WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee on Thursday learned that the initial estimate to pay for a field and track project at the middle-high school is higher than anticipated, but the panel voted unanimously to take the next step toward bringing the project to fruition.

 

Estimators hired by the district's owner's project manager, Skanska, determined that the projected bottom line for an eight-lane track around a new multi-purpose grass playing field with adjacent areas for shot put, discus and javelin competitions is just under $3.5 million, the committee learned.

 

That estimate is based on the current market for construction and materials to complete work based on the conceptual designs created by CHA Architecture of Portland, Maine.

 

School Committee member Carrie Greene and Business Administrator Joe Bergeron, who each serve on the district's Field and Track Project Committee, walked the full School Committee line by line through the estimate, calling out places where the field committee had recommended items be eliminated to save costs and items that potentially could be funded through donations.

 

"There are a number of things, probably a handful of things, we could potentially fund raise for," Greene said. "We also talked about grants, private donors, a GoFundMe. You could imagine the alumni of the track and field program contributing to buying hurdles or equipment needed for the throwing sports."

 

The current estimated project cost of $3,470,775 does not include bleachers or a press box for the field but instead includes the cost of pouring a concrete pad where portable bleachers and a portable press box can be added later in the project.

 

"At the end of our meetings, we agreed we should value engineer down to pouring the concrete pads that will allow a portable bleacher and portable press box that would need to be fund-raised," Bergeron said. "Portable bleachers can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $60,000-$70,000. A portable press box would cost $25,000-$30,000.

 

"Those costs are viewed as things that we can always purchase later, but we don't need a general contractor including it in what they're bidding on. This is the maximum flexibility we wanted to recommend."

 

The School Committee long has planned to pay for an improved athletic field — first an artificial turf field and later the current project — from the proceeds of a $5 million capital gift the middle-high school received from Williams College at the outset of its recent addition/renovation project.

 

On that front, the School Committee received a bit of good news on Thursday.

 

Bergeron reported that as of July 1 the "gift" is valued at just less than $4 million. That is despite a number of expenditures from the gift over the years, including funds to build a multipurpose building that houses the district's central administration. Because the gift is part of the larger Williams College endowment, the principle has grown along with the rest of the endowment over the years.

 

Taking into account funds committed but not yet spent from the gift, Bergeron reported that the district is expecting it to be worth $3,590,547 at the time the field and track project goes to bid.

 

"The flip side is we need to be cognizant of what might be happening in the market since July 1 and what might happen between now and when we ask the college to liquidate [the gift]," Bergeron said. "There is no indication that it has dipped, but we need to acknowledge that possibility and navigate it as we go through the next year."

 

One big ticket element of the athletic field project that, in the past, the School Committee has discussed as a potential "add alternate" is lighting. The Field and Track Project Committee instead is recommending that lights are essential to the field and should be included as part of a base bid when the project moves forward.

 

In the current estimate, the cost of exterior lighting is about $400,000.

 

The School Committee was informed that the ability to play games after sunset is essential to the operation of Mount Greylock's varsity athletics, particularly after a decision a couple of years ago by the Berkshire County schools to abandon the county league and instead play in leagues with schools from the Pioneer Valley that require later start times.

 

"Right now, soccer games are being played where a good half of the game at least is being played in conditions where lighting helps or is necessary," Bergeron said.

 

As for the multisport field itself, Bergeron said the design calls for an installation with drainage and irrigation to promote maximum playing time.

 

"The drainage underneath is designed to be supportive of play after rain," he said. "Irrigation is part of the plan, but that does not come without cost [about 2.7 percent of the current estimate]. Irrigation built in to keep it at peak playability for as long as possible is part of the core here."

 

The field committee is recommending that the base bid include sod for the multisport field that will serve the school's soccer, lacrosse and, potentially, football teams.

 

A seeded field would cost about $36,000 versus a sodded field with a projected price tag of just more than $96,000.

 

In addition to making the field available for use sooner, the main advantage of sod is that it requires less maintenance early on, Bergeron said.

 

"If you bring in seed, you're monitoring and watering on a daily basis until it is established," he said. "It would be about $36,000 if we grow from seed, but that does not take into account the watering and soil amendments."

 

Five of the seven School Committee members attended Thursday's meeting, with Curtis Elfenbein and Jose Constantine absent. Those five voted unanimously to authorize the Field and Track Project Committee to move the project from conceptual design through schematic design. When the schematic design is complete, the School Committee will subject it to another review before the creation of bid documents.

 

According to the current project timeline, that review would come at the School Committee's Nov. 10 meeting with bid documents released as soon as mid January and construction underway as soon as mid-March 2023; construction would run through October of next year.

 

In other business on Thursday, the School Committee approved a written summation of the members' individual evaluations of Superintendent Jason McCandless. The overall grade was "proficient," though Chair Christina Conry emphasized that is a proficiency when judged against the "rigorous" standard set by the commonwealth.

 

Conry highlighted the written remarks from Greene, the longest-serving member of the School Committee.

 

"[W]e are better off today than we were two years ago," Greene wrote. "Not since the eminent Dr. Clarke has Mt. Greylock had a leader more respectful, more honest, more open to reflection, more focused on staff and students, more collaborative in his approach, more focused on the good of the overall community. I would add 'more humble.' Sometimes it appears there is too much humility, but if the opposite of humility (and graciousness) is arrogance, I'll take humility."

 

The last time the Mount Greylock School Committee evaluated a superintendent was June 2019, when four of the six committee members rated then-Superintendent Kimberley Grady "proficient."

 

In June 2020, at a time when Grady was pressing the School Committee to do its job and complete the evaluation process, the committee instead held a closed-door meeting whose minutes show that Grady was "working with school committee where majority of committee is not supportive."

 

By July 11, 2020, Grady had left the district.

 

The last superintendent evaluation before Grady's June 2019 evaluation was completed in June 2016 for then-Superintendent Douglas Dias. At that time, five of the seven School Committee members rated Dias "proficient."

 

Five months later, Dias left the district for reasons neither he nor the committee explained.