conversation with this committee and then, you know, that informs the opinion of the committee members, you know, so.
[Jenny Graham]: And I will say, uh, the reason they have the FAIR, the superintendent school committee member on as the three members, they really do listen, they do listen to the community and the concerns of those three members. And I think that making sure that the concerns, the thoughts are really prepared in advance and unified, and make sure that they really hear what the desires of your community are.
[Matt Gulino]: That usually, that really... Yeah, the three members do hold a lot of weight. you're going in with stuff to say, you know, really vouching for, you know, certain parts of a proposal that you like, because the MSBA does, you know, the DSP does listen to the three members, because you are the experts of the town. So, you know, they are, like Libby said, taking a look at, you know, how much work do each of the architectural firms have, and stuff like that.
[John Falco]: So, I'm assuming there'll be quickness coaching going on ahead of time. the three folks we sent over, right? Like that you all will be really working them up till they know. We're not gonna talk about that. Okay, go. Well, I just like, I'm assuming each of these three people will have never been to this kind of a thing before.
[Jenny Graham]: We can attend. We can attend somebody else's DSV. Oh, we should do that.
[John Falco]: Yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you.
[Linda Liporto]: I just have to register. The main goal for them is that they want to keep it fair, right? They say you can have your opinions when they ask that the team members don't come into the DSP meeting with a break. That's their key. So you have three design firms that you think three or four or five that have listened to the talk, but you're not supposed to go into the DSP and say, I want architectural firm B as number one, and then architectural firm number two. That you're not supposed to coach
[John Falco]: I said several things and I have nothing to say.
[Jenny Graham]: Any questions about the DSD?
[Matt Gulino]: Actually, if you go to the next slide, I think we've kind of already, you know, kind of touched on this, but, you know, it's based on qualifications and these are all of the kind of categories that we're looking at. that the architects need to submit their proposal, kind of pandering it and highlighting their experience and their financial stability. They need to prove that they can financially do a project of this size.
[Adam Hurtubise]: But yeah, so it's a pretty set process on kind of what each of the proposals look like. So all proposals will essentially
[Matt Gulino]: like I said, the same in covering these criteria here. I think there's one more, but I think it's just, yeah, so this is what Jenny is going to send over with some of the meeting dates. The highlights in blue are for the designer selection process. Those are the four key dates that we're looking at right now, the issuing of the RFS on July 30th. A month later, proposals will be due. before we get to our first DSP meeting on September 23rd. And then on the far right side, the highlight in red is our first MSBA submission, the PDP submission. That's kind of the first critical milestone once we get the designer on board.
[Luke Preisner]: So I have a question. I see MSBA first appear in late January, but at least in my understanding of what's discussed or what has been discussed, did they make an appearance, you know, in the timeline much sooner, right? Yeah. Sometime in September.
[Matt Gulino]: The DSP D-Day.
[Luke Preisner]: Okay. Yeah. Could you just flag for me where MSBA would start appearing? Would it be the 23rd? Every time I see DSP, does that also mean MSBA?
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah, Designer Selection Panel is MSPA. Okay, thank you. I can put an MSPA next to that, just so it's clear. But yeah, those are the two, Designer Selection Panel and MSPA meetings. Okay. And then after that, we won't talk to them a whole lot until we submit the first submission.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[SPEAKER_15]: Do you guys have like a modified timeline there when you might do the site walkthrough?
[Jenny Graham]: Oh, in the RFS, if that's what you mean. We haven't recast that yet. It's like on the to-do list. We can send it to you as soon as we're done. And you're welcome to join us.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that's always fun.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, we have plenty of time to do a walkthrough. I figure it's what office is pushing. Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Other questions?
[Tracy Keene]: Of those dates that this committee meets, are there dates that we have to make significant votes that you want to make sure we have before?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, we can flag those. So far, we haven't had a war problem, but this is a marathon, not a sprint.
[Unidentified]: I get that.
[Jenny Graham]: Without any of that. Any other questions? Is there a motion to adjourn?
[Matt Gulino]: The only question that I did have, and it's probably a little early, but just hearing kind of, you know, concerns tonight just about making sure the public is informed. Does it make sense to try to schedule a community forum of sorts where, you know, we're introduced and we start to explain the process because I've always found that, like, that's always, you know, people won't pay attention. And then when they, you know, start to ask questions, it's like, well, we've been doing this for six months and like, this is how it goes. And I think like just trying to drill process into like everybody's mind helps, you know, along the way so that when we do get to a vote, you know, people are aware like, yeah, this has been ongoing for quite a while. So I'm always,
[Jenny Graham]: That's a great question. I think one thought that I have is that that's like a September thing, because I think we will lack engagement in the summer. But I would be curious what you all think about that time, whether you think there would be significant engagement in summer for community meetings.
[SPEAKER_10]: I would agree with September. Yeah.
[Tracy Keene]: And when they get the blood bill time to do that work in terms of the site, why don't you use that? Because that would be one of the first questions that I would think the community would say, well, why aren't you choosing X, Y, and Z? So yeah.
[Linda Liporto]: Yeah, that's a great point. To build on that too, it might be a good time for us to start talking about project website, maybe have that out, because I know there's an interest on the school side and the student side. That could be something that we, in parallel, work on during the summer, which I can help take the lead on to get that going in the background. So maybe if everybody agrees that September sounds like a good time based on history of other projects, it's the summertime, it's digital at best, and we won't have much information. I feel like we might sort of lose interest if we don't have enough quality information to give them, but if we sort of do a soft rollout of the project by that time. We're in the process of getting the designer on board, done the site selections, have the website ready to go online, kind of make it a little bit more of an event, if you will, to the public. Sure.
[John Falco]: Thank you. So I like that a lot because also at least school committee members, I don't know if everybody can get those requests, but we're gonna get asked these questions long before September, you know, just in an email here or there and hold that till September is not a really satisfying response. The other thing though, this is something about the website. During this whole process I have reviewed school building project websites, there seems to be a consistent thing that's missing. And that is that the websites seem to always represent And when we're looking at how did this all play out, there's like getting understanding the entire process starting at the beginning from a school building website seems to be absolutely up to date. So I don't even know what that's looking like. Like you can find the timeline, but like the timeline we just saw is what you can find. And I'm just thinking, is there a way we can like sort of pay it forward a little for other place, other building committees in the future, How do they do that? How do they do that? And they're always asking those questions about the early phases. And we're going to all forget very much about this phase when we have shovels in the ground. We're going to be like, oh, that was so long ago for peers. So that's just something to think about when working on the website is like, it isn't just for the community now. In my mind, it should be to help other school committees and school building committees in the future be able to like, they're going to come in for the most part, probably ignorant of the whole process, all nine yards. And I mean, I've seen some really nice websites, but I cannot get that, because they're all at the end. And nobody looking at them from the outside is ever at the end. They're always at the end.
[Linda Liporto]: So we did some examples of project websites. as sort of a standard for all of our projects. And one piece of that is the schedule, which talks about different modules that you have and expand on that very much. I think that the difficulty that we have with sort of forecasting too much is that there's time and place to give out information to the public. You don't want to rush it and have people jump to conclusions too much because the minute we say one thing, they're going to lean on that, they're going to hold on to that for dear life for the next seven years and I'm stuck with it. So I think one of the ways that we've sort of solved that issue a little bit with our websites is we call them fact-based They're not flashy, but they're fact-based. So that way you can certainly explain the fact. So here's the process. Just don't want to go into specific details of this project. Until it's ready to be primed time, right? Because there's a time and a place and we'll be found when it comes to getting projects through the process and through both the votes and getting the towns and districts to agree on something is by giving them the facts in the order of which they are actual facts and actually given. Because if we start jumping the gun and say something that's later on going to change, that seems to be the kiss of death of the project. If you say it's going to cost $150 million one day, and then three weeks later, oh, actually, it's $145, doesn't matter if it was up or down.
[SPEAKER_10]: really different.
[Linda Liporto]: That's the, that's the one key thing that we kind of have to, we want to make sure that we sort of go through the process so that it's always based on the educational needs of the school, making sure that we're getting the most out of the MSBA's reimbursement process and all those parts and pieces that we're going to guide you through, making sure it's the right size. It's the right built and everything is right sized. Then we start getting into the type of conversations about what is it going to cost? How will that go? And all those parts and pieces then come through. All of this is all going to come in different pieces and at different phases. But we definitely want to make sure that the information goes out to the public. But we also want to make sure that we spoon feed it, what we have, the facts, what we know for sure. We have a backup for everything.
[Jenny Graham]: So Linda, maybe you and Will can connect because Will has been maintaining our site so far. And then perhaps can work with Will for like another iteration of the site. Maybe we can look at that at our next meeting. And then we can sort of tell you what we think and what we think will resonate. have to do it at that. Can I? Yeah, okay. Does that work well?
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, absolutely. I know speaking with Lisa, she's also part of the team on that process as well, so. We have to bump our heads together and work on that.
[Tracy Keene]: Okay, great. Before we adjourn, Jenny, just, and we think about when we talk about the September community meeting, that parents, September and May are really our crunch time, and so if we can delay as much into September and get out into the schools. I think about the parents that constituent, there's going to be the community of people, how much is it going to cost? And then they're going to be the community of concerned parents is where is my child going to go? Yeah. So I just, as you know, as a school, as a parent.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah.
[Tracy Keene]: Yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: We can look at the district calendar and figure out like, where is there some space?
[Tracy Keene]: Thank you.
[Luke Preisner]: So just following that conversation, I just wanted to express sort of my support for a fact-based website that serves as a guardrail to what would otherwise become a hype machine. A new high school, very large facility that plays such a big role in a community. You know, the gossip around it, the excitement, the imagination, visionary, that's going to take on a life of its own, whether we like it or not. And so, you know, having a website that's fact-based, that's like a useful resource for people like myself who do a lot of research and want to see basic documents. It will be valuable because that'll act as a guardrail on what would otherwise be, you know, an explosive type mission.
[Jenny Graham]: Sure. Any other questions? Is there a motion to adjourn? by Emily, seconded by Nicole. I will call the roll. Jenny Graham. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Galuski. Yes. Dr. Cushing.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Artika Brau. Yes. Libby Brown. Yes. Bertha Desmond.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Maria Dorsey.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Brian Hilliard. Yes. Tracy Keene. Yes. Emily Lazzaro. Yes. Nicole Morell.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Erin Lopate. Yes. Bryce Kreisner. And jump on. Yes, the affirmative, zero, the negative. Meeting is adjourned.
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