Approved February 14, 2024

MPS BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING

Oliphant Administration Building

Michael S. Pinto Conference Room

26 Oliphant Lane, Middletown, RI 02842

January 10, 2024 4:30pm

 

Members in Attendance:

Present	Voting Member	Name	Title
X	Yes	Edward Brady	Co-Chair, Community Member
R	Yes	vacant	Co-Chair, Community Member
R	Yes	Rosemarie Kraeger	Superintendent of Schools
X	Yes	Tami Holden	Member of School Committee
X	Yes	Theresa Spengler	Member of School Committee
X	Yes	Poe George	Director of Facilities Management, Transportation and Safety
X	Yes	Thomas P. Welch, III	Town Council Member
X	Yes	Donna Sweet	Middletown High School Principal
N	Yes	Michelle Fonseca	Asst Superintendent for Teaching and Learning
X	Yes	Shawn Brown	Town Administrator, Local Budget Official
X	Yes	William Nash	Community Member
X	Alternate	Georgia Fortunato	Special Education Consultant, Alternate Superintendent of Schools
N	Alternate	Gregory Huet	Alternate Member of School Committee
P	Alternate	William O’Connell	Alternate Member of School Committee
P	Alternate	Peter Connerton	Alternate Town Council Member
N	Alternate	Bill Niemeyer	Gaudet Middle School Principal
P	Alternate	Marc Tanguay	Town Finance Director, Alternate Local Budget Official
P	Alternate	Marc Thayer	Alternate Community Member
X	Alternate	Don Morin	Alternate Community Member

 

X = Present/Voting; R=Represented; P=Present/Non-voting; N=Not Present

 

·         Call to Order

·         Co-Chair Ed Brady called the meeting to order at 4:32 pm.  Ten (10) of eleven (11) voting members were present or represented by an alternate.

·         Also present: Derek Osterman, Justin Bernard, and Colin McCarthy, OPM, Colliers Project Leaders

·         Present via Zoom: N/A

 

·         Receive Overview of RI Open Meetings Act

·         Derek Osterman reminded the Committee that the Town Administrator shared a link to the video of the RI 2023 Open Government Summit and encouraged everyone to watch it.  Colliers also shared a link to additional resources on the RI Attorney General’s webpage regarding the Open Meetings Act.  Derek stated that if anyone had any questions, they should contact either the Town Solicitor or the School District’s Legal Counsel.

·         Town Administrator Brown reminded the members that information shared at the Committee meetings is a public record.  The Town is setting up a new system via “Next Request” on its website to make it easy to request a copy of a public record.  It will go live on January 16^th.  The Town will be able to post documents there for easy access to the public.

 

·         Committee Membership and Structure

·         Derek Osterman reminded the group that the School Committee is responsible for establishing the Building Committee.

·         The Rhode Island Department of Education establishes minimum membership requirements.

·         The School Committee will annually appoint a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, and alternate(s) will be appointed for each member.

·         The Chair is responsible for the agenda, which will be finalized with input from the Superintendent, the Town Administrator and OPM.  If members of the Committee wish to add a topic to the agenda, they should send their request to the Chair.

·         Town Administrator Brown informed the Committee that Derek Osterman met with the Town’s and School’s attorneys prior to this meeting to align on the messaging.

·         Regarding Building Committee meeting minutes, the recommendation is for the School Department to hire someone to do this.  Don offered to continue to voluntarily do the minutes in the near term and the Committee can revisit this in the future.  The OPM will be responsible for minutes of working meetings throughout the course of the project, while the Committee is responsible for minutes of its posted open meetings.

·         Derek informed that Committee that a charge from the School Committee and an ordinance from the Town Council are being drafted by the respective attorneys now.  He reminded the Committee that the Building Committee is an appointed body by the School Committee under the governance of the Town Council. 

·         Bill Nash suggested that the Building Committee vote to make a recommendation to the School Committee regarding the vice chair position and whether to add more Building Committee members.

·         ACTION: Add an agenda topic for January 17^th for the Building Committee to vote on a recommendation for the vice chair position and whether to add more members to the Committee. – Co-chair Brady

·         Each meeting agenda will include a topic to review open action items.

·         During the project, Colliers will manage a working file of all open action items.

·         Regarding public input, the Building Committee will mimic the Town Council’s process to allow public comment on topics that appear on the agenda, but there will be no public forum for topics not on the agenda.  The length of time allowed to speak will be limited.

 

·         Project Scope, Budget and Timeline for $190M Bond

·         The project scope includes a new Middle School/High School at the Gaudet Middle School site; the relocation of Grades 2-5, Central School Administration, Facilities and Transportation Office into the current High School; establishment of an Early Childhood Education Center with grades Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade into the Forest Ave Elementary School; and vacating Aquidneck Elementary and the Administration Offices currently on Oliphant Lane.

·         The budget is $190M and the Town will borrow money to cover these costs.  The preliminary budget includes $170M for the new Middle School/High School and $20M to renovate the current High School & Forest Avenue School.

·         Colliers recommends budget best practices of 70% / 10% / 20%, where 70% is for hard costs, 10% is for contingency and 20% is for soft costs.  RIDE requires at least 80% for hard costs and no more than 20% for soft costs.  Colliers will provide monthly budget updates to the Building Committee.

·         Requests for payment will flow from the Architect/Engineer/CM to the OPM who will bring them to the Building Committee for review.  The Building Committee will be able to make a recommendation for payment that will then be sent to the School Committee and Town Council for approval before being paid by the Town. 

·         The Timeline for the project is as follows:

·         Stage II Submitted - 2/15/24

·         Anticipated RIDE Approval - 6/30/24

·         Contractor Hired - 6/30/24

·         Anticipated Construction Start – Spring 2025

·         All Projects Complete and Closed Out – 6/30/29 (5-year state approval for funding)

·         Colliers will provide monthly schedule updates to the Building Committee.

·         Co-chair Brady asked when substantial completion of the new Middle School/High School is due.  Derek explained that the current schedule calls for the new school to open in fall of 2027.  RIDE reimbursement starts in the fiscal year after substantial completion.  Therefore, we should target meeting substantial completion of the new school prior to the end of the fiscal year that ends on 6/30/2027.  This will allow reimbursement to begin in July of 2027.

 

·         Role of the School Building Committee

·         Derek Osterman reiterated that a charge from the School Committee and an ordinance from the Town Council are being drafted that will clearly outline the role of the School Building Committee.  Don asked when they would be available, and Derek agreed to take an action item to put it on the next agenda.

·         ACTION: Add an agenda topic to the January 17, 2024 meeting to provide an update on when the charge from the School Committee and the ordinance from the Town Council will be completed. – Colliers / Co-Chair Brady

·         Derek added that the School Building Committee is an advisory committee, and that the financial authority is held by the Town.

 

·         Communications

·         Derek stated that communications about the building project will be authorized by the Superintendent and/or School Committee.  What will likely be communicated are major milestones to celebrate progress along the way. 

·         Bill Nash stated that the process for the creation of the agenda and the related documents could be improved.  Derek stated that the Building Committee chair is responsible for the agenda through collaboration with the Superintendent, Town Administrator and Colliers.  Co-Chair Brady added that the support documentation needs to be made available to the Building Committee ahead of the meeting to ensure that all members can come to the meeting prepared.  Town Administrator Brown stated that all support documentation that is shared with the Building Committee also needs to be made available to the public.

·         Bill Nash suggested that the Building Committee consider modifying the way agendas are drafted by discussing the agenda for each meeting at the end of the prior meeting.  

 

·         Document Storage and Website

·         Project documents will be maintained by each of the consultants, e.g., the architects, OPM, etc., while the Town will maintain its own set of project records which will live under control of Marc Tanguay’s department.  A product called Laserfiche will be used.

·         Like document storage, the website needs to be maintained by the Town.  The current Building Committee website is really a document repository maintained by Don.  Don would prefer that we move to a website that is more user friendly to make it easy to find things and to be able to provide updates on the status of the project.  Don can use assistance with the development of a new website.  The Building Committee will discuss the website at a future meeting.

·         ACTION: Add website development to a future agenda. – Colliers/Co-chair Brady

 

·         Construction Contract Types

·         Derek explained that there are two construction contract types: a construction manager at risk and a general contractor.  For a general contractor (GC), 100% design documents are created, the project is put out to bid and the lowest qualified bidder is selected as the GC.  Using this method, known as design-bid-build, the cost of the construction is known up front.

·         For a construction manager at risk (CMaR), one often brings this type of contractor on sooner, while the building design is still being developed.  The CMaR will then provide feedback and cost estimating along the way.  The CMaR will bid out each trade separately over the life of the project instead of the Town bidding out the entire project up front.  The CMaR will select the subcontractors based on the bids received.  The CMaR will also manage the subcontractors.

·         The reason why this project needs to use the CMaR method instead of a GC is that the current legislation requires a contract to be signed by June 30, 2024, and 100% design documents will not be available by that date.

·         Derek added that while opinions vary, the MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) keeps very good records on school spending and their data shows that one pays a premium for a CMaR versus a GC, but arguably one receives more support via design feedback and cost estimating along the way which you do not get with a GC.

·         Construction Manager contingency is built into the budget to cover items that may have been accidentally left out of the project.  No contingency is needed with a GC because once a GC is selected, a contract is signed for a specific dollar amount.  It is up to the GC to build contingency into their proposal.  Derek added that there is discussion in the RI legislature to potentially provide relief for the June 30, 2024 deadline to hire a construction contractor.  If that happens, we can revisit this item, but for now we’re assuming a CMaR need to be brought on board by June 30, 2024.

 

·         Schedule Phases

·         Funding the Project - $190M bond has passed and the Town needs to borrow money to pay for the project.

·         Designing the Project – Design is in process and will continue.

·         Bidding the Project – if using a CMaR, bidding will happen in the spring so a contract can be signed by June 30, 2024

·         Awarding the Project – a CMaR will be selected from the pool of qualified bidders.

·         Building the Project – construction will take place once design is completed.

·         Project Closeout – must occur within five years of project approval (June, 2029)

 

·         Summary of the Role of the Committee During Construction

·         Advisor to School Committee & Town Council – Building Committee is an advisory board to the School Committee and the Town.

·         Review Project Progress – Building Committee will review project progress along the way.

·         Review Reporting – Building Committee will review project reports from Colliers on a monthly basis at a minimum.

·         Communicating Project Milestones and Successes to the Community – Colliers will come to as many meetings as needed to assist with communications.

·         For items that require timely decisions that can’t wait for a Building Committee meeting, a process needs to be established.  Derek stated that often the Town Administrator can make day-to-day decisions.  “Big” items will need to come to the Building Committee for review.  The Committee needs to align on what “Big” means. 

·         ACTION: Capture a future action item to define what types of decisions need to come to the Building Committee versus which can be handled on a day-to-day basis by the Town Administrator. – Co-chair Brady

 

·         Ideas captured during the meeting by Colliers:

·         Public comment during discussion by agenda item

·         Is there permanently a Building Committee?

·         Agendas on calendar

·         School Building Committee project website

 

·         Parking Lot Items captured during the meeting by Colliers:

·         Membership recommendation

·         Legal recommendation on public input

·         Charge/Ordinance timeline

·         Website

·         Construction approvals process

 

·         The presentation from Colliers is posted here: https://5il.co/2cevc.

 

·         Adjournment:

·         MOTION:  Tom Welch moved that the Building Committee adjourn at 6:34pm and Bill Nash seconded. The motion passed unanimously (10-0).

 

Future Meeting Schedule – The next meeting will be on January 17, 2024 at 5:00p.m. at the Oliphant Administration Building.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Don Morin