Pittsfield To Vote On Taconic Project Tuesday
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iBerkshires sat down with School Building Needs Commission Chairwoman Katherine Amuso, Superintendent of School Jason McCandless and state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bovier to go over aspects of the project.
See Taconic High School Project for more information.
THE COST
The project will not exceed $120.8 million, per the vote of the City Council.
There are two funding sources to this project - the Massachusetts School Building Authority and the city. The MSBA is providing an 80 percent reimbursement on costs that fit its program criteria and the city is bonding the rest. It is expected that the overall reimbursement will be somewhere in the 65 percent range because of ineligible costs. About $97 million of that overall cost is eyed for construction; about $4 million is in the budget for contingency; and the rest is for engineering, design, administration and the construction manager.
A penny on the sales tax collected across the state funds the MSBA. That cannot simply be cut by a governor because state law require legislative action to do so. By the time that unlikely action could occur, the city will already have a signed contract with the organization for funding. It is also worth noting that there are numerous projects in the MSBA pipeline so if the city rejects the project, the money will be spent elsewhere in the state.
The MSBA operates on a "pay as you build" program that provides the reimbursements within 15 days during the construction. The contract is closed out shortly after the construction is completed.
"They reimburse you as you go through a system called pro-pay so the city puts in the cost and within 15 days, the reimbursement is paid to the city on those costs," said state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier.
The city will be responsible for the remainder. The bonding is still estimated to be at least two years away, with short-term loans being taken out to keep cash flow through the project.
"There are Department of Revenues regulations specifically around the MSBA's funding of schools and how they do that," Tricia Farley-Bouvier said. "There is two-year short bonding and then there is long-term bonding."
The School Building Needs Commission has opted to hire a construction manager. That means more work will be done on the design of the project ahead of time and then the city will hire a manager to oversee the project. The construction manager and the city will negotiate fees ahead of time and it is on the manager's risk that project stays on budget.
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The manager comes on at the 60-percent design phase and ensures there are fewer change orders needed, can project material costs and order as needed, and helps works through the "pre-qualification" process to ensure the companies bidding on the project produce the best work. The subcontracts will still be bid but qualifications must be met. This model means more money is paid before construction but is credited with being able to find other savings to make up the difference.
The City Council will be asked to approve borrowing for the entire $120.8 amount. However, the actual bonding will on be for the city's portion of the project.
Director of Finance Sue Carmel and Cinder McNerney of First Southwest Financial say that at $45 million, with interest rates estimated in the 4 percent range, the city could bond for as long as 28 years or as low as 20 years for payment amounts ranging between $2,648,910 to $3,311,120 a year. Currently interest rates are nearly 1 percent lower but that could change before the city sells the debt.
In the 28-year model, it is estimated that the city will make $2,858,328 in annual payments. That is expected to cost residential taxpayers about $70 more per $100,000 of assessed property each year and commercial owners about $356 more per $250,000 of assessed value.
The 25-year model calls for payments of $2,957,097 with residents seeing increases of about $72 more per year per $100,000 and commercial owners $368 more per $250,000.The 20-year model calls for $3,311,120 in payments resulting in residential owners seeing about $81 per year per $100,000 and commercial owners paying $412 more per $250,000.
The average home is assessed at $174,000. Click here for the breakdown of projected tax impacts. That breakout also includes figures for a $36 million bond, which city officials say would need to be taken out to renovate the current building over the same period of time.
The $120.8 budget was developed after independent cost estimators reviewed the schematic plan. An early, reduced version of that cost called for a $116 million building but the School Building Needs Commission felt the reduction of clustered classroom spaces and air conditioning unit, among some of the items, shouldn't have been reduced. The MSBA approved up to as much as $125 million in the early stages.
"The $116 [million] as the magic number just evolved. We could spend $125 [million], before our cost estimators looked at it, and looking at other projects we said this would cost $115 [million]. It was in the news and it became the expectation. The cap of $125 [million] got forgotten about and this self-imposed cap got created," Superintendent Jason McCandless said.
The School Building Needs Commission added some $4.8 million back into the design and will now prioritize other items that were removed from the design to be added in should the bids come in lower than expected.
"It really did become an expectation and we did work hard with DRA and Skanska to look at it but in the end, it wasn't a realistic figure," commission Chairwoman Kathleen Amuso said.
THE DESIGN
Working with the MSBA, the project is based on serving 920 students. That accounts for the 750 or so currently attending the school, moving some vocational programs from Pittsfield High School to Taconic, and then an estimated 100 new tuitioned students.
"The MSBA is the driver of enrollment projections and they are tough on it," state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier said.
Officials had considered a regional district more than a decade ago but fell short of finding partners to join such a district. That process would require a new school committee and district to be formed and neighboring towns, including the one McCandless had worked for during that period, rejected the notion of joining with the city.
"We spent a year and a half of this process," Amuso said. "When you regionalize, you have to have a second school district come on board with you. They don't want to pay the expenses and for this community and another school district, it really just wasn't realistic."
While the school may not be regional, the projected enrollment increase of 100 tuition students is eyed to be the way the school can operate on a regional scale, while not creating the new district.
"We can be a regional solution without creating a new school district," Farley-Bouvier said. "We can reasonably expect 100 additional students."
The design features a gymnasium and auditorium that will be smaller than the current ones. But, the science labs will be larger. The clustering feature, which the School Building Needs Commission added back into the plan, is designed to create "academies." The classrooms tucked off the main hallway and surrounding a teacher's area can be organized by grades or subjects.
The building is three-stories with the top two floors being for the academic classrooms and the vocational shops on the ground floor. The entrance to the building will sit close to where the current visitor's parking lot is and the main feature will be large glass windows to allow more natural light.
"This is a building in the era when you start with security and build out instead of 'we have this building and now we have to do security.' It is really in some ways the heart of the project," McCandless said. "We probably have an ambulance at one of our public schools at least once a week and it is almost always related to medical conditions our students or staff have. This is a big place and we want to make sure an ambulance has multiple access points, first responders have multiple access points."
Upon entering the building, a welcoming desk will be placed that has line of sight down each of two long corridors - one corridor toward the gymnasium, auditorium and library and another to the vocational shops.
A total of 170 cameras are eyed for the building and McCandless says a group of fire, ambulance, local and state police, and consultants will be determining where to place them. Access for emergency responders is built into the design through multiple facets. However, the doors will be equipped with sensors so that administrators know when a door is open. All of the doors will be locked so any person entering the school will need to pass by that first front desk.
Another subcommittee has been formed to inventory the current equipment and furniture and McCandless said as much of the material that can be saved from the current school will be moved over to the new one.
"As much as we can take from the old Taconic into the new Taconic, we want to take," McCandless said. "A piece of vocational equipment may last 30, 40, or 50 years."
Staff from each vocational department will be heading the effort to determine what to save and what to buy new through working with the consultants and visiting other shops. The MSBA allows $2,400 for furniture and $2,400 for equipment per student, limiting the amount of reimbursement for those items.
"The next phase is getting into the finer details of exactly what is going into each classroom," McCandless said. "There is a team of consultants that DRA hires... That $2,400 is not going to pay for everything."
One notable subtraction in the plan is that there is no space for the WBTR radio station.
"There is not a space identified and dedicated in the schematic plans. For one reason, the MSBA says 'do you offer radio as a course?' We say no and they say 'well, we're not paying for it,'" McCandless said. "If we did it, it would be at the city's expense. My recommendation is that it is going to cost to relocate all of the equipment."
If another school nearby closes, McCandless said there is enough room to accommodate a bit more than the 920. But that could require additions to the auditorium and gymnasium.
"The city was very clear a few years ago that we want two high schools," McCandless said. "We certainly did have conversations around the table with MSBA that there are independent and parochial schools that are operating in some cases year to year and we need to be responsive to that."
But should the city opt to close Pittsfield High School in the future and send all the students to the Taconic, the design includes plans for expansion. The city could in the future build another smaller structure close to where the current building is located and build bridges on the upper floors for access.
"The stairwells have all of the electricity, communication, and utilities. They'll basically come up through interior chutes there. That's where we would want to have easy access for all of these utilities to reach across," McCandless said.
EDUCATION
The project is built around an educational plan the School Committee approved early in the project. McCandless said the idea is to "re-envision" vocational education and putting a premium on the programs. That includes upping the qualifications to get into the program and increasing competitiveness.
"It is not lesser than academics. It is actually academics plus. Voc students have to pass the same three MCAS tests that our kids who have been collegebound since kindergarten have to pass," McCandless said. "Our vocational students, almost to a person they could go to college as soon as they graduate. We want everybody to have the college option but we are getting out of the business of saying college is your only path forward."
In recent years the school has boosted vocational programming with a new SkillsUSA chapter and partnerships with Berkshire Community College and local businesses, like Interprint. This is designed to give local students a step up on careers and prepare a skilled work force to attract employers.
"You can earn a good living without incurring the debt and putting your life on hold," McCandless said of vocational education.
The vocational programs, which are Chapter 74 certified, includes automotive technology; carpentry; electrical; facilities management; horticulture and landscaping; culinary arts; cosmetology; health and medical assisting; graphic communications; early childhood care; office technology; manufacturing/machine technology; engineering; and information support. Those enrolled in the program all need four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, three years of social studies, four years of physical education, and two years of human development.
Not all students will be enrolled in vocational programs and others will take core classes. The school will still offer electives and co-curricular activities.
More details on the education plan can be found here.
Vocational education is eyed to complete the needs of existing and prospective employers in the area. Businesses in various sectors have said there is a shortage of skilled workers in the area and the city is looking to boost its manufacturing and life sciences. The goal is for the new school to serve as one part of a pipeline of employees that will help to both lure new businesses and keep the existing ones in the city.
The design also includes flexibility to use the classrooms in other ways so as to serve potential changes in the industry. Subcommittees headed by the instructors for different disciplines are formed to look at new pieces of equipment as new purchases are made in an effort to ensure the same pieces being used the industries are being used in the classroom.
THE TIMELINE
The City Council will vote on whether or not to fund the project on Tuesday, April 14. Following that vote, the MSBA will have to approve its own reimbursement on Wednesday, June 3.
At that point, design development phase in which the consultants Skanska USA will work with city officials to further flesh out details and hire a construction manager at risk. That process is expected to include a day-long session for officials to sort through all of the proposals. Ultimately, the group will determine who they'll hire to head the project and enter negotiations. Pre-construction work will also happen during this phase.
In March of 2016 construction will begin. A new road will be built just north of the current entrance to serve as access for the workers. The current Taconic High School will remain open and students will attend it for two years. Closing the school during this period would have resulted in the need for relocation of the students, which the MSBA does not offer reimbursement.
The construction will take over a parking lot, soccer field, and softball field. The rest of the playing fields will be open and used. School officials are looking at BCC, Doyle Softball Complex, and Reid Middle School as places for those events.
"We've had early talks with the city and BCC and they will be accommodating," McCandless said of moving practices and games elsewhere.
The construction will take two years. Around July 2018, the furniture will be moved into place and the punchlist of items will be finished. Students returning for 2018/2019 school year will be the first class in the new school that fall.
The fencing that separated the construction of the new building from the current school will be moved to the other side of the road. Then demolition will on the current school will begin.
"It remains an active construction site for the first year that those kids are going to school," Farley-Bouvier said.
By spring 2019 the building will be gone and landscaping will being. The newly constructed ballfields will be built and ready for use that fall.
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Tags: MSBA, school project, Taconic High,
