 Okay, it looks like we're good to go. Good morning, everyone. This is the June 9th meeting of the elementary school building committee brightener early at 730 in the morning. And seeing that we have a forum, I'm going to first read the announcement Governor Baker's emergency order that allows us to have put this meeting virtually and let everyone know that that. I'm not going to be able to keep reading that because the emergency order is going to be lifted. We do have permission we heard this Monday and Paul correct me if I'm wrong, I think we have permission if we want to continue to meet virtually up until September 1 we can definitely do that. So that is some and then afterwards, not till September 1 Paul. No, so that no legislation has been passed. So as of today, come June 15, June 15, we go back to pre pandemic times where you have to meet in person unless you do remote participation, high likelihood that there will be legislation passed and they're looking at an April date to extend the remote participation by. Okay, so that is the update on this may be potentially the last virtual meeting we have but that I, I need to go across the room in my screen to call on everyone to make sure you can hear and be heard so I'll just start with Paul which we already know he's here. Paul, I'm here, I'm here. Sean. I'm here. Mike. Here. Allison. Anthony. Here. Phoebe. Here. Steve Schreiber, counselor Steve Schreiber. I'm here. Jonathan. I'm here. Dwayne. I'm here. And Diane. Here. So I think that is everyone except for Rupert. And then. Yeah. So, there's been, oh, there's been, here's been, okay, Ben. Hi, Ben. So I've just gone across the screen and called on people. So if you could let us know what you can hear and be heard. He's putting on his headphones. Ben, could you just signal to us that we're coming through so you can hear us. Yeah, I can hear you. Okay, good morning. Okay, so we're missing Rupert. We will start the meeting and I think what one thing I let everyone know that at 745 we expect. Margaret would to join us as a panelist. So I just wanted the agenda is pretty simple this morning. Good morning. I won't put it up on the screen, but it's to report on what we heard at MSBA on Monday about OPM. And then to discuss next steps with the potential appearance of Margaret Wood and answer and she has agreed to join us. And then any other issues that might have come up. And then the next one is the late breaking news is the MSBA and I'll just do a really quick report and then Mike, maybe you could join in because it's the first one I've ever been to. Margaret clearly had read the proposal and what that in our selection, and we're highly pray in praise of each they went through multiple voices of in praise of what was being proposed, both for our goals and the way answer had responded to them. And one thing I thought was notable for me is they were commended Amherst as a town for we're stretching out to say that we wanted to build a net zero building nets already building, and for including heavyweight on women and minority led teams or crew teams, and they thought that that was taking leadership role and they were hoping other school districts would take that so that was a nice comment I heard. And we will get a formal letter from them as I understood in a few days that they said go ahead and have this meeting. So, Mike, Paul, do you want to report on anything else of note. You know, I'll just very briefly say that a presentation was made, which could be forwarded to the committee. That was a public meeting we're in on Monday that I thought just, I think just showed the professionalism and that answer brings that Margaret brought and you know there was a number of questions more for the opm than for us. And I thought, you know that clearly had a lot of confidence in her and the firm to be able to work with us and communication to bring this project to project to where we want it all wanted to get to at the end with with a better learning environment for children. So I was just very impressed with her I think having been to a number of MSBA meetings, not all of them. I think you very much describe things well Kathy but not all of them feel They often feel more neutral than that one I was actually struck by how positive the conversation was MSBA tends to keep things close to the best even if they're very positive about something. They're not necessarily of course we can be very emotional and emotive about things MSBA is much more you know it's in the financial district for a reason right where it's located and and yet I thought there was a lot of non neutral positive energy towards the town towards the selection of the owner project manager so I was really heartened for that. It wasn't what I was expecting based on past experience that's not a critique of MSBA just how they do business. So I thought the meeting went very well from my perspective. I agree with that assessment especially of the MSBA's attitude which was very positive as pleased that they had that attitude towards the town because we can be challenging at times for state agencies to work with. I think the thing that he emphasized though was the aggressive timeline that we have and making a note that we will need to work hard to meet the timeline that we have established and we should be this committee should be very cognizant of that. And I think it's a very valuable thing right now Kathy if I can ask Mike to say okay now that we have an OPM what's next and maybe that's after answer gets here or. Oh, I would love it if Mike would do that and then Margaret can come in on that because Margaret presented a timeline that I'm assuming she had talked with the both of you. That's very aggressive so Mike. What's next would be great. Sure so the next thing is, I think after you meet Margaret and we get the formal letter which they seem to pledge was going to occur this week. We then take the next steps which are primarily focused on hiring designer. That's an aggressive timeline that that answer presented that would take the summer and try to have that wrapped up in September. That's an aggressive timeline in it of itself, but I do think we entered this process both the town and the district with urgency and I actually like that answers right along with us that the urgency exists. At length as Mr Harrington can tell you last night about some of the continuing issues we have in our school buildings they're not going away just because we're in this process. And some heroic efforts by Mr Harrington Mr Roy Clark and others to make sure that there's cooling at Fort River because we know that was going to happen. And so that would be the next step that what's really different about that process is a three member team, which Margaret may describe. And that decision is not made by that three member team three member team joins a panel of the MSBA designer selection committee they have 12 votes we have three. And so it is a different format but I think that what the committee might what I expect the committee will notice is as opposed to me giving updates as much or Kathy or Paul answer will really be in charge of supporting us to bring the process along they are, you know, I'm happy to go retreat from this role that I've sort of been playing a little bit, because they are our conduits in many ways the MSBA, they will support us to be communicating with the larger community. And that's going to be a wonderful resource for all of us. You're all probably sick of hearing me talk at these meetings I know I'm here enough of my own voice in general and so they're going to come with much more expertise experience. And really their goals going to be to guide this committee to make the best choices for the community. Right so they're not in a decision making seat they're not going to say, you should choose this person or you right but they are our protection to make sure we're making the best decisions for the town. For me there's a lot of comfort that comes from that there's a lot of comfort thank you for all of you who participated in the selection of the OPM, you know, really excited to work with them. I didn't know this firm did never met Margaret for a couple weeks ago. But I think that's what's going to feel different is things are going to accelerate. And then once we have a designer on board things are going to accelerate very very quickly with, you know, getting feedback from this group in the community, looking at the sites, starting to work on models so I know it can feel like a slog until you, you know, it's a lot of process in the front end. But it really will pick up and that's, you know, really why I think we're all collectively trying to expedite things so we actually get into the meat of the matter, and can move forward as a community. I don't know if that that's helpful but that's sort of what I see the next steps are answer maybe able to talk a bit about that. And how you select the three members to be on the designer selection that probably able to describe that in better detail than I can just the other thing I wanted to add Mike that I heard again I heard it on Monday. I think this answer laid out the timeline and was pushed by MSBA. This is an aggressive timeline, it was designer on board selection by the fall, and then by the fall of 2022 a vote townwide, you know so they're moving to go and design to all the other parts of the way, and they were pushed on how could we achieve that and they said because of the work that had been done before both on Wildwood on Fort River that. And I know Jonathan you were with the Fort River project but there's been a lot done on the actual choices of the land in terms of looking at it and what can be accommodated on it. It would normally take a lot of time and as long as MSBA will accept some of that work and the designer will accept some of that work they can move some steps more quickly. So she just she described that timeline and was actually challenged on it and responded quite well with one of the things we'd noticed when both for the initial response and in the interview. She had read the materials and gotten to know Amherst, you know, so it wasn't just any town she had clearly taken the time to figure out the time before this time, you know, and, and the time now. And is well aware of the concern about small school feeling and some of the things that we had emphasized early on. So, so with that, you know, I, I saw that timeline I said okay that to me just means there is a lot of work and as Mike you said, you know, thank goodness we have someone figuring out when the next meeting is and what we need to do. One question I had for you because she I asked her to join a little bit later than the starting just so we could do this. Would you want to also bring her on at some point in front of the school committee. Yeah. Yeah, so I can speak a little to that so we talked about that I think I mentioned last night. In my updates that the MSP process where we were. So I think that makes sense I think the school committee's calendars going to be light in July. That's not a knock on the town council I just wanted to say that I think we'll get back in the swing of things after June probably back in August from the schedule that we looked at last night that the chair brought forward. I do think that makes sense to get them in front of the school committee I also want to note that the school committee themselves had a long conversation last night about you know one of the critical issues which is sixth grade and middle school and it wasn't a decision making meeting but I think what I heard clearly from the school committee is they want to be part of. I'm sure that the building committee is queued up and not waiting on the school committee for for critical decisions and wanting to collaborate so I think they want to be part of the sort of aggressive timeline and to be working collaboratively and then you can correct me if I'm misrepresenting what I heard what I think I heard last night from the committee but I think there was a strong interest in partnering. There are some things like the educational plan that the school committee does need to get involved with and they're on board and they want to support this committee in every way they can because they believe in the work and they know the value of the sooner we get a successful project in the sooner students are in spaces that we all think they deserve and so that was I think a really positive discussion last night on that topic and it was kind of heartfelt for the building committee and how do we help them and one of the ways they help them is there's some critical decisions in the future that are in their hands. More than building committee and they want to be part of partnering and working on those as quickly as we can. Any questions or comments by everyone who's sitting here listening while we're waiting for Margaret. So, so, Mike you had said that on the three people that would be from Amherst on the designer selection. Margaret will guide us of what kinds of people those you know what kinds of people humans for starters but there may actually be regulations or recommendations from MSBA on that I seem to sort of remember that last time but she will have more clarity on that. I think it's perhaps a less free flowing process where sort of anything goes in terms of who joins I'm not anybody goes but like, you know, it was kind of like volunteers I think there's they're a little more intentional. In terms of who you bring in front of MSBA for that panel, I know they'll want someone with an education background as part of that group I know they'll want someone who's elected official in the community. So, I think that was the chair of the school committee town, chair of the school committee myself. And I believe that then town manager I'd have to go back and check but but I think there may be I'm sorry, you know, Margaret, he may know this. I was going to wait for Margaret to join us to figure out our next meeting and the extent to which we have to make decisions as a larger group on smaller group. And so I'm not. Yes, Anthony. One person designated by the school committee. One is the superintendent or design and one is the chief executive of the city or town or design. Thank you Anthony. That was much better than what I said. And I knew that Steve, yes. And I'm sorry I might have missed this but when exactly do we think that the designer selection process will happen. The, what what Margaret laid out as a timeline is that over the summer, we would be putting together the request for services, and we would be able to make a selection to make that decision by the fall. The steps that go into that Steve, I'm less certain I looked at the MSBA guidelines on it and not surprisingly there are lots of ingredients go into that and including the, the drafting of it the posting of it how long it has to be out. And so they, we were, she was encouraged, our challenge to think about that if we want to use some of the work that was done before that we write the request in a way that people understood we're still open to anybody. It doesn't mean that we'll be the same designer we had before that it doesn't mean that we're narrowing it to just a few, because they want to get at least three proposals in. So the how we advertise for it. They said the messaging, the messaging of that has to be carefully worded. Steve does that answer that question. You know what I don't know is what does that mean for July, August and September, you know, if we're selecting by the fall. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Jonathan, you, you headed up the Fort River study. So I think one of the things people were thinking is that in terms of the geography, the geological testing that that's some of the work that's been referenced that we've done some of that so anything thoughts on that. A bit there that can be incorporated into this process. You know, the technical work but I think there's a good basis for beginning the exploration on that site. And, you know, as I understand it at least this process is going to have to look at a couple of sites. And we've got some good base information on both wildwood and Fort River, I think. As long as the weather doesn't change too fast on us. So I think, you know, until Margaret has joined us. Welcome Margaret. Let's make sure you can. I can sort your face. Thank you. Sorry, I had a check in me a minute to find the invite this morning. Thank you so much for joining us. And maybe what we'll do is just quickly go around the room so you know the faces I sent Margaret. I sent Margaret a list of everyone who's on the committee and she met some of us briefly on the OPM selection but why don't I just I can't call I guess you all don't see the same order but people go around the room and then just say next to the next person Paul why don't you start. I'm going to hand it on you. First things first. Paul Backelman town manager I'm going to hand it to Sean. Sean mangano director of finance. I'm going to hand it to Alison. And Alison ST is on the assistant principal at Wildwood elementary. I'm handing it to Mike. I'm a superintendent. I'll hand it to Anthony. Anthony Delaney procurement officer. I'll hand it to Phoebe. I am Phoebe Miriam. I'm a parent and community member. Jonathan. And I am a parent and community member as well. I will hand it to Steve. Steve Shriver town counselor vice chair of this committee. I'll hand it to Kathy. Kathy Shain. I'm chair of the committee and also on the council with Steve. And let's see Allison. I'm handing it to Allison. I will hand it to Ben. I'm Ben Harrington. I'm the school committee rep. And also assistant director of facilities. And I pass it to. I'm balances. This is other board. I'm a community member. I'm a coordinator for the district. And I think we're, Rupert. Diane Rupert. Yeah, Diane Rupert. Good morning coming in. Diane Chamberlain current principal at Fort River school. And Rupert. Hi, I'm Rupert. I'm over in this corner over here. I'm the facilities director for the school system. have been done. Margaret, our time is now yours. And thank you so much for joining us this morning. Oh my gosh, I just have to say they're replacing the gas lines on our street right now. So if you think you're hearing excavating and drilling equipment in the background, you're not imagining things. I stayed home today thinking it would be quieter here, but it's not. So yeah, so I'm Margaret Minerwood. I am an owner's project manager with Answer Advisory. We're in Boston, but we also have staff in Westfield. And in this case, we have somebody else on our team in Worcester. And as I mentioned, I think in the interview, my husband and I have a home in Hilltowns in Westcommington. So we spend a lot of time in Western Mass, and we think of ourselves as really being connected to the community. And so we have a staff of about 30 people in and around Boston. And we've been doing school projects for pretty much as long as I've been there, which is about 17 years, 18 years, I guess it's here. So we haven't done dozens, but the ones we've done have been really successful projects. And we don't take on more work than we can do really well. And we're thrilled to be on your team. So what I don't know what you had intended for this morning, but I did have an opportunity to listen in on one of your earlier committee meetings when you were kind of mashing your way through the designer, the OPM RFS. And I heard a lot of, I sort of wanted to raise my hand and say, I can answer that. I know there are just some general questions that people probably have about the process. So we could, I could do a couple of different things. I could walk you through an overall schedule that I put together in order to develop our fee as a kind of structure for fleshing out questions you might have. I'm not sure that I'll be able to answer them all today, but I thought it might be appropriate sometime pretty soon to just get all the questions out on the table. Does that sound like a useful exercise? That would be perfect. So since I'm doing this at home and I have a little, I don't have two screens, give me a second while I get up the right document. And I think, Paul, is she authorized to share her screen? Yes. Hang on. I'm just opening up the document. Okay. This looks like it. So this was right after the interviews and our notification. First thing I did was I sat down and I sketched out a schedule because our work, the architects work is more defined in some ways than our work is in a sense. There's a kind of common set of steps that you go through. The owner's project manager fee tends to mean more related to overall schedule. So let me, I'm going to just share the screen here. I can. Here we go. Everybody see this? I'm probably going to need to move it around a little bit. Yes, we can. Okay. Let me see. Here we go. All right. I'm going to keep this fairly large on the screen and I'm going to actually enlarge it further just so that we can really focus on the tasks. All right. So everybody see this? Yes. So here's here right here is a list of the kind of key components of the project to get to an approved MSBA project that can be the basis of a local vote. And so we are here. We were just on Tuesday as you probably discussed before I came on at the OPM selection committee where they they blessed your decision. And the next step is designer selection. Once that stem will start feasibility. I'll move this over a little bit. At the end of feasibility and I'll explain what that is in the feasibility piece of the process, there is a submission. Then if you're going to do if you're going to do as you did before a construction manager selection, we recommend that that's kind of a good time to do that because you tend to have a duration and an estimated cost for the very high level estimated cost for the project. Then there is what's called the schematic design process where you take what is the preferred option for the community and you do enough of a deep dive on the design that you can establish a really solid price that you can depend on because it's based on that price that the funding agreement gets executed. So if the price goes up later after the funding agreement, the MSBA's perspective is that it's all on you. So that piece of it is not something you want to rush through because it's really where you nail the price. Then there's a milestone meeting at the MSBA during that period. Then you make the submission of the schematic design to the MSBA. They vote. Then you do your local appropriation and honestly pretty much throughout this process, as you'll see after I scroll over, you are doing community engagement once you've started feasibility. So that's the overview. Now I will say that if you go all the way to the end, the way I developed this was this is the line for the local vote. So the question was really what's your end point for this process? And so I kind of to develop the schedule knowing that those were the tasks you needed to do, I kind of backed into this. So if in November and down here you can see this green line as community engagement showing kind of greater or lesser levels of outreach and communication depending on how dark the green is. So just backing up. You obviously need in order to have a vote in November, you really need to have the cost of the project established for the purposes of publishing the votes and all of that. As it happens, you also have to it's that's really going to come out of the submission. So I'll go back to the beginning in a minute but essentially what I established for discussion is that we would have the final pricing of schematic design here. It would go into the MSBA submission. We don't know right now the dates for the MSBA votes but they tend to have an August meeting and you tend to need to submit about six weeks previously. So these dates are really being driven by the November vote. Okay so now I'm going to go that's the end point. I'm just showing you this as I develop it myself. So I'm going to go back to the beginning and tell you how we get there. So next step is designer selection. I am hoping that we can do this in four months but if we're really and I I know I heard on the one call I listen in on that the duration that it took for the OPM selection was a surprise to people. It always seems like it takes a whole lot longer than it needs to. I am going to write to Brittany Gomez today and who is our project manager at the MSBA and ask her for the schedule that they see. But for the purposes of this I showed it taking you know almost five months. Hopefully we'll have the designer on board in September and the process looks like the process she just went through which is we're going to write an RFS. We finalize it. We give it to the MSBA. They comment. We respond. Then it gets advertised. Then we take in applications. I think this will be a very I mean people will be really interested. Designers will be really interested in this project. I wouldn't be surprised if you got eight or nine or even ten applications. Honestly it's easier if you get fewer but I just think it's going to be a popular project. Then you MSBA gives us about a week to kind of digest and give them I'm not even sure if they take comments anymore but for us to kind of look at them and then we have the first of two meetings with the MSBA designer selection panel. So for those of you that have been involved with other public procurement the other public procurement estate goes through the designer selection board which is for everything else but schools designer selection panel as the MSBA's own mini version of this. Fortunately they're doing the meetings now on Zoom so you won't have to troop into Boston which I always thought was a huge disadvantage for the folks in Western Mass. What they'll do in the first meeting is they will go through all of the applications and they will shortlist the ones that are the top ranked. There will be I think you are allowed to have three participants on the committee and I definitely recommend that you have three because it's three votes in a group of about 12 I believe. So the all the participants vote they get ranked and then typically three but occasionally four if there is a tie in the scoring are interviewed. So if you think about where we are now so we're going to write the hopefully going to write the RFS in June go back and forth with the MSBA. It's advertised in July hopefully we would have applications in August. Go through the applications sometime in August there would be the shortlist and then the second meeting is the interviews. So I am hoping that we would have interviews in September but that's a little bit subject to the MSBA and I think the faster that we can do the RFS and get it back to them the more quickly we can move that along. Nice a couple of clarifying questions Margaret. Sure. So one when you say we write the RFS you mean you write the RFS and we review it right. So I write the RFS. Yeah okay and secondly okay go ahead I'm sorry let you finish the but. I just I just want to say I think that coming together and I you went through this with the you know coming together around what it is you want is it's a real committee consensus building tool. So I will write it I will make recommendations to you but it's it's really about the group of you sort of saying this is what we want. And the second second question is do you see any barriers to the MSBA's designer selection committee meeting in August since it's a heavy vacation month? You know they're pretty regular they I mean they they meet twice a month so it's it's more than a monthly meeting I can ask Brittany about their schedule it is possible that they're not they're going to skip a meeting but it's also a fairly big committee and they tend unlike the board which is kind of at a higher level and is blessing money they tend to go ahead if only one or two people are missing because they have a quorum otherwise. Thank you. Okay so here we are now we're sort of in September October hopefully we have designer on board so the next piece we have to do is this piece called the feasibility. I'm sorry to interrupt you Margot I just want call out to Kathy that other people have their hands up as well. Okay thank you I okay I Jonathan and then Sean. Lower my hand sometimes I forget to do that. I guess I just wanted to kind of reinforce that while I'm very glad that we have Margot on board to write the the bulk of the RFS our input in that process is kind of is very critical because it's the R it's really our only opportunity to frame what we think of as locally important issues both for the potential designers that are going to respond but also for the for the folks who will not be you know part of our community will be selecting the designers and so we want to make sure our voices is heard and and so participating over this next month or so in a vigorous way I think critical. It is it is really important but you know I will say about building committees you'll be together for a long time and you know this is this is your opportunity to sort of develop your I know you've been meeting already but it's it's almost like you know a shared common developing a shared common understanding of the project is really important and that really starts with writing with the work you've already done plus the designer RFS and saying what is it we want okay so now we're in this feasibility I just see two other I just want to see Mike and Sean both have their hands up and I'm my screen is not showing everybody's face so someone else if I miss you Mike and then Sean was up first so I'll defer to Sean okay Sean thanks Mike Mike do we still have a choice over CM at risk versus design bid build and if we do when do we need to make that decision so you do have a choice I mean what's interesting about this is that you've been the choice is really you've been through the process already of asking for permission to use this procurement or delivery construction delivery method what you'd have to do is sort of and the Kathy Collis are who actually reviews these documents the I OIG applications is on the OPM selection committee so we saw her on Tuesday and I told her we would probably be back we would update the previous document with the new team everything else would say the same you don't have to pick the CM here it's something that I recommend because if you go if you're thinking about it it's something I recommend because the greatest value they bring to the project in its early stages is establishing the cost of the project with the eyes of a contractor so I think it's really valuable if we kind of move along here a little bit for them to be on board by the middle of schematic design so that they are really giving input to the designer about construction costs and I think you did something similar to that in the previous project yeah we did we didn't we didn't make it but we did bring this we picked the CM yeah I was just thinking at one of our next meetings I'm not necessarily leaning one way the other but I think it would be good to sort of have a discussion about the benefits of each each method I know one sort of generally lower cost but one maybe results in a better product and so cost will be a big thing for us just because we have other building projects going on in town so I think it'd be a good conversation for the the committee to have and so we can kind of weigh in where we think we should go yeah and I'd be happy to talk to that talk about that at length the one thing I will say is that you are not committed to using the CM even if you use them for pre-construction you can actually have a CM involved and I mean I would generally recommend it for reasons we can talk about at the next meeting mostly having to do with the fact that if you're going to be doing phased demolition and construction it's it you will get a better understanding of the costs and requirements for that if they're in the room when that's being established and since this phase is all about the money and getting the number right that's useful but you're not required to continue the contract is the CM contract gets authorized by phases so you give them a you sign the contract and then you authorize them for pre-construction or you you know and then what if you decide to go forward only then do you authorize for construction you can go through this process and then say no we're going to get it okay we're going to that's helpful to know okay okay so here we are one more mic I'm just going to call on Mike too Margaret so Mike yeah and it's a small point but I talked to Brittany I don't know a couple weeks ago about designer selection just to get a sense and there are dates that are established so there's two dates in August one date September two in October that they've already put publicly on their website so just we have that information you know I think I can send it along to Anthony or Kathy to share out with the full committee but you know based on that it does look like you know two in August one September two October are already on their schedule so it's very different than other ones see you know because I think what Margaret said is what I experienced which is there are some subcommittees on the board which meet very relatively infrequently as comparisons so that's good news in my opinion definitely okay Margaret we're we're they're no more hands you're ready so um so here's the end of feasibility so feasibility I think is misnamed it's really due diligence um and so what they want you to do what you're required to do in that phase is look at the bill do assessments of the buildings do it collect all the data that you need to do the design and then do write the education program and then identify a minimum of three options that are possible and then name your preferred one and that that part of the process includes some very high level estimating um that points to the one you would prefer and then what you're going to do you you are reviewing you have to make a submission at the end of that but you are reviewing with staff during that time and typically once you have submitted you had so you're submitting here you start right into schematic design which is the development to the highest level that you can achieve out of the design for the purposes of getting the price right so what's what's interesting about this project is and this came up for those of you who are remember the OPM selection committee meeting Mary Piketty was questioning you about this um you know she's saying well this is overall this is pretty fast project I think it's not too far off what you did before might be a little bit shorter infusibility but again you know if we're able to start sooner here maybe it's a longer the thing that's different about this than their typical projects is you've done all those studies you've had a structural engineer look at the buildings you've had mechanical assessments you know there's a lot of data already collected and Mary was saying well maybe the selected designer won't want to rely on those well I think it really depends on whether you're talking about a renovation project or a new construction project and but she's Mary's right we need to kind of identify that as a question in the RFS so what's happening here again is writing the education program which I believe you have but we're now going to modify to be for a smaller school potentially with some of the older kids in in the middle school system you have a lot of due diligence but you do have to now say what are our three options which is the community process piece so to me the I'm not very worried about the designers I'm concerned about the in this today is getting to the point where you when you make your submission you have a pretty good sense that the community is behind your preferred option so um so again somewhere in the middle if we decide we're doing CM selection you make the submission you pick your option now this is this is work and it requires you know continuing to update the community and build like here I would say from a community perspective you're really building enthusiasm for the project as it develops but this as the architects in the room will attest this is the work of like figuring out how you're going to build it right and there is this is a milestone that is a kind of I would call it peer review the MSBA has this group called the facilities uh assessment subcommittee that's you know there's some architects there's some educators there's some people who have engineering backgrounds so they look at the design and comment and it's a really important milestone for the MSBA but it is not doesn't change the course of the project typically so you do your schematic design you know again if we are able to stick to the schedule we would get done in July so this end of June and July we're estimating and kind of going back and forth about nailing down anything that we can think of there's going to affect cost right so that when you make the submission to the MSBA which I'm guessing is going to be in mid-July if they have their usual August vote that's really final so there's an opportunity which isn't really reflected in how green the line is here at the bottom to really kind of say to everybody it's in and then when the MSBA takes its vote and they voted and then you know then you're into this the fall of kind of full-on you know getting the community excited about it and having the vote in early November so um Margaret are you ready for questions at this point I am ready for questions and I know Margaret said she could join us but then I think you told me that you had a hard stop at 830 is that correct I do I have to I can text them and tell them I'm going to be a little bit late I can remember what I did with my phone but um okay so why don't we why don't we stick with 830 yeah so why don't we say 830 so questions comments I'm not seeing any hands up yet but I do I have one on the green line on the community engagement line yeah my I have a couple different ones that when you're getting down to three possible ways of going right um I think early on we need to get as much buy-in to those three and the preferred and I saw you have dark green there yeah so so trying to think with you um and you don't need to answer it now of do should we have a subcommittee should we have something that's community outreach should we be doing some forms what should we do so people know what's coming and then similarly when we are now at we've got the building designed um at least currently the 10 the plan is this would be an override vote so it's the um selling marketing gaining enthusiasm for the whole project at that point yeah again just thinking with you and and having you talk about getting prepared to do some of those while we're at this early uh designer phase you know not waiting until we have to do them but actually getting set up to do them that's my question yeah yeah so um I so setting back um in the situations where we've had several projects say three of our four projects so far I've had override votes they've all been successful actually there's a fifth one holy oak that was not but that was a pretty big reach which was doing two schools um the ones that were successful um were successful for in my mind two reasons one was that the building committee was able to work to support um and inform uh not just the building committee but the project team a really strong community group um and I think I know um we talked about at the interview some things like Facebook and other things that we tools that we didn't have at the time but I think identifying your um the real leaders in the community who are not on the building committee and um uh really facilitating them making sure that they have the information it's that group is really important you know it's the group that's going to make the lawn signs and make the wristbands and stick signs and windows because the building committee is really not allowed to spend money um the public money to do any of this you can certainly take a stand for a public project but you can't you can't contribute money towards as a group you can't contribute money towards supporting the project then there is overlaid on that a structured set of opportunities at different levels small and large for people to hear about the project and I am a big fan of um I don't know if you have PTO or parent council um in Amherst but I am a big fan of kind of building up um I always like to say you know you want people to be hearing from other people about the project so if you sort of start with the parent group and inform them and then you build up and then there are public meetings that you're starting to get buzz because of the the parent community and people are going oh I hear there's a meeting I heard somebody talking about in this grocery store I'm going to listen in I am not I feel like one of the places that these things fall down is when you just have public meetings and you don't generate the buzz because it's the buzz that makes people come to the public meetings. Thank you Jonathan you have a your hand up yes just a quick question it's more for personal clarification this is the vote that would happen at this uh stage um is a town-wide vote it's this isn't town council making a decision if it's an override it is is a town-wide vote correct yes it's a it's a dead exclusion override that's a projection thanks and actually can I just clarify a language thing because the MSBA is picky about this in my experience there are dead exclusions and there are overrides and and the dead exclusion is if you're under your tax levy I think that's right and that over no the override is when you're under your tax levy and the dead exclusion is when you're not so I can send you a little bit of language about that but I I think it's important I don't I couldn't care less everybody dead exclusion override most people don't care the MSBA does care and they've it reminded me to be clear about the language in the past so so people say override when they mean it's a when they mean it's a dead exclusion but well the common language is yeah the general public uses them interchangeably and understands them as being the same thing it's a it's a fine point of where you are with relative to your tax lobby so um any other questions um I guess you know Margaret with what you've laid out my one what will you give us um we've been meeting we have not had frequent meetings because up until now it was getting the OPM on board so it looks like the rest of June July June July August we have a lot we have meetings that we will will you give us a schedule you don't have to give it to us now on yeah amended how often we meet and what we need to do so that we can then get it on people's calendars um and do and in and then the second question is that usually a full committee and a subcommittee or usually would you want to be meeting with the full committee every time so both questions well you know back to my point about the um the rfs the designer fs being an opportunity to build consensus among the committee I'm if it's possible I'd personally be in favor of developing the rfs for the full committee but I believe what you did before was you had a subcommittee that worked on it and then brought it to the full committee so I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other I just want to make sure that the full committee is um it feels like they're they're looped in and understand what's being discussed I think the full committee for this makes total sense because this is now getting into what what do we want um yeah um how also do you have a sense of how often um we can and I can talk to you later about this so just you can email you know so this is where the I guess first week in june first weekish in june but we should have at least another meeting in june and then how often in july in order to get to the point where we're right yeah well I I think hopefully the rfs is going to be done in july okay so I and I actually think because of the iteration with the msba let me check with them but I think we'll need to meet several times here a couple of times here to look at the applications together and then prep for so it's really there's more work for us to be done here and then in reviewing the applications going to the interviews is just going to the interviews I mean you don't you don't have to meet for them so that's but I will get the schedule that from britney about what they anticipate and then I'll suggest back our wednesday is the best day for you um they they originally were the best days but we can poll people again and seven thirty was a good time because several as you heard when people went around several people work in the school system and so this allowed them to get to their day jobs yeah and so and and I guess people can let me know if wednesdays are not but they have been a time that seems to have worked for people and I can't raise my hand but margaret does seven thirty in the morning work for you or is that yeah seven thirty is great so that so I think everyone is hearing that they're well once we get that back from margaret that there may be in the month of june more meetings coming um and and we're we're targeting wednesdays so we we need to i'm sure you know this we need to post a meeting 48 hours in advance so so we will uh do that internal discussion and we'll just post them all um so that people have them on the radar screen um right yep I think that sounds good so let me get with britney and give you a proposed schedule for that that meshes up with the MSBA timeline so Paul and we have two more minutes of margaret's time so one of the key questions that one of the key questions I don't think we addressed is the development of a website a project website will you be doing that yes we had we had you had asked and we had offered and what what is the timeframe for that um I do not believe you need the website up until the designer is on board I need to go talk to the person who will be doing it in my office can I ask who will be the point person at the in the at the town for the development of the website or will it be the committee so we have a communications manager on the town side in the school district also has people who would do that so Mike and I can talk about that but yes we'll we'll have one person that will be your point person so for what we've done for some projects is we've had so there's been the town the district's website and then the district's website has a link to the is that the way it was set up before um it would be super helpful to know if you if there are websites that you have seen that you particularly liked or if you want us to bring you a recommendation about it okay yeah I can we we can gather that and um I did some of the background interview checks for oh great yeah yeah and a few of the school building people said they love their website so I went and looked at it you know fabulous but it's I wouldn't otherwise have looked at a website um so if you have any examples on building projects but one was specifically a building project and the way it was laid out uh they they liked so thanks for asking that Paul so right now right now we have a web page within the town site that alerts the meeting and puts meeting materials but and we'll do so I think you're suggesting keep that going until we're yeah designer okay yeah because once the designer is on board and we've negotiated the contract and sorted out you know the kinds of questions that Mary Biketti was asking we'll have an overall schedule for the project at this point I wouldn't want to put an overall schedule forward which is probably what people are most interested in without it being developed in in concert with the design so any anyone else while we have Margaret for maybe 60 seconds more but I don't see any I've got the full screen up um so I I want to thank you very much for making the time and we will at this point with this point we'll probably schedule um next Wednesday we'll we'll set up a meeting for next Wednesday and um Paul and Mike and I will just quickly talk but I think if it's so people might be able to anticipate that it'll be the next several Wednesdays in June if we want to keep on this schedule um so that will um that will be the forward-looking timeline Paul the only challenge with that is that at this point the ability to meet virtually goes off the table on June 15th until there's new legislation we cannot meet virtually um we would have to have a quorum in the chair in a room in the library oh everyone else can log in just to give you a so next Wednesday might be a challenge we expect there may be legislation on Tuesday but we don't know they're really taking it to the matter yes and Paul that would be for the committee but Margaret could be first we could bring her in yes yes we can so then we also need to get that will mean we have to get a room but we'll get a room back to having to find a room as well as haha okay cut but and Paul will provide us with coffee or someone will find the coffee machine the most important thing is where the coffee machine is so thank you so much Margaret sure it's so nice to see you all i'm really looking forward to working with you thank you so i'm going to exit and um i'll let your app up and see next week okay so i'm going to um see whether there are any community community committee comments or questions um looking around i'm looking at the faces on the screen so you can raise your hand if you do um and if not uh we do take public comments and we have uh two attendees so i don't see anyone on the committee okay um yes shawn yeah i was just going to quickly update the committee that we um we had sort of a preliminary meeting with ever source and mass save about some incentives around net zero and things like that it was a very early meeting just to kind of understand what the program looks like um but the i think the big thing is this is something we'll all want to keep in mind as we go forward is that um there'll be this added component of making sure the building's net zero and we're trying to do find other sources of funding to help offset that cost and never sure seemed really eager to participate in this thing this is a high priority for them yeah the the amount of possible um funding was in the six figures i forget exactly what the number was but it you know it wasn't small but it wasn't huge but it was definitely something we would want to um probably participate in to get that uh funding as long as it doesn't conflict with anything else we're doing that'd be great so anyone else okay then we're open for public comments of either uh either the attendees raise our hand i think diane is leaving i don't neither i don't see a hand up well that was for me a very productive meeting um it feels like a real beginning so um we will be finding a room unless paul tells us someone tells us we don't have to have a room for june 16th uh at 7 30 in the morning um and uh thank you thank you everyone and so to the extent we've got examples of these rfs's um that have gone out for designers you know we probably have one when we did wildwood you know you know people we'll see whether we can put them in a packet that if people want to read them and and ask more margaret for something as well so we'll just see to the extent we come together next time we know we can have a focused discussion thank thank you everyone very much see you next wednesday the meeting is adjourned uh bye bye