[Matt Rice]: For those of you that have arrived on time or even a little bit early, thank you. We're going to give folks another couple of minutes just to arrive and get settled.
[SPEAKER_14]: And then we'll get going. On time or even a little bit early, thank you. We're going to give folks another couple of minutes just to arrive and get settled. And then we'll get going. On time or even a little bit early, thank you.
[Kenneth Lord]: That was my fault. Just so you know, we're live on YouTube right now too.
[Matt Rice]: We won't have any more dramatic echoing noise.
[Kenneth Lord]: No, I muted the browser that had the YouTube stream playing.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you, Ken, for managing technology. Very much appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hello everyone.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Matt.
[Matt Rice]: Again, for those of you that avoid or are not a fan of awkward silences at the beginning of meetings, we're going to get going here at about 4.05, just to let people file in a bit more. And just as a foreshadowing as well, the second advisory team meeting is going to be happening immediately after this one for exterior and interior design on this same Zoom meeting link. So we will sort of immediately switch gears afterwards. So towards the end of this one, you may see some folks file in and we will try to wrap things up right at 530 so that we can switch gears.
[Adam Hurtubise]: It does appear that we're getting a good critical mass here, which is very much appreciated.
[SPEAKER_15]: All right.
[Matt Rice]: think we're going to get going just so we can launch in. It looks like we do have a good quantity of folks here. I just want to start off by welcoming everybody to this first advisory team meeting for the Medford High School project. I'm going to run through a quick agenda just so everyone understands what the contents of the discussion are going to be here today. We're going to do a little bit of an introduction. both of our own team as well as the overall members of the team as well. We would like for everyone to introduce themselves. We're going to run through what is this advisory team process and what does it entail as we move forward as well as what are the schedule milestones associated with it. For this particular discussion on MEP systems and sustainability, we're going to run through a couple of sustainability givens just so that people understand what are the baseline assumptions that we have to be working towards. We'll try to do that expeditiously. Then we're going to be spending the majority of our time actually listening to all the team members, all the expert stakeholders that have gathered here today. Really what this meeting is about is calibrating this particular topic to the voices of the Medford community. So that's where we're going to be spending the majority of our time. Back to the slides. So we're just going to start off with our own introductions. We'll allow the left field team, Arno's project manager, to introduce themselves as well. And then we're going to shift gears into the actual Medford advisory team members. So just to start things off, my name is Matt Rice. I am an architect, principal in charge of the project for SMMA. I don't believe Helen Fantini, our project manager, is on today. She is traveling, but I know that Suala is next.
[SPEAKER_34]: Hi, I'm Suala Jankum, an architectural designer here at SMMA.
[Adam Hurtubise]: All right, and Andrew? My name is Andrew Barrows, electrical engineer at SMMA.
[Matt Rice]: I did not mention this, but I appreciate all of our team doing it. But if we could please all have our cameras on as we introduce ourselves, it would be very much appreciated. Emily.
[SPEAKER_34]: Hi, everyone. I'm Emily Ehlers. I'm a mechanical engineer at SMMA.
[SPEAKER_15]: Martine.
[Martine Dion]: I'm Martine Dionne. I'm the sustainable design director at SMMA. I apologize. My camera is not turning on that.
[Matt Rice]: All right. Brenda.
[SPEAKER_36]: Hello, everyone. Brenda Lim. I'm a Sustainable Design Project Coordinator at SMMA.
[Matt Rice]: Tomaso?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, everybody. I'm Tomaso. I'm a partner at TransSolar, and I focus on passive design, sustainable design. I'm a climate engineer. All right. And James?
[Brian Hilliard]: James Job, Ecology Engineering, Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineers.
[Matt Rice]: All right. And at the left field team, do we want to jump in here? Sure. Yeah. Go ahead.
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah. Hello, everyone. My name is Matt Galino. I'm one of the project managers for left field, owner's project manager. And I know I saw Jen Carlson on the call.
[SPEAKER_25]: Hi. Jen Carlson. I'm the project director with left field, DOPM. And I think Adele's on.
[Matt Gulino]: And Adele.
[SPEAKER_02]: Adele Sands. I'm the education liaison for left field.
[Matt Rice]: All right, and then I think we'll just run through the members that are listed here. Hopefully we have captured everyone that was in. If you are here and your name is not up there, certainly when we get to the end of the list, please feel free to chime in. We will add you as we go if there was some disconnect in the process. And if we run through the list and anyone is not here, we'll just make note of that and make sure that they are included in terms of getting the access to the recording of this after the fact. So in alphabetical order, it would be great also for the team members from Medford to really just introduce obviously yourself, but also what your connection is to the project, just so that we can understand context. That would be great. So we could start off with Libby. And that's why I preface things. I'll give everyone a second just to make sure that the AV is working. I don't see Libby joined. I'm sorry, Ken, you said that she did or she did not?
[Kenneth Lord]: That's not, I don't see her on the list.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, so let's keep going. Sunny?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Sunny Dillard. I'm an architect and sustainability leader at an architectural firm that does mostly public schools. It's called HMFH. And I am a Medford resident. I have a two-year-old, so she will be going to this high school. And so those are my connections.
[Matt Rice]: Excellent. Austin.
[SPEAKER_18]: Hi, Austin Dietz. I'm also a Medford. residents have an eight-month-old who will be a bit behind Sonny's two-year-old, but will hopefully eventually matriculate to Medford High. My background is in solar. I'm a project manager with a national developer and owner of commercial and large utility-scale solar projects.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Fantastic. Audrey?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_22]: Hi. Sorry. I'm a teacher at Medford High School. I was out sick today. I'm a science teacher. I've been at Mefford High School for 26 years. I'm an environmental science teacher. I've been teaching environmental science for 24 years there. So I've seen a lot and I've been in that building my entire career. And so my goal and hope as being on this committee is to give input on My kind of wish list for sustainability designs and the needs for the high school based on now in the future, obviously, and based on my experience, both good and bad in the current building. and also to be a voice for the educators in the building, especially the science department, but really all educators in that the day-to-day grind and the moving parts of teaching, just to make sure that any input and decisions that are made or take that into consideration. Because over the many years, sometimes on paper things seem like a really good idea. But when you get into it day to day, it's not or it doesn't work as you planned or you think. So hopefully, by everyone giving input and ideas, I can sort of be that voice for the main people in the building, which are the educators.
[Matt Rice]: Excellent. Thank you. Jenny.
[Jenny Graham]: Hi, everyone. I'm Jenny Graham. I'm the chair of the building committee and the parent of two current Medford High School students who likely will not see the inside of a new building so much, maybe outside chance for Lucas. And I just keep pushing all of our staff to remember that he graduates in June of 2029. So really excited to have you all here. Thank you so much for joining, I think, these meetings will be really helpful and informative for us all.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Great. Chris.
[SPEAKER_29]: Hello, Chris Hogan. My wife and I have a son in high school and middle school, so unfortunately we'll miss it too, but been living in Medford for a while and very excited to contribute to this and help it better the community.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Elizabeth.
[SPEAKER_24]: Hi, everyone, and special hello to Martine. Love this mini reunion. I am a Medford resident for 23 years almost to the day. I have two high schoolers. So don't expect them to benefit from the new school either. I currently run a decarbonization program under Mass Save. And prior to that, I ran CHIPS, which was a national green schools organization that's now part of USGBC. And I'm happy to be here. Thank you for including me.
[Kenneth Lord]: Hi, good evening, everyone. I am the chief operations officer for the Metro Public Schools. I'm in charge of facilities, technology, and security. So I'm keenly interested in making sure the systems we put in this new building are not only sustainable, but also easily maintained, long lasting, and provide adequate comfort and support for all of our staff.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you. Sarah?
[Jenny Graham]: I think Sarah was able to join today, Matt. She let us know that.
[Matt Rice]: OK, great. Thank you. Nicole? All right. So this is OK, actually, because the less people we have, the more time everyone will get to actually share some thoughts as we go forward. So I'm just trying to keep tabs on how many we have. Jessica?
[Jessica Parks]: Hi, I'm Jessica Parks. I'm a parent to a fifth grader, and I've worked in sustainable design consulting in my previous positions. And currently, I am a project manager for energy efficiency projects at MIT.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you. Brenda.
[Brenda Pike]: Hi. I'm the climate planner for the city. I've been involved in HVAC and solar projects at the schools, and I do the city's energy and emissions reporting. So any amount that we can reduce those makes me happy.
[SPEAKER_15]: That's great, thank you. Luke.
[Luke Preisner]: Hi, everyone. Luke Reiser here. Let's see, I have three kids in the school system. Oldest is a freshman, youngest is a fifth grader. I serve on the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee. I wanted to be involved in this advisory committee. I feel that sustainable energy consumption is important for certainly environmental reasons, but there can be economic benefits if it's done right. I know we have a lot of excitement about improving our energy consumption. And we're going to accomplish that. It's a guaranteed fact. Certainly, there are guidelines that guarantee we'll have a more efficient structure, but I think we're going to have some goals to exceed the minimum. And getting there is going to involve looking at air source and ground source heat exchange, but also passive elements like light wells and sun-facing windows. And we'll have to balance cost with benefit. When does breakeven occur? If it takes 50 years, then maybe it's not worth it. And, you know, certainly those are the kinds of things I'd like to have discussed. So, you know, my priority here, my goal is to help influence the shape orientation and infrastructure of our upcoming high school in a manner that affordably hits the best lead rating for the dollar. Thank you.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. Chris.
[koyFP0ugilA_SPEAKER_05]: Hi everybody, I apologize, I am driving right now so my camera's off, but I have been a lifelong Medford resident. Me and my wife both attended that Medford high school, so I kind of know the ins and outs. Brother and sister are both teachers. Brother is a teacher at the high school, so I get some of that insight on what's going on up there, too. For myself, I have three children, a nine, seven, and a four-year-old, so they hopefully will all be seeing that high school. And then for my professional career, I am a senior project superintendent at Turner construction, um, which pretty much all of our buildings now would be our lead buildings. The last buildings, uh, the current building I'm on is a lead platinum building. Um, done multiple lead gold buildings, uh, have done any, everything from, uh, hospitals to labs, office buildings, high rises. Um, so I kind of have that. uh, backup with that. And then, um, hopefully I can bring in some knowledge of current market conditions and costs of different things through, uh, the help of my company and stuff like that, what we publish out to help, uh, owners and, uh, developers and everything. So thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Chris. And definitely safety first. Let's keep the camera off. That's a wise choice. Yep. Um, Paul,
[Paul Ruseau]: Hello, everyone. My name's Paul, as you can see. I am starting my fifth term on the school committee. My kids have been to Medford High. My daughter's a senior. I've made a core component of my campaigns complete decarbonization. Highest lead is the minimum. So I look forward to making sure we do that. It was part of the school committee resolution I wrote, which expects that to be what this building will be. So I'm looking forward to what that means because it's fun technically. When I redid my own heating system, I was so depressed that it was a couple years too early for geothermal. So I have just air source heat pumps, but I look forward to us having no gas connections to the building and having as little electricity being pumped in as possible. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Lots of great topics there, and we will be touching on all those, I'm sure. And then last but not least, Nathan. Yep.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, everyone. My name is Nathan Scott. I'm a Medford resident. I have two kids in elementary school, so certainly hoping that they will be able to attend the new high school. I work in capital construction, managing programs for the design and construction of spaces like this high school, but not high schools. So looking forward to supporting this group and the building committee with that knowledge. Happy to be here.
[Matt Rice]: All right. So again, before we jump into giving everyone a little bit more opportunity to talk about your own project goals, I know some folks already delved into that, which is great. We do want to just sort of calibrate our understanding here of what are these advisory teams and sort of what is this process that we're embarking on with them. So really what the advisory teams are, are a mechanism to bring in really diverse stakeholder voices into the design process for the new high school project. It's a common challenge with all communities that there's a lot of different voices that need to, that want to help guide the project moving forward. And we found that this process of really bringing in those expert voices is a very valuable one. And what we have found is effective is to break up sort of these advisory team discussions into four discrete groups. And these are not intended to be individual silos of discussion. They are intentionally, as is shown here, really a Venn diagram in terms of their overlap. There's a lot of overlapping membership between these advisory teams, between both members of the building committee, as well as other individuals. which really goes to the heart of the fact that there is overlap in a lot of these topics, right? Sustainability is very much connected to site, for instance, as is educational planning. So they're not intended to be disparate conversations, but it's necessary to give each topic its space to have a conversation, and then we'll eventually bring these together so that there's awareness of where those overlaps are. But these four groups that we are setting up as advisory team discussions is this one, sustainability and MEP systems, site safety and security. So overlapping both in terms of mechanics of the site, as well as issues of safety and security. Educational planning and equity. And there certainly are a lot of other threads of conversation going on right now on the topic of educational planning. There is educational visioning that's going on. There are detailed programming meetings. There's so much focus there really because that is the core of this project, right? It is a high school project. There's a lot else that goes into it, but it really needs that amount of attention and discussion going forward. And then lastly is exterior and interior design, and that is a very all-encompassing type of advisory team grouping as well. But again, we found that these four subjects are really helping to cover the large, broad strokes of the project and helping to provide some really valuable insight and an opportunity for the various stakeholder voices that need to play in. So just to cover the topic again, it's very self explanatory in terms of what the intent of what we want to cover here, both as part of this meeting today as well as the continuum of meetings that will lay out in front with this particular advisory team. So we are going to talk about specifically mechanical electrical plumbing, fire protection systems that are going to be going into the building. Eventually we'll get to the point of some recommendations for the TYPO system to be included in, as well as that connection to sustainable design, not just for those mechanical systems, but really the larger topic of sustainable design. And there's really just this very tight connection relationship between what we're picking for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection systems and the level of sustainability. But it is intended to be all-encompassing in terms of those two topics. A quick orientation to our overall project schedule. I know some of you have seen this before, but it may be new overall in terms of the project timeline. I always point out the fact that the right-hand side of this schedule is our intended project completion date, which is July of 2030, and we are all the way still in the feasibility study at the left-hand side of the chart. The stars that you see noted here are our touch points for each individual advisory team meeting. So each advisory team will meet a total of four times through this early portion of the overall project lifecycle to help develop some recommendations that will be given to the building committee for incorporation in the project. So we'll be meeting today. We do have a time scheduled already for the second meeting, and then we'll talk about also the third and the fourth meeting in terms of getting something on the calendar as we move forward. And just the organization of those four meetings, so you can understand the construct of them. Today is really a listening meeting. We want to hear from the advisory teams in terms of those priority goals. We will take those priority goals. For the second meeting, we will elaborate them we will add some context to them as well as add any topics that are necessary that maybe didn't rise up through the the natural discussion that we've had. The third meeting when it occurs will be a confirmation really of the discussion that we have at that second meeting and the establishment of a list of recommendations and then the fourth meeting will just be really reconvening to confirm the recommendations and pass those through to the building committee. And so again, the sustainability givens, I'm going to hand this over to Martine in a second. These are the things that we know are the building blocks for this discussion. So we just want to make sure that people are understanding where that is. Obviously, we can go above and beyond, but these are our baselines for a variety of reasons.
[Martine Dion]: Right, so we're going to make this very short. We just wanted you to understand what's included in the project at the base and then the ideas to talk about beyond, right? So there's three major areas, the MSBA Green School policy, which has requirements in terms of the sustainable criteria, the Massachusetts Specialized Stretch Code, which Medford adopted, and then your Medford goals or the Medford, what we understand of Medford's green guidelines and some of the policies. So for the MSBA Green School policy, basically the current policy, which dates from 2023, requires LEED Silver. Currently, it requires LEED v4, but with the upcoming LEED v5, which our project is going to be under in April, next April, it's likely they will update to LEED v5. It requires the stretch energy code, the standard stretch code. So by default, going with the fact that you're a specialized stretch code, we're going to have to comply and meet the standard stretch code, which is one of the requirements of the specialized stretch code. They subsidize full commissioning, MSBA does, so we go after MEP, Building Enclosure and Ongoing Commissioning, the full six points in LEED. And then they have specific requirements basic requirements, some of the materials and resources and indoor environmental quality points. So that's the base reimbursement, the base green policy. Then they have a 4% additional reimbursement if a community pursues a specialized stretch energy code, which Medford has adopted. So by complying with the specialized stretch energy code, there's an additional 3% reimbursement. And for an additional 1% we can pursue, we can elect to pursue and we recommend that we pursue more of the required materials and resources and indoor environmental quality points. Those percentage add up in terms of, you know, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. So it's important to consider this additional reimbursement. The project, like I said, will pursue LEADv5. LEADv5 is mandated next April, I believe. Next. So the full compliance with the standard stretch code is at the base and then with Medford being under the specialized stretch code, we have a choice between three pathways. The first pathway is all electric, which we highly recommend, all electric heating and cooling domestic hot water. If a project decides to pursue fossil fuel heating, then there's specific requirements that make it a bit, I would say that add criteria. So if you decide to pursue fossil fuel, you need to install fully installed PV to offset that fossil fuel. And you need to have electrification readiness. You need to set your whole site to be able to electrify in the future. With this school being designed and done for the next 50 years, it's best to right away plan for all electric HVAC and domestic hot water. And that's really what we've been seeing and what we're doing on the majority of our projects for the past seven, eight years. Next. And then we're aware of your, you know, green communities in Mansford, green committees. So and green goals. So you have the Go Green, Medford. You have a solar ordinance from our understanding that we would love to hear about how you're applying it to your public buildings versus private buildings. And then we are aware of your sustainable design guidelines. I think a lot of what we've seen in the given may bode well with your sustainable design guidelines, but we'd love to hear you discuss you know, how much, where do you want to go in terms of beyond the criteria of the green policy and the base lead and specialized stretch goal? Thanks.
[Matt Rice]: So I'm going to pull down the screen share for a second and I'm going to just do a quick piece of math here. to confirm what we have for timing. So I think we actually, because we have about 13 people here, I think we'll have maybe four and a half minutes per person. We can give everyone, obviously folks are free to not take all that time if they want, but I do want to mention that if you're talking and just feel free to use train of thought as you're going, I will interrupt you. I apologize in advance for that. Definitely not something I feel comfortable with, but I have been tagged with being sort of the timekeeper role. And if we do cut you off and you have more to say, we definitely welcome, encourage any written materials to be transmitted through. I think we'll just figure out who the correct person to direct them to. It may be our OPM, but we'll figure out who to get it to. That should not be a big detail to organize. But we will take written guidance as well if there's priorities that you're not able get through sharing once we get to your particular piece in the presentation here. So I'm also going to just go back to my list. team members and we're just going to go alphabetically as well. I'm going to set up my timer. I won't be doing something obnoxious like putting a big clock up on the screen because sometimes we do that at public meetings and that can get a little ominous. You'll just have to wait for me to jump in. That will be where we start. And I don't know if Libby has joined us since. But if not, I think, Sonny, you're going to be up first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Time starts now.
[SPEAKER_15]: Go right ahead. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. I You know, it's really interesting. So I was trying to figure out how to start this because I have been in your shoes quite frequently. I lead a lot of public processes and do sustainability work with public schools. And I think one of the biggest things that I think is most important is a holistic approach to sustainability, right? So we're thinking a lot about not just energy efficiency, we're not just thinking about water, we're not just thinking about daylight and views, but how they all interact together and what that experience is for the students and educators and the community, because it's a community building too. I also hold the hat of the co-chair of the Carbon Leadership Forum for the Boston Northeast Hub, so I think carbon is really important to me. I think I'm really interested to see what portion of this school can be saved. I think it's an architecturally really beautiful school. I know that there are a lot of functional issues with the school, so I do think those have to be resolved as well. And so sort of understanding what amount of the school can be saved, thinking about embodied carbon is really important. I'd love to see some daylight studies. I think that's really important. I think knowing Knowing the impact that that has on students' ability to learn is really good. I think that's also tons of studies on teacher retention, staff retention, all that is really good too. I think thinking about materials, I know MSBA provides additional incentives for that and Lead V5 is going to be a bit of a hurdle to think about. the types of materials and the circularity of materials that we're putting into the building, because it's not just the health of the occupants that are in there, but the health of the people that are creating these materials for us. And that also goes into thinking about embodied carbon, so thinking about how we can not just benefit the school, but the community outside of Medford. We're not just a bunch of, Medford's like a big mix of people too, so we really want to support the community and thinking about what is built in Medford and how we can use local materials, how we can use local labor. I mean, you have the Volk School. I'd love to see the interaction of the Volk School and the sort of traditional core academics and how that can benefit teaching and learning. I'd love to think about outdoor spaces. I know this is an incredibly tricky site. So thinking about how you can bring students outside. I know those things are all just really important to me. I know that energy efficiency is something that is kind of a given now. I mean, you presented that with the Specialized Stretch Energy Code, and I know that there's benefit in terms of cost, and I know that ground source heat pumps can pan out and pay back within 20 years, and that feels like a no-brainer if it's something that we can do on the site. I know that there will actually be gas at this school because there are vocational programs. It doesn't necessarily mean that that's how you run the school and that's how the school will function, but I'm aware that that's something that I think will be important to teach the students as well. So I think that on top of just knowing that there are taxpayers here and we do have to pay for this sort of helping bring them along is also really important. I know that we have this small group of people here, but trying to get the message out to the community is something that maybe we take on as community members. But I would love for this group to talk about how that message is shared with the community. I think that's something that's incredibly important. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. It was just four minutes, too, so that was perfect. Let's switch over to Austin.
[SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, thanks, Matty, for the opportunity. I think from my side, I started my career in energy efficiency and then moved over to the solar side. So I think echoing a little bit of what Sunny said, uh, you know, the efficiency is given and it's also largely the low hanging fruit. And when I think about bringing solar storage on board, um, the easiest way to, to reduce the overall energy needed is to just make that denominator as low as possible. Um, so as, as the design is being put together, um, and, and, uh, potential rooftop or carport or other solar system is being sized and storage is being sized, um, you know, understanding, uh, you know, how, what steps can be taken initially, uh, to, to get, um, you know, to, to get the, the solar and the storage to cover as much as possible, um, from, from the outset. Um, I'm, I'm interested as, you know, potential future, uh, parent, uh, and as someone who sees the, uh, who is currently now sort of, as we're starting this big electrification journey, uh, you know, nationwide, uh, a real demand for, electricians a real demand for for the services that vocational programs provide and so creating a building and creating an environment where the building itself is a part of the education. you know, you're creating ways of accessing the solar or accessing the electrical equipment in a safe manner, of course. But that really becomes, you know, where students are able to see sort of the direct inputs and outputs. And then learn from that as well. And then I think finally, something that I'm really interested in and just understanding from my peers on the group and from you all is just the landscape for renewable energy, for storage, the financing landscape is difficult and it is ever evolving. And so understanding sort of as those goals are being put together, what steps can the city take? What steps is this group able to take to maybe make some financial decisions that can lock in future benefits, whether that's, we call it safe harboring in the solar world, but what are steps that within the broader law and regulation that can be taken now or in the very near future such that the benefits are being realized from an overall cost perspective down the road. I'll leave it there.
[Matt Rice]: And I think it's a great point. I think just also thinking about the fact that our utilities are going to be one of our critical stakeholders in this entire equation that we're putting together as well. So they will be brought into the conversation at a certain point if we can get them here as part of one of our advisory team meetings. That may be ideal moving forward just so they can be current to everyone's thoughts as we go.
[SPEAKER_18]: And I don't know if I had to guess, I'm sure someone on this call could potentially check me, but I would imagine that the high school was probably one of the larger loads in Medford. And so having, you know, there is some power in that, you know, maybe pun intended, with the ability to, you know, work with utility in ways that are advantageous to the school and to the students.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Excellent. All right. I think it is Audrey that is next.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_22]: I, um, so I said before kind of my goals, but I was just taking notes as people were talking, which is kind of adding into my, um, my thoughts about goals. So I think being an environmental science teacher for so long, um, I think one of the most frustrating things that I've seen is when smaller decisions are not taking the bigger picture into account. So what I mean by that is taking the bigger picture of how not just the building, but Medford as a whole functions. So we make smaller decisions about waste management, not understanding that, for example, the trash gets burned, not go to a dumpster. And so it's great if you want to, for example, use compostable materials, 100% behind that. But if they're just getting burned and not actually being used for the design, do you know what I'm trying to say? I'm just giving that as an example. I have tried for many years to try different initiatives. in that building, some with success and some with not, for various reasons. No blame anywhere. I think water is a big issue. I work closely with the MWRA. So I think that I have a lot of thoughts about water, that we have some of the best water in the country. So making sure that that, you know, It's hard for me because so my floor in three. I'm on the third floor of the building was redone about 11 years ago. And so I have the newer section. And so I'm a little. I've learned a lot through that process and Also, maybe a little like for lack of better word gun shy about certain things because we you know we got millions of dollars, and they put in a lot of things that are that are not working. And it's frustrating right to see when you have people, you know, putting all this money and this effort into something and then it doesn't work. I'll say probably the biggest vice of that building is the roof. Over my tenure, I've seen that roof repaired at least four times, and we still have leaks coming through, even in the new section. So that's just another example of how it's like, you know, I'm not an engineer, so I don't know how to fix it, but it's like, I'd love to finally get stuff like that resolved. As far as energy efficiency, yeah, that building is not, even in my section, there's issues even, again, it's that old, it's only 10, 11 years old, but the HVAC doesn't work right. So it's certainly frustrating because I know it's costing money. You know what I mean? And we try to vocalize on that. And so, you know, as far as going back to the gas issue, I don't think it's realistic not to have some sort of gas line going to the school. Not just for science labs, but I'm specifically thinking of the culinary department and the vocational school. I mean, I know where we're at with fossil fuels, but It's not realistic to say that we're not going to use them at all. And I don't think we need to put in a line for heating the building. But I do think that we're never going to 100% get away from them in certain aspects. And so I know some of the vocational school is going to need that. So my question would be not to answer now, but is there a way that we could have access to that line, the natural gas line, for certain things and not just heating? I don't know if that's a possibility. Again, I don't know the engineering side of it. And just also to address the other thing about the VOC, the VOC and the high school is integrated for classroom learning, just so you guys know that if you weren't aware. So we'd already have that in place. And of course, my other thing too is I'm a big proponent of the Fells. My colleague and I, Ms. Carnabucci, who teaches environmental science, we do do outdoor learning. We take our classes outside in the Fells. We utilize that space. So being able to continue to utilize that space. I've heard that there's plans to try to cut into the Fells. which personally I'm not in favor of that being on the ecology side, but having access to it obviously is still important, but I'd love to bring more green in the building. because there's so much data about health and mental health. And just having green space within a building, I feel, would make a huge impact. And a green roof and just things like that. So I'm kind of all over the place, but those are just my initial thoughts on everything.
[Matt Rice]: Those are excellent. No, thank you. And I think you're absolutely right that this is the time that we're just going to be framing questions we're not answering. I will just say really quickly that there are no plans to do anything yet. I know there's a lot of rumors out there that we're going to be doing this or going to be doing that. We are just at the beginning of the process. And really, this is this and the other advisory team meetings, as well as all the other discussions going on right now. they are forming what that path forward is going to be. So there is no plan out there that we're following just yet. We're very much at the formative stage. All right. Jenny.
[SPEAKER_15]: Yep, Jenny, sorry.
[Jenny Graham]: Hi there. When I think about this space, I'm just so interested to learn from everybody who is on this call who lives in Medford and is so talented and qualified in this space. So I don't have a whole lot to say about this topic except as the chair to try to attend as much of these meetings as possible and understand what are the things available to us as a community when we talk about energy efficiency, an MEP and what MEP even stands for, because this isn't the world I live in. But I'm just really curious and interested in what you all have to say so that we can make good decisions that don't repeat some of the things Medford is really well known for, like doing things on the cheap and then having buildings that don't work. That's not the kind of process I want to lead, and so I'm super excited that all of you are willing to help us do better.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Jenny, I think you can choose also who you want to give your extra time to. Chris.
[Jenny Graham]: Somebody more qualified than me.
[SPEAKER_29]: Hello. So I'm Chris Hogan. I build capital projects for a living, representing the owner. This is a really exciting project and I'm happy to be part of it. My perspective is that projects of this scale are most successful when they focus on simplicity. The goals that the financing appear to require all the LEED certifications are awfully impressive. If that's a building that gets delivered as a baseline, that's going to be a very exciting facility. I'm here to help offer the perspective of trying to keep it simple and share any other experience I've had on projects like this. And it's just, it's so exciting for the community to think about what this will bring. And I'm just glad to be a part of it.
[Matt Rice]: So that's it. Great. I appreciate that perspective on things.
[Adam Hurtubise]: All right. Elizabeth.
[SPEAKER_24]: Thank you. Hi again. So I know from experience that we're in very good hands with SMMA on the team and also having someone from HMFH on this committee, which gives me confidence that there are some other things we can take for granted. I also take for granted things like light shelves and so on, daylighting. My strength is really in putting pieces together. So I think we have so much expertise on this committee and on the building committee that I don't need to reiterate things that others have already said, but. When I'm talking about pieces, I mean things like it's all very well and good to pick certain types of very efficient systems, but if they're poorly installed or the design does not accommodate acoustics appropriately, it's going to mess up the background sound in classrooms. I know that daylighting is considered to be extremely important and I'm not saying that it's not but acoustics actually makes the bigger difference for students. So that's extremely important when we're talking about ducted systems and the walls and any anything like that. There's also going to be a need for extra ventilation because we have all of the CTE programs, of course, a large kitchen. We also have, we'll have janitor closets and so on. And so those systems tend to add to noise, but also energy use, they're extremely important though. So we're going to have to consider those. Ceiling heights makes a big difference. I could take you to, I'd love you to tour the McGlynn and see how the really high ceiling in the choral room slash green room behind the theater has fans at the very top that have never been cleaned and they're absolutely disgusting and that's just a horrifying thing in a school in my opinion. So we need to think about all these other little pieces, maybe even not so little. I know from talking to Principal Fallon that CTE is planning to expand into HVAC, so that's important. Someone mentioned that there will be gas use in the building because of CTE, so I think that's another example of where those students are going to have gas-fueled systems in their curriculum, I'm sure. I will reiterate that Mass Save is important to go for. I also want to raise the point that it's extremely important that facility staff are involved in the design and the decision-making, and we need to consider maintenance and monitoring of all the systems long-term and what that means in terms of actual energy efficiency once the building is occupied. So thank you. Oh, one final thing. For those of us who aren't steeped in lead, could we get a primer at some point as to what, like, the key, the highlights are that we need to know? That would be really helpful. Thank you. Yes.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, no, I think we'll be happy to do that moving forward. And those are exactly the types of things that we want to hear at this. If there's a desire for additional information at our next meeting, we can come with that as part of the presentation. So for folks that have already spoken and have things that are on their mind, you can feel free to submit those requests moving forward as well as written comments. And we can take those in and as we format the next meeting, be responsive to them. And I'll just mention really quickly that you're completely in alignment in terms of making sure that the facilities staff from the district as well as the building are included. I know Ken is carrying a little bit of that water here in terms of that representation, but there's many others besides him as well that are going to be included in the conversation moving forward. Let me just jump back to our list. Ken, I think that was maybe a good segue into you, actually. I did not plan that.
[Kenneth Lord]: Thanks. So I've been in public education for over 30 years, and I've been through seven in whole or in part projects. So I'm really keenly interested in the outcomes of the projects. I've seen stuff and projects go well and not go so well. And then five, 10 years later in the project that does not realize what we thought we were going to get. So that's incredibly important to me that we're focusing on those outcomes. I know firsthand what difference it makes in a classroom when it's properly conditioned and proper lighting and proper environment. and all of that going from what doesn't work before a project and what does work after a project. So those are all really important to me as far as outcomes. I'm also really interested in projecting the energy costs because those end up being budget drivers in future years and making sure we're trying to reduce our energy costs as much as possible to try to alleviate the squeeze on the budgets that I see and have experienced. And I'm also very interested in the commissioning process that goes after the fact. making sure it works as designed, and that we repeat that commissioning process in the future to making sure things that start to fall apart, get brought back into alignment, making sure our maintenance staff is fully trained and capable of maintaining this, because if we can't keep it going for long-term, for 50 years, it's just not worth doing it. So that's kind of what my interests and interests are.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Yeah, I've heard several references to commissioning, so we'll definitely dive in there, not just MEP systems commissioning, but I think envelope commissioning is certainly something that has come up with a topic that we're going to want to talk through and understand.
[SPEAKER_14]: All right.
[Matt Rice]: So Sarah, Sarah was not on previously, but I'm not sure if she has joined. No, she said that she could not make it. So then we'll jump to Nicole. Home was not on. It's not here either. Yep. OK. So we'll switch over to Jessica.
[Jessica Parks]: I mean, I think everyone has said a lot of really great things. Energy, incentives, embodied carbon are all really important to me. Another one is thinking about siting, thinking about some of our more passive approaches to energy and sustainability as well for a building, not relying fully on the systems to do the work, but the building as well. But really, of kind of what I see day to day is more how the occupants interact with the building. And, you know, you can build the most sustainable building in the world, but if the occupants don't understand how it operates, if the facilities team doesn't understand how it operates, it's all for naught. And so it's really understanding what that building is supposed to do, how it should operate, and, you know, put a sweater on, you know, change set points, things like that. Just all of the education that goes around once it's built, you know, signage, occupant engagement strategies, you know, both what Austin talked about learning and kind of using it as, you know, building as a classroom, but also just kind of more passive occupant engagement strategies as well. And then on top of commissioning, retro-commissioning, re-commissioning, but also fault detection systems can be really, really useful in a building to help flag issues on a regular basis and make sure that your building systems are staying in line. So that's kind of my focus.
[SPEAKER_15]: Excellent. All right. Um, Brenda, I think you're up next.
[Brenda Pike]: Great. So, um, yeah, a lot has already been said, but I would like to just reiterate a little bit of it. Um, I'd love to see the building be as close to net zero as possible. Right. So no fossil systems, ground source, heat pump, solar, a tight building envelope, like passive house. Um, I second Sonny's interest in embodied carbon. Um, And I also want to mention when we're thinking about wiring for electric vehicle charging stations, we want to include wiring for future electric school buses. And I also want to make sure we're considering indoor air quality. I know we've mentioned that there are lead points there that we're going to be pursuing. And then also, Reducing impermeable surfaces, Medford has a green score for large buildings. And so we just want to make sure that we're exceeding that green score and considering the fact that that building has had flooding in the past, which is surprising for its location.
[Matt Rice]: The school bus charging is definitely something to think about in terms of the loads that are driven there and sort of the potential opportunities that it presents as well as sort of the site requirements that would come into play there in terms of housing those. So I think that's a great topic to unpack a little bit more as we move forward as well.
[Brenda Pike]: I want to mention we have a draft bus electrification plan Um, that has looked at what the load, the potential loads for that would be. So we can make sure that you receive that. So you can factor that in.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Fantastic. Yeah, thank you. All right, Luke.
[Luke Preisner]: Oh, there we go. All right, so yes, I've got 30 panels on my roof. I've got two electrified vehicles. I've been a residential adopter for the last decade. There's pros and cons. The school's a big project. There's going to be a Goldilocks zone for us, but too much of one thing or too little of another. is going to leave us with buyer's remorse. So I've kind of done a lot of research. I've looked at a lot of materials from neighboring high school projects. And, you know, I'm a practical person, ultimately. And I know there's been some discussion about Gas lines to the high school. I wasn't aware of the CTE need, but certainly that's a very strong driver. Another one is if, you know, we're all electric and we want to avoid a frozen pipe disaster in the future, it might be wise to have a gas fired emergency generator somewhere on the property. Things I'd like to see in terms of our planning. Yeah, I want to see technical products that can lead to good recommendations that ultimately generate wise decisions. So kind of supporting elements there would be, I'd like to see a survey of mechanical electrical plumbing systems that are in place in each of our surrounding schools, as well as a survey of their achievement levels for LEED. I know gold is a target, platinum is a target, but sometimes silver is what happens. Wakefield is one example of that. And there's reasons for that, costs, site suitability. I'm not an expert, but I can certainly read the articles and the reports. So I'd like to get a canvas of the surrounding schools just to understand what our neighbors have achieved. I came across a very good, simple pro and con comparison in Somerville's preferred schematic report. I thought it was actually very good in just summarizing various factors, their costs, their benefits, some contextual notes. I'd like to have something like that prepared for our project. It would help with decision making. I do want to point out that I'm very optimistic with carbon embodiment on our project. I think we can do really well with it. Reason being, the gym is enormous. It's almost a field house. The pool is enormous. The CTE spaces are enormous. The science wing, which is only 10 to 15 years old, those are large spaces that we may potentially succeed in renovating, modernizing, and retaining, and avoiding the demolition, which I think will have benefit for our carbon embodiment score. So that's something I'd like to understand better, what those opportunities are as we move forward. One area that I haven't found a lot of information on that I'd like to see, just a personal request, is the energy needs of the pool. That is not something I understand well. But I would hope that we could estimate it if it's not something that could be directly measured. I know the systems in the high school are shared. There's four mechanical rooms. And I'm not familiar with how the routing of their outputs occur throughout the building. So I'd like to understand how much it costs to keep that pool going. It's an important community asset and I certainly support retaining it, but understanding what it means is important. I'd also like to see a break-even chart that looks at total sunk costs and involves industry consensus assessments of future operational costs so that we can get a good estimate for our break-even. We'll have concepts, I think. We'll down-select to some concepts and ultimately pick one. And I'd like analysis to help drive that. And then the very last thing before I sort of conclude is I would like to see an assessment of a tall, a vertically tall new build cited on the current grass practice fields, a new build structure that would connect to a renovated, modernized gym, science wing, pool, and CTE spaces, you can form an L. In the event, an approach like that is viable for our site. I know we're going to look at a lot of different concepts. I'm looking at other school projects upwards of 12, 16. A lot of different things are going to get looked at. And so, you know, I just wanted to make a plug for that particular one. Oh, and then very last thing, actually. So I do have one more thing. There's a very good report the MSBA put out. It involves a lot of technical jargon, but it also presents costs. And what they did is they had a company conduct a study, and I'm trying to remember the name of the company, but they put out a report in May that assessed the cost of retrofitting existing schools, so elementary, middle, and high schools, with all electric systems, so all electric HVAC systems. And so we have a comparison for ground source, air source, And then variations of those, there's hybrid combinations that are possible. And so I came across this report. I found it to be informative. And so I just wanted to share that with the committee. It's a good one to read if you haven't come across it yet. It's available on the MSBA site, but I think if you just Google MSBA heat pump study, it'll come up. And that's it for me.
[Matt Rice]: Thanks. Great. Thank you. There's a lot there. And for those keeping score, yes, I did let Luke go a little bit longer. But I think there's enough time in terms of the overall allotment budget there. And certainly, pools are really a fascinating thing when it comes to energy use as well. There's a lot that we have done and that we can do and think about when we're going there. So that'll be an interesting subject there.
[Adam Hurtubise]: All right. So Chris, I think you are up.
[koyFP0ugilA_SPEAKER_05]: One of the being like a lifelong method resident and stuff like that. I want to be like, proud of this project. I want people to understand what we're doing. I want everybody to kind of be. believe that we're putting out the best thing forward and everything like that. I think that's a huge thing. You will always hear in MedFed that this doesn't work, or that doesn't work, but I feel like people are coming at this high school as, okay, let's change this thought process, let's make something that works. You always hear of the school systems, this is broken in a school, this is wrong, or Even people saying it today, this roof leaks, that roof, you know, let's make something that can be maintained, that is sustainable, that people can actually use, that the people that are going to be running the school actually understand, it's not too complex and overboard for them. The things that are able to be fixed and repaired, that's the biggest thing that we kind of deal with. Things get designed and the maintenance of it is near impossible. It just leads to a bunch of different issues. The electrification is a big thing. Most of my last couple of jobs have been with the big buildings in Boston and Cambridge and Austin right now. The utility companies can't get the power. I've literally been working on a job for two and a half years. We're turning over the building next week. We got permanent power two weeks ago, and this is a full lab building for Harvard. So Harvard doesn't have the pull to get the power companies to get everything. A whole new infrastructure had to be brought in, and people gotta understand that. electrification is a big thing. The utility companies, it is a massive undertaking for them and a massive upfront cost for them to do. And so I think that's a huge thing we got to understand is what are they going to need? Where is this power coming from? Where is the substations and all this work that's going to be leading you know up this right down these main streets and up into there and like what what's that kind of kind of effect um i think is a huge thing that doesn't get over doesn't maybe get thought of enough um and we need to bring them in early on if this is the route that we're going to
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, thank you. I don't think we can stress that enough. We're definitely going to get going with them as soon as we can, because the ability for the grid to support the building is something it's a huge topic.
[Paul Ruseau]: All right, Paul. Thank you going later is a blessing and curse because it's like, I want to respond to things and 2nd them all, but I won't make this go on forever. I do really. want us to consider a passive building if possible. I was reading that if you do passive, lead is like, just happens. And passive is like, is the outcome space versus lead, which is like the steps and the things that you said you would do and you did them, but that doesn't necessarily, isn't the same as what's it like when it's running. So I don't know enough about those things other than to say that I am interested in this passive building, although I've heard also that that does sometimes limit the amount of light, not a windows you can have. So I don't I don't know. You know, some of these buildings, I think, North and over and over. I always forget which one it is where it's like, it looks like a mall. It's like the giant windows that are like, 3 stories tall. Maybe those can be made to be as efficient as a wall. I don't know. I have a human factors degree and I really want to make sure we don't have doors that have handles when you push and basic stuff like that that still gets built every day in buildings across the world. And it's so obnoxious. And it's obnoxious every single time every user uses those things where the affordances are wrong. And we're all so accustomed to being like, oh, I'm so stupid. I pulled when I should have pushed. It's not us. It's never us. It's always the mistakes that are made there. And those, you know, replacing doors as we know from having to do some at the schools lately, are so expensive. You don't go in and go, you know, it's a pain, but it'll cost you $10,000 to replace it so that it's not a pain for the next 50 years. So let's do some of that stuff first, right? These are not things that are hard to get right, but you have to know that you have to get them right. I would really like that other article that Luke mentioned earlier, not the one that was linked. I can't remember what it was about. I think a comparison of the different options. So Luke, if you could send that to us, I'd greatly appreciate that. Chris mentioned the power companies, which I'm glad Chris brought that up because we bought all electric. We were going to convert I think all of our schools other than the high school to, I have it in my kitchen and I can't remember the names, kind of the stoves. What's the word?
[Unidentified]: Induction.
[Paul Ruseau]: Induction, thank you. We had induction, we had it delivered and then the grid couldn't handle it. And it was going to be like $400,000 for National Grid to do just one building or something. So we sent them all back and had to buy brand new gas equipment that will last for a couple of decades. So there's no chance of not emitting gas in those buildings for quite a long time. They're not home stoves. These are very expensive pieces of equipment. So I think That power issue, I was super glad to hear about the school bus electric infrastructure. Yes, yes, yes, because I know Worcester has been bringing their busing in-house. I don't think they've done the whole thing yet. And I always assume that if you do in-house busing, it's more expensive. And the actual answer is it is way cheaper. You can hire employees because you give them benefits and they're in a union and you can use them at other hours for other things. It's actually cheaper, but you've got to have a place to do it and you've got to have the infrastructure, both mechanically, but also from a management perspective to be able to do that. I don't think we have any of that right now, but I would like us to not feel ready and then need to give National Grid and whatever millions and millions of dollars so that we could even start the project. I hope I'm not going too long. I also did want to say something about costs, because I know I'm always on one end of costs, and I'm sure it looks like I just want to spend all the money Medford taxpayers have ever had and will ever have. Like, let's just spend it all on schools. And that's not the case. But at least in my experience, things are not going to get cheaper. just don't. And so, you know, we could have built this whole high school without MSBA seven years ago for less than we're going to build it now. So any delays about things that we want is in my mind not fiscally responsible because it will always cost more. And this is, I've been in the school committee for eight years. There has never been a year when we had enough money, not even close. And I don't predict in my lifetime that the answer is there will be a year where we have enough money. That's just not how municipal finance works. So we're never going to have enough money in the future. So I want us to make sure that this project is, sustainability has so many meanings, but is so maintainable. We don't necessarily have the maintenance staff that could do maintenance on a new building. We will have to increase our maintenance department. We will have to definitely increase our IT department. So we're going to add I don't know how many, but we're going to add numerous additional employees to operate this building. And that's on top of what will certainly be massive electric bills compared to what we have now. I electrified my home and I did it knowing full well that the electric bills were going to cause literal panic. And they're brutal. I mean, I hit $950 a month in the winter. For my condo, I have two EVs, so it's a little unfair to compare. So I want us to know that, to remember that everything gets more expensive as time goes on. There's never going to be a shortage of things to spend our municipal dollars on, so it seems to me the cheapest option is to do everything we want now, because we're not going to be able to come back and say, let's add another wing when we're still paying down the debt exclusions. So I'll stop. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Paul. Yeah, I think cost is obviously at the core of this project. And it's that the lenses of initial first cost, as well as lifecycle costs that we're going to look at, as well as operating costs, all those things need to be considered as we move forward. All right. And I think, Nathan, you are up last.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's been some great feedback from everyone, so I probably won't have anything new to say, but I'll just echo the things that are important to me. I think when I think about building spaces, I think this is going to be a school first and not a sustainable building first, right? So we have to think about the reliability of it to function as a school. And so when we're making decisions, thinking about how do we keep this functional, Reliable so that we don't get a random 0 degree day and the school can't function because the systems weren't designed to operate at 0 degrees. So, I think, you know, the technologies are out there, the trade offs are out there. I think it's all going to be part of the design process to make sure we have that. But making sure that we're creating a reliable environment for students and the staff. I also kind of in the world, I. operated in, I think I always did not realize how important envelope is to creating a sustainable building. I think a lot of times we think about just, hey, let's have the most sustainable equipment and that type of approach. But really building really tight envelopes, having them operate in a tight way. There's a building I was recently involved in that we built a passive house. And then you walk by it and see the windows open. And that just completely defeats the purpose of making these super efficient walls. And so not only is it built to that standard, but how is it built in a way that the people who operate it can kind of make sure it actually performs that way. And that's really challenging when you then have to kind of educate a much broader community around the right way to operate the building. And I think the other thing I think a lot of us here are just taxpayers, right? There'll be a sale that needs to happen to the broader Medford community that I'm sure we'll all probably be advocates for. And, you know, I recently read in the news that Lexington just built a high school for 600 million dollars. And I just was like, I didn't realize that was a number you could build a school for. So I'm not sure if that's a number that's going to be a world that we'll have to deal with, but just, you know, feeling that we can defend the decisions that are made of like, yes, this is a lean approach to building a school. That's going to give us what we need, but it's not over the top. The specialized stretch code is amazing. Um, yeah, love it. 700 million, even better. Um, And so I think the specialized stretch code is like, if we can hit that, and which I think obviously we have to, that is success. And so to feel like we have to go above and beyond that, I would not advocate there. Because I think Massachusetts has done a great job of putting out really aggressive standards that are really hard to meet in the world we live in today. And so if we can achieve those, then I would be super happy. But yeah, just kind of how do we advocate to the community that Whatever the end up ultimate price tag is, it was done in a way that, you know, this is going to be the best fit for this community. That's all I have.
[Matt Rice]: All right. Again, great in terms of the diversity of topics that we've covered here. And if we see any gaps after we have a chance to go back and formulate all of these topics, and we will be looking for synergies, organizing them into topics that we'll run through at the following meeting, we'll definitely be sharing those. Let me pull my screen up just one more time.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Find the right one. I think we are here.
[Matt Rice]: Everyone can see that this point. Is that a yes? I see a couple of that. Okay. So again, we're going to get back together right after the new year in the middle of January to have some further discussion. That second meeting that we have will involve a little bit more presentation of material in response to some of the topics and the questions, all of the topics. and questions that were presented today, as well as some supplemental ones. These are some of the topics. And I think as you read through this list, you're going to see almost everything that we have discussed here. So not to say that this is an exhaustive list, but this is some of the things that we would cover, even if we had not heard about them. But I think it speaks to the breadth and sort of knowledge of this group that we have touched on all of these as we've gone through. And again, we'll look at whether or not this next meeting on the 15th wants to be remote or hybrid. I certainly understand the convenience of an all remote meeting and we value that especially trying to get this activity in before the holiday time and certainly appreciate everyone's time given sort of the premium of various competing interests at this time of year. But there's also something wonderful about being together in person to be able to sort of have these conversations. So whether or not we do fully remote or we do hybrid, we'll sort that out as we go forward. But again, just really appreciate everyone's time today and your thoughts and really look forward to the conversations to come in the subsequent meetings. So thank you to everybody. Bye y'all. All right. See you in a few minutes. Unless you're staying on for the next meeting, you're welcome to hang around, obviously. Bye, everyone. Thanks for hosting.
[Martine Dion]: Bye. Bye. Nice meeting you all. Bye. Bye, everyone.
[Matt Rice]: Hello, everyone that is joining us. We will get going about 535 or so, just to give everyone a chance to hop in. But I definitely appreciate folks jumping on early. Some of us has already been hanging around here in this virtual room for an hour and a half. So we're going to be testing our endurance to keep going for another hour and a half. But definitely looking forward to it. You know, Ken, are you just keeping the stream going as well from one meeting to the next?
[Kenneth Lord]: Yes. If I stop and start the recording, it still stitches it together anyway, so.
[Matt Rice]: Okay. Better not to fight the system.
[Kenneth Lord]: No.
[Matt Rice]: I had to just unplug my computer and move it around to the other side of the table because lo and behold, the little plug that was in the middle of the conference table had no power to it. So. The wall is much better in this regard. I do feel like it is my responsibility to break up the awkward silence at the beginning of these meetings, however. Because for anyone.
[Jenny Graham]: Sorry, I can help you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I am going to have to be mobile for part of this meeting with taking my son to a lesson. And so I'll have it. I assume there's not going to be a ton of swearing. So if it's playing over the car, audio should be.
[Paul Ruseau]: To be fine, so hopefully we are.
[Matt Rice]: I can't speak for Ken.
[Jenny Graham]: I don't know through the last 1 should be fine.
[SPEAKER_15]: Not that he hasn't created to drop the phone. 2.
[Matt Rice]: Trying to recall if this was the meeting that someone said that they were only available to start for a certain portion of at the beginning, in which case I might allow them to sort of jump out alphabetical order to be able to share some thoughts if they're around. So if that is anybody that is logged in right now, feel free to chime in and I will adapt things as we're running through the list. Hello to everyone that is joining us. We are going to give everyone about five minutes just to make sure that we have enough time to log on. But if anyone wants to tell jokes in the meantime, please feel free. Open floor. I see a lot of people. Yeah, go ahead, Paul.
[Paul Ruseau]: It's a very revealing request. I don't know that I'm not a comedian, so no way.
[Matt Rice]: Non-joke comments are also welcome.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the first rule is you have to know your audience, so until we're all a little more familiar.
[Matt Rice]: We need to get through the first meeting first before people are going to feel comfortable with that. I think there's probably some wisdom there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Jenny, are you in on all the committee meetings then?
[Jenny Graham]: I'm trying to sit in on all of these advisory committees just to, I'm like, making my own personal notes about who to call when I have questions about certain things. So I'm just like, I'm taking it all in. I have no particular expertise in any of these spaces, but. I want to be able to like pluck your brains for important things as those decisions come up so that there's more people who can help. So more in like reconnaissance mode, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel radically underqualified for this committee, so that's good to hear.
[Matt Rice]: This means that you're an aspirational participant, and we do appreciate that perspective on things.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yeah, I would say no one is underqualified. We need all perspectives are needed and welcomed.
[Jenny Graham]: I'm so fascinated that every time we have to pick people to do these things, there's so many people in Medford with such interesting qualifications. It's stunning, actually. We just did a meeting about sustainability, and every person that we selected Basically works on schools or buildings in sustainability and does carbon neutral things and passive house. And literally every buzzword you could think about in the space, somebody there was a leading expert in that thing. So it's really fascinating to especially like as a parent, like you get to know people as parents and like you forget that they have like actual professional work life outside of like shuttling kids around to lessons. And so it's always so like interesting and fascinating to like listen to what people's like real expertise is and like how they could put that to work. So yeah, it's pretty, that's like the fun part of this for sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: like, that's, that's been a consistent sort of side effect, but coming with entering the educational community as a parent is like you, especially in Medford, we seem to have like a really wonderful cross section of professions and one professional world that intersect. Cool.
[Matt Rice]: All right, I think that's actually a great segue into us getting going. So I am going to try to find the right screen window to share. We will get going with things. All right, so hopefully everyone is here today for our exterior and interior design advisory team meeting for the Medford High School project because that is what we're going to be talking about. Just a quick orientation to what the discussion is going to be today. We're going to go through some general introductions, both of our team, as well as all of the Medford team members on the advisory team. just that we can all get to know each other a little bit. Those will be sort of brief and then we'll have another opportunity later for everyone to get into more description of your individual goals, priority goals and aspirations, or the goals of whatever group, department, commission you might represent. And then we'll talk a little bit about next steps and sort of how These advisory team meetings fit into the larger context of the project and really sort of what these meetings are. So before we get into that, before we sort of describe the process a bit, we do want to start with the introductions. We'll start with our team, and I'm going to apologize again to our OPM team at left field that we won't get some headshots in for you, but we'll let them introduce themselves, and then we'll shift over to the Medford team. Just to start off, my name is Matt Rice. I am an architect, and I am the principal in charge for SMMA for the project. Helen Fantini, our project manager, she is traveling today, so she's not going to be joining us, but she is a key member of our team. But I'll pass it over to Michael next.
[SPEAKER_11]: Good evening, everybody. Michael Pardick. I'm an architect and director of design at SMMA. All right. And Lucas?
[SPEAKER_13]: All right, good evening. Lucas Carrier, architectural designer at SMMA. And Sarah?
[SPEAKER_26]: Hi, everybody. I'm Sarah Long. I'm a senior interior designer with SMMA and also a previous Medford resident.
[Matt Rice]: You were sad to leave, right?
[SPEAKER_26]: I know. Still touchy. But yes, so very excited to be a part of this process.
[Matt Rice]: All right, and Suela?
[SPEAKER_34]: Hi, everyone. I'm Sohla Janka. I'm an architectural designer at SMMA. Looking forward to the discussion.
[Matt Rice]: All right. And we're going to go through the Leftfield team now. Matt, do you want to start things off?
[Luke Preisner]: Sure.
[Matt Gulino]: Hello, everyone. My name is Matt Galino. I'm one of the project managers for Leftfield, who is your owner's project manager. So we'll be with you for the duration of this project. Also here, I'll hand it off to Jennifer Carlson.
[SPEAKER_25]: Hi, I'm Jen Carlson. I am the project director with left field.
[Matt Gulino]: And I believe that it I think Adele had to jump off for this meeting. So just the two of us from from left field right now.
[Matt Rice]: I appreciate that. And I appreciate all of our team as well, just having their cameras on for the introduction when we go on later. So just a request that if folks are online, unless you're driving or you're sort of on route somewhere and safety is a concern, certainly appreciate just being able to get to see everyone and know everyone as part of this introductory effort. So let me advance the slide to the Medford team. And I am going to apologize in advance, because I am not going to try and butcher that first name. And I promise I will find a way to internalize this moving forward. But I'm going to let the first name on that list go first and tell me how to pronounce your name. Unless, as did happen at the last meeting, I think as well, we had that individual not here. So that is, oh.
[Suzanne Galusi]: This is one of our students.
[Matt Rice]: Oh, OK. Are they on right now or?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I don't think I see her on, but I think we could, the principal's on. I think between the principal and myself, we can make sure we follow up.
[Matt Rice]: OK, that is great. And I'll also just use this as an opportunity to say everyone will get a certain amount of time, depending on the number of attendees that we have here, to introduce yourself and do some priority goals later. For anyone that I interrupt as part of the process, because the time has run out, We certainly welcome any written comments to be submitted to us moving forward. So that could be another engagement option for anyone that isn't able to be here. And we can make sure that that is communicated out to the group. So I'm going to shift next then to Libby, who I did see. She just wanted to do a quick introductions here.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I thought I saw Libby.
[Matt Rice]: All right, I will circle back if there's AV issues or someone sees her hop on. She is here.
[Libby Brown]: Are you looking for me?
[Matt Rice]: Yeah.
[Libby Brown]: Can you hear me?
[Matt Gulino]: Yeah. I can't hear you, yes. Sorry.
[Libby Brown]: I realized my mic wasn't working and I clicked something and it kicked me out of the Zoom. So sorry about that. No problem. So I'm introducing myself, I assume?
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, if you could just introduce yourself and just give a quick connection to the project and sort of what it means to you. We'll have more time later.
[Libby Brown]: Yeah, I'm Libby Brown. I am a member of the building committee, and I'm a Medford resident, two kids in the schools, and I'm also an architect. So a lot of different angles. I come at this project with some care and excitement.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. All right, Alex.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, can everyone hear me now?
[SPEAKER_15]: We can, yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: Great. So my name is Alex Westcoff. Like Libby, I'm an architect. with BH plus A in Boston, 45 person firm. I'm also a parent of a Metro Public School student, she's in the eighth grade at the Andrews, and that's me.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you. All right, Marta.
[Marta Cabral]: Hi, I'm Marta Cabral. I'm the principal here at the high school. This is my third year here, and I'm really excited to be part of this project to bring teaching and learning to the next level in a new space for our Medford students.
[Matt Rice]: Fantastic. I'll try with this one. I may butcher it, or go ahead so that I don't do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all right. My background is in architecture. I also have two young children that hopefully will be some of the first students to join this building. Yeah, very happy to be here.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. All right, Chloe.
[SPEAKER_37]: Hi, I'm Chloe Darsalis, and I'm a student in Medford High School. I just wanted to be a part of this project because I want to make this space an exclusive space and community for teenagers alike, no matter race, gender, or anything that has to do with youth.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you so much for joining us, Chloe. We really do appreciate student voice. I think maybe above and beyond everyone is important in this, but certainly the primary users of the building are critical. So appreciate you here.
[SPEAKER_08]: Paul. Hi, Paul Ellis, lifelong Metro resident, probably entered the existing high school in its second year of existence back in 72 probably. So I've gone through the that the original high school when it first opened. I retired a few years ago from Fidelity Investments. I worked as a software and hardware quality assurance. I did that for 40 years before I retired. So first job was working, testing CAD CAM software way back when. My two children went through, one graduated in 2012, the other one graduated in 2016. So I kind of have a feel for pickup and drop-offs at the existing method high. So a lot of experience with that. And one was in the marching band. So I have an experience with them trying to store equipment and accessing rooms to do their practicing. And my other daughter, my daughter was in the orchestra and they kind of had the same experience of extracurricular and making sure that there's room for. So being a long time after resident, my goal is hopefully we get a school that lasts another 50 years like this one did, except maybe not the, as much concrete maybe on the outside, but I just want to throw my experience being here forever into the school.
[Matt Rice]: Really appreciate that perspective. Suzanne.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Okay, well, hi, nice to meet everybody. I'm Susan Galussi. I'm the interim superintendent. I have come a little bit full circle. I did grow up here in Medford. I went product of Medford Public Schools. My whole career has been here. I'm on my 29th year. So I was an educator for 15 years. I was part of when the new buildings opened and I taught over at the McGlynn for 11 years and then I moved into school leadership at the Brooks for eight years and moved up here to central office during COVID. So I definitely am extremely committed not only to the community but to this project to what it means for not only our Medford High School students and our staff, but also to the community at large as our flagship school. And, you know, we take a lot of pride in using our schools as community spaces. So really being able to have some input on what we want and hope for this building to look like and feel like as a community space is really exciting. I do want to kind of apologize ahead of time. I am slightly double booked tonight. I will be switching to my phone momentarily. I have the after school task force meeting at about six o'clock. So I'm not going to be able to stay for the whole thing. So I do apologize for having to duck out a little early.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, we'll see if we can, maybe if we get to that point and it's 555 and we're jumping into priority goals, we might give you that poll position in terms of going first. We'll see what we can do there.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: All right. Jenny.
[Jenny Graham]: Hey everyone, I'm Jenny Graham. I'm the chair of the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee and the vice chair of the school committee. I have two high school students this year. One is a junior Um, who is in a vocational program and the other is a freshman who I believe will be in a vocational program. Um, if the lottery goes his way. And I'm really excited to learn from all of you. There's four of these advisory committees, and I get to be on all of them. And my goal here, as I was mentioning earlier, is just to learn about the skills of our super talented community and understand from all of you the kinds of things that you're thinking about so that as we go forward and the pace of decision making sort of speeds up as it inevitably will, that we can call on you all to help us make good decisions about future forward building and navigate what's hard about that. So I think I'm really excited for this project, obviously, but also to hear from all of you.
[Matt Rice]: Great. Thank you, Brian. I think you're up next.
[Brian Hilliard]: Yeah. Can everybody hear me? We can. Excellent. Nice to see everybody. I'm pretty excited to be here as well. So I'm a parent, live in Medford. We have a son who's at the high school now. He's also in the vocational. world and really enjoying the CTE, so I'm a huge advocate for that. Also, I'm a member of the building committee, the school building committee, so I've been following this through for the length of it, and it's pretty exciting to see where we're headed. And probably least importantly, I'm also an architect, but I've got a history in a prior life of doing a lot of design work with public school building. So I also feel like this is a great place to be, to be on the other end of it. And again, like I said, super excited to see where we end up. And I know it's a long and rigorous process, but we've got a good team. So happy to be here. Great. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Din. Nope. Okay. I see Ken is shaking his head. I think just because he wants to go next.
[Kenneth Lord]: Yes, absolutely. I'm Ken Lord. I'm the chief operations officer of the Medford schools. I'm also a member of the school building committee. I'm in charge of facilities, technology, and security for the district.
[Matt Rice]: All right. Thank you, Ken. Nicole. All right. Again, as I said during the last meeting, it's not the end of the world if people are not here at the beginning, both because we can get feedback afterwards, but also give everybody a little bit more time as we get into talking about priority goals. So, Jen.
[SPEAKER_36]: Hi, I'm Jen Regano. I am a teacher at Medford High School. I've taught math there for 18 years now. I'm also a parent of a, my daughter graduated last year from Medford High and I have an eighth grader, a sixth grader and a fourth grader. So hopefully maybe getting into the new building. We'll see with my students, but certainly as a teacher, I will be using the building quite a bit.
[SPEAKER_15]: Excellent, thank you. Paul.
[Paul Ruseau]: All righty, Paul Rousseau. on the school building committee as a non-voting member. I'm my fourth term on the school committee and my kids, well, my daughter's a senior at Medford High and my son has graduated already. So it's way too late for my kids, but so I'm just beyond excited about this project and glad to see we're moving. So thank you all. And I want to reiterate something Jenny said earlier about like, and I text her sometimes while we're in these meetings and I'm like, can you believe these people live in Medford? Like, you know, it's like, I don't know. I feel like we're less connected to our neighbors than, well, we are in fact less connected to our neighbors, especially if you're not from here. And like the expertise that is just like, everywhere. It's shocking to me. And I feel really I grew up in rural New Hampshire. And I can tell you, this would not have been the experience if the members of my little tiny town had gotten together to do this work. So this is great stuff. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thanks, Paul. All right, Delia.
[SPEAKER_28]: I think Jesse was ahead of me. Did Jesse want to go or did he already on the list at least?
[Matt Rice]: Oh, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: I apologize.
[SPEAKER_28]: I don't want to skip the line.
[SPEAKER_04]: Jesse, go ahead. Thanks, Julia. Hi, I'm Jesse, a 15-year Medford resident. I have a freshman at the high school, a son, and a son in fifth grade at Brooks. We were starting off when Miss Galussi was at Brooks. I am an architect admirer. I made it almost a whole semester as a freshman in architecture, but wound up in a different area of the arts. I'm a professor at MassArt in Boston, teaching animation, but still really love design, love Medford, and have greatly enjoyed watching the town grow and getting to know my community through the schools and the families involved in the schools. And I'm honored to be able to be in any capacity a part of this project.
[Matt Rice]: Thanks so much, Jesse. Apologies there for jumping past you.
[SPEAKER_04]: No problem.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Delia, for redirecting me.
[SPEAKER_28]: All right. No worries, I can jump in. I'm Delia Wendell. Delia. No, yeah, that's fine. I'm an architect by training, and I teach now in faculty at MIT. And I think I know Soala, or at least I know of you. I teach in the urban studies and planning department, where my specialty is in community-led planning and design. and peace building. I'm very excited to be part of this. Oh, and I should say, I have a kindergartner who just started at Brooks. I have a vested interest here and an infant who has left me sleep deprived. So hopefully we'll take full advantage of the new high school building. I'm very excited to be here. Thanks for including me.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. And Eric.
[SPEAKER_10]: I was glad to hear this was alphabetical. Thank you. My name is Eric Zeckman. I have two children here in Medford. One is in fourth grade at the Brooks, and my daughter is in the kids corner at the high school. So we are dealing with a lot of the transportation issues that people have mentioned earlier. By trade, I'm in higher education. I've worked on the academic side of the house and in college athletics over at BC. And I'm just excited to participate and learn about what we're going to do. It's exciting. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Fantastic. Is there anyone on that I have not listed here that is participating? All right. That's a good sign. That means the process is working and that we figured out at least the signup process. So that's a great thing. So again, I'm going to give just a quick orientation here in terms of what we're doing. And really like what, what is this advisory team meeting that is going on that we're all participating in. And we know that there's a lot of meetings going on for the project right now in a lot of different areas in some cases it can be meeting, maybe meeting overload. But this thread of meetings is something that we found to be critically important and valuable in terms of really bringing together a diverse set of stakeholder voices from across the entire Bedford community. The challenge that we have when thinking about the design of the project is that there is all this expertise that exists in various corners, and we need to find a way, not just for us as the design team to hear those voices, But for the voices to hear themselves, right, there's as much to be gained from all of you listening to your varied perspectives and being able to dialogue on those types of things, because that's really what's going to allow us to build consensus support for the project moving forward. So while the collection of the advisory team meetings is intended to sort of push forward generally the design process, We're also getting sort of this critical interchange and exchange of ideas as we move forward. So this particular advisory team, exterior-interior design, is really part of a collection of four different advisory team threads that are going to be carried out over the course of the beginning of the project here. And it's important to note that these are not individual silos of discussion. The Venn diagram that you see on the screen is really intentional because these are not discrete, isolated topics that we're going to be reviewing. There is very much, when we talk about exterior and interior design, whether we're talking about educational planning, site safety, security, sustainability, all these things are connected, right? But at the same time, if we just sort of open up the entire playbook and say we're just going to be talking about all of it, we're really not going to be able to have deep, substantive conversations. So what this allows us to do is really give space to each individual topic. And then we actually do have a lot of overlapping participation from various members which will help to bring that connectivity. But eventually what we're going to produce from this course of meetings from every individual advisory team meeting is a set of recommendations that's going to get forwarded to the full building committee for approval incorporation to the project. So that's the way that this mechanism is going to work. In terms of pulling everyone's voices together. We're going to listen to you today, and we're going to have some dialogue on each of the topics, and really try to find some common ground as we move forward. overall objective for this particular advisory team is really thinking about both exterior design considerations as well as interior design considerations, right? And it's in some ways design is a nebulous topic, right? It covers a lot of different aspects in terms of when people mention it and what we're thinking about. And that's really maybe the beauty of it, right, that it touches on so many different aspects of how we conceive of a project. I think specifically the thoughts here are going to revolve around both materiality and aesthetics, but also in terms of space. So when we think about those aspects, we'd love to have people sort of guided in those directions. Certainly, if there's something that's outside those guardrails that you want, you just feel compelled to talk about, we're not going to restrict that type of conversation. But we just want to let everyone know sort of generally what, where we're aiming to sort of collect feedback from this team. And then just in terms of overall process, we do have a series of four different meetings that we are going to be engaging with each of the teams. The second one, which is really our review and respond meeting, is scheduled for the middle of January. Um, so we'll be doing that moving forward. Um, and then there's, um, subsequent conversations as well that we need to, um, settle on the schedule for, but, um, when we think about the overall timeline, uh, for the project, um, some folks have seen this are familiar with it. Um, but for those of you that have not seen it, um, our overall project timeline has the building opening, um, really in the fall of 2030. That is our goal to the right-hand side. To the left-hand side is where we are currently today in terms of the really in the initial portions of the feasibility study. And you can see the stars here really indicate the touch points for our advisory team meeting discussions that are going to be happening at the beginning of the project again today. the listening session, and then we'll be following up in the middle of January with the subsequent meeting, but extending all the way out really into the fall of 2026. And then just very briefly, in terms of framing the design process, and I know that we do have a lot of design professionals as part of this particular team, which is amazing. And so when I say that the design process is not a linear one, I think everyone will understand that. There's an inherent sort of wonderful messiness about the design process, right? But we do like to think about these various activities that sort of define the process across the course of things. It's not to say that this is linear in any nature. There's certainly going back and rethinking based on various pieces of input. But I think where we are at the beginning right now is really in this empathy and definition sort of world. where we're going to operate right now. And as we move forward, we'll certainly start to engage in some of the other parts and pieces of the process. But I just want to try to encourage us at this point in time to think big and really understand that there have been no sort of finite plans that have been developed at this point. We're really using this collection of meetings, both the advisory team, as well as the educational visioning, as educational programming, Really, these are all the parts and pieces that are helping to inform our process moving forward. And so just to try to reiterate maybe the creative messiness associated with it. All right, so this is where I'm going to pull down the slideshow. I'm going to look at where we are right now, and I'm just going to I think we have about 15 members here if I was counting correctly. So we should each have about four minutes to go through and I'll just advise folks that if you get to the four minutes and you're still talking I will probably interrupt you. I'll say probably because we went through the entire last meeting and I didn't have to interrupt anybody but it's also because some folks were a little bit more brief up front and it gave a little bit more space to folks towards the end. There's nothing premeditated about that. It's just how the alphabet works out. Maybe we'll flip things around. And I see that Suzanne just had to hop off, so maybe we'll get a little bit more than the four minutes now in terms of pieces. But if I do end up having to cut you off, just I'll reiterate the offer, the opportunity to have folks submit anything written after the fact in terms of being able to allow us to consider it. moving forward as part of the conversation and part of topics that want to be covered as we get to subsequent meetings in each of the advisory team threads. So, with that, let me get back to my list. And I think we're going to start off with Libby. And I will just start our timer.
[Libby Brown]: I will try to cut myself off at four minutes. So I should just be selling you sort of the goals and things I bring to this, right?
[Matt Rice]: Correct. Yeah, priority goals. If there's things that you would love to see considered as part of the project moving forward, again, I think sort of through that lens of thinking about exterior interior design. But again, if you need to branch out somewhere from there, I think that's okay.
[Libby Brown]: I can say plenty about those two.
[Libby Brown]: Sure. Well, sort of in terms of I'll start with exterior. So I, something I work, you know, half my life is spent just, you know, massing and selecting materials. So I would really hope for Medford, something we're focusing on is simplicity, longevity, timeless design. We kind of do more with less. You know, this building is going to be around for a long time. It might not get the maintenance it requires, um, unless, you know, we find more money down the road to maintain our buildings. So, um, you know, simplicity and, you know, using simple materials. I think taking the existing building as a real, um, I mean, I imagine there's probably a world where some of this building is going to stay. And so we should be thinking about how these things go together. Is there inspiration to take from the existing building? I think brick and concrete are pretty timeless themselves, and I've said this to several people. I actually am very fond of certain elements of the building. I know a lot of people find it quite ugly. Certain parts of it are not great, but I think there's a lot to be learned from it. I think that's a good starting point, and certainly just like simplicity, not adding a lot of different materials for the sake of adding more. On the interior, I'm the chair of my office's materials task force, so I spend a lot of time talking about healthy materials, and certainly within the breathable space within the envelope of the building, if we could be, you know, red list free as a baseline across the building. I don't think PVC has a place inside the building. I think we could be looking at things that are durable, timeless, and still really taking into consideration the health and well-being of the occupants when that really goes to students whose bodies are still developing and absorbing things around them. the teachers and staff, the people who spend decades inside the building and for whom their health care for our city pays for. So I think the occupant health and wellness is critical and that should really drive some of the decisions made about definitely interior materials. And also just things like trying not to be trendy, simplifying the palette, not adding materials where we don't need to add them just for decorative reasons. Maybe they should be serving a purpose like acoustics or you know, to soften a space or, you know, define a different area. But I think being really careful about how we're selecting things and making sure that they have a real reason to be there. I could go on forever, but I'm going to hold on. So I think those are my biggest things are just, you know, I know what to think about maintenance and things that are going to last the test of time. But let's not let that lead us down the path of sometimes the more expected materials like vinyl and things like that.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Yeah, no, I think you're pointing to some of those overlaps that I was mentioning earlier, certainly between the larger topic of sustainability and material selection. I think that's something that we'll definitely dive into at a good level of detail. All right, let me jump back then. All right, Alex.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, hi, here. Everyone can hear?
[Matt Rice]: We can, yep.
[SPEAKER_06]: So great, Libby, I think you set the table really well. Some of the things I was gonna talk about were some of the things that you already mentioned. I can also be a fan of concrete and brick, because it does have longevity, but it's not to everyone's taste necessarily, and the existing building kind of testifies to that brutalist nature. One of my big, functions in my professional career is construction, administration and management, and cost analysis. So I think the topic of materials, their value for money, value engineering is extremely important. You know, what can you do? How can you do more with a little bit less? Because it always comes down to money at the end of the day, unfortunately. Sustainability is a huge issue as well these days, rightly so. I'm mainly working in multifamily residential affordable housing these days, but I have history in academic science, that kind of thing. But, you know, sustainability in residential construction and in all construction these days is really key. So are we gonna go for passive house? Are we gonna go for LEED? Are we gonna go for this, that or the other? How do we get that on board early? Bring in any consultants that we need to do for energy modeling and so on and so forth. I definitely appreciate what Libby said about environmentally friendly materials. Vinyl is definitely not environmentally friendly and there are many alternate materials for finishes and such that, are much more healthy. In terms of overall composition and massing, I mean, that's a discussion that you're gonna have for days, months, and years probably. And I also think it's extremely important. I know you have an OPM on board now, which is great. I don't know how this is gonna be bid, whether it's gonna be a 149 or whether it's gonna be a private bid. CMs are invaluable at the earliest possible stages that you can have them on board, because I think they have a better ear to the street in terms of cost and availability of materials and just experience in building. So I would certainly push for that as soon as possible. Like I said, I've got 25 years of experience in this industry, a lot of construction involvement, so I'm happy to sort of overlap different groups like sustainability, MEP, that kind of thing. And thank you for having me.
[Matt Gulino]: Alex, just real quick on that. This is Matt Colino from left field. I'm having camera issues. Nice to meet you. Of course. Yeah, we will certainly go 149, 149A. Uh, likely likely one for Diana, given the complex complexity of the project, obviously we have a little ways to go before we make that decision, but you know, given the type of project, that's likely the, the road would go on and we certainly wouldn't bring them on during schematic design.
[SPEAKER_06]: So are you looking at this as being an MSBA project cloud sub bid?
[Matt Gulino]: Um, yes. Uh, and just not to, not to hijack the meeting. Uh, I can certainly talk to you offline. I don't want to, um, get in the weeds with this type of stuff now, but I just wanted to chime in quickly. So I'll hand it back over to you, Matt.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that's important and I'm not trying to hijack this either, but I think, um, at some point we need to make what this bureaucratic process is extremely explicit to all involved because it's complicated and it can sometimes cause a lot of confusion. So I think that's an agenda item for possibly the next meeting.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, completely agree. Explicit, transparent as well. And I think procurement is one of those sort of design-adjacent topics that we can certainly dive into a bit as we go forward. And I'm going to apologize now, because I said I was going to do something and I did not. And I know that Suzanne had to hop off. But see, Jesse has his camera off, so I'm guessing he's now in motion. potentially with others. I'm not sure if it's easier to talk now, Jesse, or if you prefer to wait until you get to a certain place later on in the process. But feel free to just unmute and chime in if you do want to get going. If not, I will jump to the next individual on the list. All right. I'm going to take it that you are still in transit. So I'm going to pass it over to Marta.
[Marta Cabral]: Hi everyone, I feel so overwhelmed being with all of these architects on the call. And now I know when we talk educational lingo and all of our acronyms I now know how everyone feels. So, I'm thinking about my priority areas. For the exterior of the building. I agree with Libby for the longevity of it I don't want something trendy that is going to go out of style and 10 years and for 1520 years and people are like what were they thinking doing an all glass building. I want it to be yes modern. for our students, but also feeling warm and welcoming. That being said, we are on like a beautiful plot of land here and not on a main road like many of our neighboring communities. So being able to have sight lines out to the fells, sight lines out to like downtown Boston is really important because I think that that is something that is refreshing for students and for teachers to be able to see outside and see the beautiful files that we have in our backyard. For the interior, I also want something timeless that's not going to go, like I said, out of style and be trendy just for a couple of years. Cleanliness is super important for me. I have a pretty high standard of cleanliness. So for as long as I am here, whoever said that, this building will be maintained inside. So really, like, um walls and spaces that can be cleaned. I am always hesitant with like carpet and so forth but like clean is very important and a place inside that like people can see themselves in and be able to um adapt with the populations that we have in the school is really important to me as well. Um what else did I write down? Sight lines. So I was fortunate enough to go to many different schools to visit schools and I want to create more flexible spaces for students to be and have more independence and responsibility and self-control of themselves in the building. And for me, something that's really important is just being able to have sight lines so that they're not hiding and huddling in places that they're not allowed to be, but that staff and students can see each other. with the design inside the building. And something that I've really seen in a lot of the school buildings that I've been is just bringing like Medford community or any of the communities that I've been to inside of the building. So how can we make it timeless with things that we have in the building that make it feel like Medford High School in a brand new space, I think is something really cool that we have seen a lot of. And of course our core values and our mascot that I think is so incredibly awesome of being like a Mustang like how can we incorporate that so like when we're having conversations with kids or we're having community events like they can actually see Medford and what we believe in. I think that's it. And I know Matt knows all about this, but like community spaces that hold all of us, like community is really big for us. And we're really trying to build that. So having spaces, not only for Medford community, but for our students and our staff to come together and making that feel like a warm place. That's all for me. Off to you, Matt.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. That is a wonderful list.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello. I figured out how to unmute while in the car. I was just aimlessly pushing things on my screen. Is now a bad time?
[Matt Rice]: No, go right ahead. It's perfect, actually.
[SPEAKER_04]: Figures, strike while the iron's hot. I will unabashedly just say that I'm going to sort of advocate from the angle of the visual and performing arts. It's, you know, where I am as a professional and where my students, you know, come into MassArt, I usually find out what their high school art experience was like. And as the parent of a often traveling orchestra participant, I've gotten to sort of drop into all these different spaces in high schools around the area. And so my priorities are as a community resource, as a sort of representation of the town of Medford, I'm hoping that there'll be some, that this sort of value of the arts in education will be readable in any new structure and not sort of tucked away into leftover spaces of a building, but really pushed forward as a highly valued part of the community. I think that's all I need to say before I hit traffic and start losing my concentration.
[Matt Rice]: All right, I appreciate your ability to multitask there. Still very, very articulate, so I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, so Griselle, I think you are next.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the right. OK, thank you.
[Matt Rice]: I'll get there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so impressed by Libby, how she pulled it off right on the spot. So I had to take some notes. But I think everything that everybody said. Sorry, my dog is like, why? I think for me, number one will be how to make the space safe and comfort and well-being for the students. I think, you know, architecture. Can create that environment that feels physically and emotionally. Safe for the people that not only work there, but, you know. Mainly for the students, um, how the classrooms can be flexible. Um, layouts you sitting and community, like Martha said, um. I'm not too familiar with what happens after school in the high school, because my kids are in elementary school. But how can this building be a community hub? What else? I think we talked about maintenance and all of that, which is one of the trendy things that I've seen a lot in other new schools is the unfinished wood, which looks beautiful the first couple of years. And then it just doesn't weather well. So I would say, unless you guys have an amazing material, that maybe another material will be preferable. Sustainability, I think everybody kind of talked about that. But what is the connection to nature? Which, like Martha said, we're near the fells, right? I think whether it's LEED or the building, what's it called? Building's Living Challenge. which are great, you know, check marks. What else can we do to connect students to nature, right? Like, is there a space where students can take a class outside, right? I think that would be a great, amazing. Identity ride, the Mustangs, right? I think just having students maybe, I don't know, participate and creating a mural, anything that they will feel part of the space within. And accessibility. And again, it's not just a check mark of a ramp or an elevator, but how are we making this space inclusive? That's it. Thanks.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. All right, Chloe.
[SPEAKER_37]: Hi. I just want to say, Well, we have to keep it simple. I kind of want to make sure it's inclusive, and it has a love culture, and it's uniquely us. It's a representation of everyone in the community, the staff, the students. And I just want it to be a safe space for every student to be able to come in the school and just feel comfortable and relaxed and able to go on their day. Yeah, I also agree with what a few of you guys said with not making it trendy, that it just looks weird in the next 20 years. Sorry. Yeah, I think that's it.
[Matt Rice]: All right. I think you're getting a lot of head nods there from everyone that I could see. So I think definitely on point in terms of the comments. Paul.
[SPEAKER_08]: I, I think the everything I was going to talk about has been mentioned but they said to when deciding materials, if you're talking about 50 years, maybe flexible so things can be easily changed. If climate, and all that takes the impact on the school. Inside the school, focus on the demographics of Medford. So that I think it's been mentioned too, but there's a great variety of people in Medford to take that into account. The entrances, I think, you know, make them welcoming. So when people come in, they can easily figure out where they're going. So if it's an after hours thing, if they're going to the theater or they're going to sports events or whatever, as you come into the school, it's easy to get where you're going. You don't have to go around asking people. I think in the public areas too, if we can try to incorporate Medford history, there's a lot of history from Medford going way back in those public areas when you're getting people from outside of Medford coming to events. I kind of liked the idea of giving them information about where the city started and what's happened. Because there's a lot of famous people to have come through Medford. Like a theater for doing, my daughter did a lot of orchestra and my son did a lot of band. And the Karen Theater was nice, but it was kind of tight. And it'd be nice to have a nice theater where you can do the performances and those things. I know my son was in robotics when he was at the high school. And every time they needed to set up a testing room, we had to go searching for rooms. We didn't find one of them had like history of books and everything from history. It'd be nice to have some dedicated rooms where after hours clubs can sign up or whatever and actually get the room. Whereas we had to fight to get a space to set up a table for them to do the robotics stuff. Um, flexibility in the rooms, you know, as times change and, you know, it used to be very separated where it's high school and it was vocational school. Now we're kind of combined. So it may be a time where you get more of one than the other. So it'd be nice to be a little flexible, have flexible rooms where you can adapt to that. Cause when I was at the high school, I had four brothers. And three of us graduated from the high school and two graduated from the vocational school way back when. And it'd be nice to be able to change things quickly. And my daughter, I went through the elementary school build out. So my daughter was at the Davenport school, which I went to, so it was old. As we went through that process of defining what the Roberts School in the Brooks, in the Mississippi, what they were going to incorporate into the colors and the floors to make it a lively place, make sure it's not dull and dark, which I'm sure we will anyway. But when we went through those designs for those schools, the four elementary schools and the two middle schools, It was... important to incorporate that into the design. So my kids really liked, like we went to the, my daughter went to the Davenport school and when we went to kindergarten, when we left, my wife was crying because the school was so bad. And for me, it was like, oh, I went there, this is cool, my daughter's gonna go there. But my wife was like, I can't believe we're sending her to this school. So it's good to upgrade to a better school. And my son was the first, kindergarten class to go through the Roberts. So he was the first class that went from kindergarten through fifth. So we got to see the full scope of the Roberts elementary school too. So it kind of had a lot of experience there. And my wife was a nurse at the Roberts, a school nurse back when my son was there. But I think that's more just make it inviting and kind of give a little bit of method history and method high for the public to see. I think that's it.
[Matt Rice]: All right. I think a lot of the things that you touched on, Paul, I think Sarah has definitely piqued her interest on the wayfinding as well as the... I'm typing as quick as my little fingers can go for everybody.
[SPEAKER_25]: This is really helpful. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: All right. So we were at Suzanne. So I think we're going to jump over to Jenny.
[Jenny Graham]: Thanks so, you know, 1 of the things that I've been thinking a lot about over the last couple of weeks as we sort of separate from these advisory groups have been involved in some all day visioning about what education should look like. Right? Because that's the anchor of this design. You know, 1 of the things that the students who have joined us for for those conversations and I think we're sort of hearing from Chloe is like. And from Marta is this idea of a sense of ownership. And I think I want to take that one step further. I want us to build a building that expects that ownership is going to change hands. So students spend four years in the building. What resonates with Chloe today is not going to be the same thing as what resonates with Jesse's youngest when he's in school or when Libby's kids go to school. I think trying to create some really intentional ways that the building is intended to be owned by students, but in an evolving way that does not require big capital kinds of projects, like we have to hire people to repaint the hall. What are those ways that ownership can bring not just the common spaces, but classrooms to life? In a conversation we were having last week, one of the things I was thinking a lot about is if a classroom has, let's say, five or six classes that go through it on any given year, Is there, like, a corner of the classroom that's each class's responsibility to, like, own and maintain in some way that says, like, this is who our class is so that the people who come behind them in, like, period 4, like, they can see something come out that, like, helps them create some connection to, like, who the other kids are who are sharing the space and a sense of accountability. That's something I've been thinking a lot about is like, how do we build a building? And I actually don't know how to do this or if it's possible, but how do we build a building that insists upon evolution when students are moving through the space? I'll also mention that Jesse and I have had some spirited conversations about our Mustang logo and how we should all coalesce around a logo that maybe could be brought into the design. So maybe we can get that knocked out at some point ahead of all of this. And then when I think about the exterior of the building, every time I'm on that soccer field being blown over by the wind, I'm kind of struck by this untapped, incredible view of the skyline of the city of Boston. that exists, and I'm like, how do we have an event on the roof? And I think Ken would die to hear me say that out loud. But there's these amazing spaces, and just think about the potential of some of these spaces if they could be created in such a way that they're intended to be used for those kinds of things. I have a Paul shared an article with me, like, 2 years ago about this, like, middle school that was designed. and how when kids get to high school, they want to have their senior prom at this middle school because there's a river, like a brook, that runs through. And they integrate it into the design. And it's this really cool space. And ironically, it's in Oklahoma in the community that my husband grew up in. And he was fascinated because he didn't think that was a thing where he was from. He's like, are you sure that's War Acres? Because I lived there, and nothing like that was happening. when I lived there. But like, thinking about not just this space that like students own, but that they want to be in, even in those times where they're like, doing something where you would traditionally be like, I want to not be in this space, right? Like, how do we create a space that kids want to be in? It's something I'm thinking about, especially for the exterior. And when we talk about like, what is possible about playing fields and all of those things that happen outside. And then the other thing I would say is, like, the wayfinding is, like, pretty important. I get lost in the building all the time. And then the last thing I'll mention is that there's all these, like, cool artifacts, particularly in the bistro, that have been plucked out of different old buildings across the city of Medford. But you would never know the significance of any of those things unless you sat with somebody who has been around for, would call themselves a Medford dinosaur and has been around for a million years. And there's a light fixture. And they're like, that's from the original Burke School. And I'm like, how cool. So how do we bring those elements in, but also put a sign so you don't have to know somebody who would call themselves a dinosaur to know that that light came from somewhere kind of cool, right? There's just such an opportunity for the building, I think, to tell its own story that we should explore. I think that's it. That's all I've got, because I'm not actually an interior or exterior designer.
[Matt Rice]: No problems there. That was great. Thank you. Brian, I think you're up next.
[Brian Hilliard]: There we go. Sorry. So maybe, I guess I think I'm in a little bit of a unique situation and a little bit of background. There's a lot of educators in my family and my dad is a high school teacher and I grew up, we went to actually a private school, but we had our own sort of CTE component. So I grew up around this kind of a school and Our son is in the robotics and engineering. Like I said, he's a junior. So I have really strong feelings about the CTE as well. So I'm a huge advocate there, and I know how important it is to the community, to the kids, and to the teachers. If I parallel that and couple that with my experience in architecture and actually working on these big schools, public schools and high schools, I feel like I'm in a pretty unique position, like I said, to see myself as a liaison between what comes at us and filtering that and working with all the teachers and being on the school board, sorry, the school building committee actually allows me a lot of access to all the people. And I've been getting a lot of questions, a lot of feedback. And so I'm happy to be here. And I'll go out on a limb and say that I'm actually really excited for what Sims at SFMA and left field bring to the table because I know their finger is on the pulse of what's out there as far as materials and the cost analysis and what's hip and not hip and going to be great in 50 years. I think we get to react to that, but I have a ton of confidence that they're going to come up with a really good product and really good things. And what I'm really, really interested in is programming, like space planning and programming, making sure that everybody sees the end result as an end user. And I think that the phasing is going to be really big, too, and that it's going to be important For me to help explain maybe what's going to some of the impacts between what's the ideas behind the phasing and what it actually means in reality. And I think there's great opportunities because obviously we know we have a great site, and we know in a very unique situation we have a ton of land, but it's a really complicated project. And I'm excited. I'm excited. I wish I was back on the other end of the table, because these are the things that make a project like this great. So I've also spent, somebody already mentioned, we've had the student development meeting. And I really want to adhere to some of the things that were just put out there. These are our guiding principles. from the student's perspective. And tomorrow, you know, we have the teaching and learning meeting, that all day meeting as well. And we'll be able to coalesce that and filter that through. I think it's going to be really amazing to watch this come together. And like I said, I know there's a lot of really good professionals behind this entire process. And we're going to benefit from it. And I think Again, being hyper aware of what's coming at us and then being able to help disseminate some of that information or get some behind the scenes questions from particularly the CTE people who are, you know, they're concerned because they have such specialty spaces, but also being on the building committee. I'm one of the people who really I'm not concerned because I know this is going to be a long process, but it's going to be a great result. So, I mean, right now I'm, I don't have a ton to say, like, I just, I feel fortunate to be here. I'm super excited for the community, but the kids, they're coming up through the system. And I know, you know, again, the experts behind this and trying to sort of get the scheduling right for the new school so that the CTE and, you know, more of the academic wing mesh a little bit better. And I'll end on the note that one of the things that came up already in the student development meeting was there's going to be sort of a paradigm shift for the way the kids learn, the way the teachers teach, moving forward so that when the building opens in 2030, that they walk into a space that they're ready for. And to me, that's really important. So it is, again, it's a very big picture, but it's going to be a learning curve right out of the box. And there's going to be a lot of changes, but everything doesn't change when we get to the new building. It changes now, and we're ready for it. And I think that's going to be an amazing process. So here we go.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Brian. Is Din someone that was here or not here? I think in the not here category. OK. So Ken, that means you're up.
[Kenneth Lord]: Cool. Thanks. So over my career, I've been heavily involved in whole or in part in about seven school building projects. So I've seen a lot of decisions that are made in the process and the before and the after effects. And some of the things I'm really interested in is the durability of the materials. There was one project that I was involved in, it was a new elementary school built from scratch, but they used too much drywall and those surfaces became damaged too easily, and it just made the building look bad over time. Another project I was involved with was a renovation addition of a high school, and they used a lot of glazed block in the hallways, which was very durable, and they also did the same materials in the new sections and the renovations and the old sections, they redid it. So you really, unless you knew the building, you really couldn't tell the difference in the old and the new. So that's of particular interest to me. I know Jenny made a joke about the rooftop access, but I have toured buildings that did have purpose-built rooftop areas for classroom use, and it allowed those upper areas of the building easy access to like an outdoor learning area, whether it be tied to science or being able to view the fowls around us and everything else. So there is good opportunity for that.
[Jenny Graham]: It's not a no, that's what I'm hearing.
[Kenneth Lord]: Just no high heels on the rubber roof, that's all. Maintenance is of particular importance to me, making sure the building materials that we use are easily maintained and the building itself is easily cleaned. There was one school we had that had a hallway with a, um, it was a second floor hallway and you could see down to the first floor and beyond that was a window with big bars over it, but you couldn't reach it to clean it. And so that was always that ugly spot in the building, even though it was meant to be a beautiful area. Um, our custodial staff is taxed with maintaining our grounds outside the building. So making sure that they're easily maintained. And so they're not, you know, that they don't get deteriorated quickly, um, that we're dealing with runoff water from the building on those exterior areas. And it's not washing away the landscaping and things and dealt with properly. Um, although this is a high school, we have our kids corner program. We have, uh, and other programs, we need playground space and making sure those playground spaces are appropriately designed and have everything they need. The ease of cleaning of the building, making sure we don't have waxed floors, you know, that process of having to empty the room, strip the floors, wax the floors is so disruptive, plus the odors and the smells and there's all, you know, it takes up so much cleaning time in the summer, it really impacts how the building can be used. And making sure we have enough display space for student work and artwork. There's purpose-built spots. that we could have student murals done. So it's not just kind of like attack on after the fact that, you know, nicely designed and plenty of space to hang things and ways to hang things that aren't going to damage the walls. So that, you know, you're not, you know, six months in and there's pinholes everywhere and stuff like that. So those are the kinds of things that I'm really interested in, in making sure that we kind of consider.
[Matt Rice]: Great. Appreciate that perspective, Ken. Right, I think Nicole was not here just confirming that still the case. Mr. So I think we're gonna flip over to Jen. Or Jennifer, do you prefer Jennifer or Jen?
[SPEAKER_36]: No, Jen's fine. I just don't change it. So these have all been really great. I have no architectural experience, but I have worked in this building for 18 years and I've had kids go through the building. So mine are gonna, everything people said, I agree with. I'm gonna focus kind of more like Marta on like how it feels like being in the building. And like, I don't know, I know we talked about The building materials and I don't know how much of this, you guys have the ability to change but the flow driving into the building in the morning the traffic flow that one one entrance where the cars are crossing over and I've been here long enough that we've had the teacher parking is moved a little bit the student parking is moved a little bit. People try to drive around the building and then realize they can't for sporting events or I've been stuck behind a bus trying to like, I don't know, have to try to drive around and it's the corners aren't big enough to get buses around. So, all that. You can't circle around the building you know you get stuck at one end. As a parent, I cannot tell you how many people have gotten lost going to the gym because I don't think it's clear and like the entrance now that's been open for this year says pool entrance which is fine like I know where it is and it's but you walk in and like it's it's not clear you have to kind of go upstairs and you have to so better signage or like a welcoming front of the building or very clear like This is where you go for sporting events because it's it's I think our building is used all the time after school, sometimes during school weekends and I, it's people get lost there all the time. In terms of, I took notes as well, in terms of inside the building, everyone was talking about like representing our students in our school, we do such a good job right now we have so many like bright colorful murals that kids have painted in the building if we can have spaces like every year. you know, the National Art Honor Society does stuff like that, like maybe every year, every other year, the kids can paint it. You don't, but if you have a space designed for that or multiple spaces designed for that, then letting the kids paint on those spaces is acceptable. And so that would be really great to have it throughout the buildings. A couple of the buildings I've seen, I feel like they have a lot of very white spaces, the newer ones, and I agree with Marta we want to keep the building clean but sometimes maybe like the walls don't have to all be white too. And I think the kids have been really good at putting like colored stuff like there's just tons of murals in our building classrooms have them always have them and I would hate to not have the ability to do that and then like Jenny said like classrooms can. have ways to, again, hang things up, have the kids do something in their classrooms. Again, paint is a pretty easy thing to change without having to, like... But also, like, my classroom has cinderblock walls on three of them, and then I don't even know what the back wall of the building is made out of. It, like, crumbles when you stick a tack in it. I don't know if Ken knows what... I don't even know what material it is. It's... But... So it's really hard to hang stuff up, right? And then, so the only way to do it is do something like, you're doing glue, you're doing lots of things, and that's gonna peel the paint. And so having lots of materials that are friendly to hang stuff up, bulletin boards, I don't know how, I don't know what the best materials would be, but that kind of stuff on the walls, the more that we can do that, that way we can, alter the school to represent the kids that are in it without doing big money projects. Teachers are willing to decorate stuff. Kids are willing to help out. They like doing that kind of stuff. This year, they painted the parking lot. Things like that where it doesn't cost a lot of money, but if the building's set up for that already, then you can do that every year, every couple of years. So I thought that was really cool, some suggestions that people had. Right now, the academics and the CTE, the shops are- Jen, I apologize.
[Matt Rice]: I am the world's worst timekeeper, but I'm mindful that we're getting close to the end of the time. And I just want to make sure that we have the ability. I think we have three more folks that haven't spoken yet. So I apologize in terms of having to jump in.
[SPEAKER_36]: Do you want me to finish? I have two more things. Or you want me to go? That's fine.
[Matt Rice]: Can we hold them, maybe, and if we have time at the end, I'm certainly welcome to circle back. Or we're certainly welcome to circle back. OK.
[Jenny Graham]: You can drop them in the chat, too.
[Matt Rice]: We can drop them. OK, I'll do it.
[Jenny Graham]: Thanks, Jane.
[Matt Rice]: That would be fantastic. It's a great option. Paul.
[Paul Ruseau]: Hello. So I won't repeat everything that's wonderful that I've heard tonight. I will say that I looked at the Architectural Digest has this edition of the most beautiful high school in each of the 50 states. And I thought, maybe three of them were remotely beautiful and the rest were that you could have didn't they meant they were nothing. They were just giant structures and somebody like this is the nicest one in our state. I think Mississippi had like this incredible one but anyways. And, you know, I've been driving by schools under construction, you know, Watertown, since they started it. And in Newton, there's a school I was driving by for years that they were building, a massive elementary school. The Newton one actually is beautiful and impressive and memorable. The Watertown one, I mean, they had the worst site on earth, so I'm not judging anybody here, but it is effectively the same as what you'd think of when you think of high school. When we are in high school, or we have kids that are in high school, we care about the high school. And I'm not saying that after that we don't care. I will say it's far, it becomes in the rear view mirror until you perhaps have grandkids there. And so the majority of voters do not have kids in our schools. And I think that them having pride, like a visceral pride, is a very valuable asset because with Prop 2.5, no, we're not going to do an override next year. But there's no universe, really, where we don't end up having to do more of them unless we can do an assembly row in Medford. And it would be nice if the voters had so much pride in this high school, whether it's they drive up because they have to see the superintendent, or we have a school committee meeting there, or they have kids there, whatever. Um, you know, right now, I know people who have driven up to the high school and been like, for kindergarten registration and been like, oh, well, I guess we'll go through eighth grade. Like, they would not go and they don't know how great the teaching is going on in there. Um, they don't know what's inside. Um, I think that is a mistake to not think of that as a critical, um, tool when we want to ask for more money because we're never going to get the school budget down to two and a half percent. It's not going to happen. So if we're going to keep asking the voters, which is not just the parents, I think we need to make sure this building knocks their socks off. Whether it's because they're coming to a public meeting because there's finally more, Medford has so little public meeting space. It's a real problem. The library was like a godsend, but that's not enough. So, you know, we, I mean, aside from the pool and all that, we have a lot of opportunity to make this building inviting. I think some people talked about, you know, I agree, like the giant white spaces that you're kind of like, oh, you get lost because everything looks the same. That's all very important. But I do think because of our site, we have an opportunity that many other cities and towns just don't have any any chance at having a building that wows the community. And I know that's just the face of it, but I would like our students and our staff who are there for a lot more than four years to like regularly drive up and be like, I can't believe I get to work here or I can't believe I get to go to school here. And What's going on inside the building is obviously the most important thing. But when you're rushing through the halls to get to your class, that's not something you'll ever think of. It's not a feeling you will have. And it is something that you can have when you're driving up to the school. So my time's up. Sorry.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Paul. Appreciate that. All right. I think it's Delia next, and then Eric. You guys will close us out.
[SPEAKER_28]: Okay, I just wanted to echo a lot of what you all have said and reinforce it, especially regarding the health and environmental concerns that you've raised. Just to kind of piggyback a little bit on Paul's kind of more community-facing comments, I might just couch some of the things I'll say by the fact that most of my professional work deals with design and planning in the context of conflict or after a disaster. And so what that has taught me has been that civic spaces, public spaces are real cultural assets that we turn to, particularly in times of crisis. They are symbolic of cultural heritage. They are beacons of hope. They are places for gathering. They are critical indicators of, you know, the state of our democracy, et cetera, et cetera, right? So that there are some really real social values that are attached to places like schools and in terms of the ways in which they sit in our communities. And so, you know, practically speaking, not that we have to design for catastrophe, Practically speaking, what that may translate into is what I'd love to see is a school that's rooted, a school that's rooted in the history and memory of a place. and a wholesome history, one that is inclusive in its reach and its representation, that makes space for that. A school that is designed in part with some thought to scenarios or storytelling. You know, what is it like at drop-off? What is that first introduction on a daily basis to the school? What is it as a space of community gathering? How is it a space that invites in nature, that looks to nature, given that the fells is a neighbor? How is it a school of experimentation, of performance? I mean, I think these are some of the points My fellow committee members have already raised, so just to echo. And so I guess I would reinforce the importance of context. Love to see a school that's really rooted in its historical context, in its community context, that really makes gestures both inwardly and outwardly. And then also thinks a lot about creative spaces, quiet spaces, kind of all of these kind of more affective qualities that we would like to see and imagine our kids and our staff. really taking advantage of. And just to end to say, and to reinforce the importance of this school in this community, both at this kind of hinge point, it's a place for our students to attend, a place where our teachers teach our kids in the present. but it's rooted in this community's history, and it's also gesturing towards the future. And I know these all need to be interpreted and materialized, I know, but just to kind of anchor us in some kind of a design philosophy of sorts. I think that'd be something that I'd love to talk more about.
[Matt Rice]: If you appreciate all those aspirations, I think that's exactly what we're trying to do here is sort of set the stage for how we're going to be working moving forward. All right, Eric, you are up. Next time we'll go reverse apple bell galore, so you're going to be first. We'll just throw everything on the side.
[SPEAKER_10]: This is fine. Don't worry. Don't worry. I mean, I think one of the things that's really important to me is just how we see this school, but all schools in Medford, as an asset. I mean, people move to different places because the schools are good. They live in communities. They want to go places because the schools are great places for their kids to be, whether it's safety and security or the education they're receiving. I mean, just making sure that we think about how 20 years ago, we never could have expected we'd be living in the world we're living in. And there's no way we can predict what will happen in 20 years. So creating flexible, adaptive spaces so that the trained educators we have can make the best choices for our children. can provide a good civic environment for our community, can allow for spaces that are used around the clock, maybe not 24-7, but certainly more than they are now. It's a place where people want to go. I think the library is a great example of an updated community resource where people are now going there for all kinds of maker spaces, and language lessons, and puzzle nights, and everything you can imagine under the sun. So I would hope that our schools do the same thing. Also keeping in mind that as technology changes, as pedagogies change, as learning environments change, we're really going to see something different than we all experienced. So while I want to cling to the things that were great for me, I know that my kids and their kids will get something that we haven't even considered. So putting the school in a place that it can adapt and change to be what we need it to be 30 years down the road, too.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. That was great and I really appreciate the variety of perspectives and the expertise and the energy shared here as well. I'm going to try and pull up the PowerPoint just to close us out here. Hopefully, this is up for everybody now. I just want to just remind us on terms of next steps. Again, we're going to take all of these topics and we're going to try to find overlaps, synergies between them so that we can talk to them and review them with you the next time around. We'll get into a little discussion on some that really warrant a need. some additional sort of thought in sort of airspace behind them. And then we're also going to have subsequent meetings to really confirm sort of that discussion and start to formulate recommendations and then get to a point where we can review those and then present them back to the full building committee as a recommendation. And then just to give a little bit of a preview here, I think we touched on a lot of these topics. We may have covered all of them in terms of the various things that have popped up. But we want to make sure that the next discussion that we have both reflects what was brought up and then sort of fills in any gaps as well in terms of things that just need to be touched on. But again, I think I heard topics that really touched on all of these. So I think this is just sort of for reference and for reflecting back. And then just a reminder that again, we're middle of January is the next time we're going to get together. I think we flipped up the timing so that this group is actually going to be from 4-5.30. I did put in remote hybrid there. I think the wonderful thing about this all remote virtual setup is that it really facilitates people participating everywhere that you are. You can log in and there's something great about that. There's also something great about being able to be in person and have some of these conversations face-to-face. So I think we won't try to preclude it necessarily moving forward but if we may shift to a hybrid approach where we give people that opportunity if they want to get together and facilitate that and I know that we're just increasing the degree of difficulty for Ken and folks in terms of the organization of it, but I know that we do to the building committee meetings. as a hybrid format so we can get that to work if we move forward. But that's really what to look forward to and again really appreciate everyone getting together. A special thanks to the folks that have done this twice now and I know there's sort of a Groundhog Day aspect to this activity sometimes when we're sitting in multiple versions of the meeting of the different advisory team meetings. But I think the thing that comes through in all of these and came through today is sort of the unique energy and perspective that comes from this particular group. And really do look forward to working with everyone moving forward just to advance the conversation and really to help crystallize some of these thoughts about how they guide the design for the high school. So thank you to everyone. I think we're a minute early here and I hope everyone has a nice evening.
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