School Building Committee (2020)

School Building Committee (2020) Regular Meeting City Hall, R00m 335 100 Broadway, Norwich, CT And via ZOOM Tuesday, July 16, 2024 6:30 PM Committee Members Present: Chairman Mark Bettencourt, President Pro Tem Joe DeLucia, Alderwoman Stacy Gould, Peter Gauthier (ZOOM), William Hull, Gregory Carabine, Gregory Ballassi, Sheila Hayes (ZOOM), Mark Kulos and Cindy Beauregard. Committee Members Absent: Christine DiStasio. Ex-Officio Members Present: Superintendent Susan Lesard (ZOOM), Mayor Peter Nystrom, Attorney Michael Driscoll, Mary Lou Rychling and Matthew Brown (ZOOM). Consultants Present: James Barrett from DRA; Chip Natsis and Jeff Anderson from Downes Construction; and Mike Faenza and Jim Guiliano from CSG. Citizens Present: None. I.Call to Order and Quorum: Chairman Mark Bettencourt called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM. II.Approval of Minutes: William Hull made a motion to approve the June 18, 2024 meeting minutes with some adjustments. Alderwoman Stacy Gould seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. III.Public Comment: None. IV.Report from CSG: Mike Faenza provided a project update packet to all members. Mike Faenza reported that the Stanton Elementary design development drawing package had been estimated and reconciled by Downes Construction and Tarbell Construction. Mike Faenza stated that the project was approved at the special June Commission on City Planning (CCP) meeting and the first payment requested was submitted to the state for reimbursement. Mark Kulos arrived at 6:34PM. Mike Faenza stated that the construction document phase for Stanton Elementary had begun and the design team would continue to develop those drawings. Mike Faenza stated that to date $1,356,946.20 had been spent on the Stanton Elementary project. Mike Faenza stated the updates for the Greeneville project in regards to the design development reconciliation, CCP project approval and reimbursement request were the same as those for the Stanton project. Mike Faenza stated the construction document phase had also commenced for the Greeneville school project. Mike Faenza stated that $1,284,166.32 had been spent to date on the Greenville Elementary School project. Mike Faenza reported that the grant application package for the Moriarty Elementary School project was submitted to the state on June 28, 2024 prior to the June 30th deadline. Mike Faenza stated the project estimates were updated to reflect a lower elementary enrollment, which was reviewed by the district administration. Mike Faenza stated the current enrollment analysis indicates an enrollment of 541 students may be possible pending a review by a certified demographer. Mike Faenza stated that enrollment data would continue to be analyzed and confirmed to determine if the building could be constructed smaller. Mike Faenza stated that the project update packet included a proposal from CSG for a peer review of the enrollment data from the master plan, enrollment update and district historical enrollment for consideration. Mike Faenza stated the packet also included the district enrollment analysis for review. Mike Faenza stated that the grant application for the Uncas Elementary School project was submitted to the state on June 28, 2024. Mike Faenza reported that the project estimates for Uncas were also updated to reflect a lower elementary school enrollment, and that the current analysis showed an enrollment of 541 students may be possible pending a review by a certified demographer. Mike Faenza stated that the enrollment data would continue to be analyzed and confirmed. Mike Faenza reiterated that the packet included a proposal from CSG for a peer review of the enrollment data from the master plan, enrollment update and district historical enrollment for consideration and the district enrollment analysis for review. Mike Faenza stated the last project included in their update was the design and construction of a new or renovated-as-new middle school on the current Teacher’s Memorial Magnet Middle School site. Mike Faenza stated that the CSG team had been developing estimates for both scenarios. Mike Faenza stated that the current enrollment analysis, developed in coordination with the district administration, called for 500 students or 84,000 square feet for the new or renovated building. Mike Faenza stated this analysis would also need to be confirmed by a certified demographer. Mike Faenza stated that the associated documents, peer review proposal and both concept estimates were included in the provided packet. Sheila Hayes joined the meeting via ZOOM at 6:39PM. ● Report on enrollment projection impacts Mike Faenza stated that the original master plan estimate with the original enrollments put the overall school project at $385,000,000. Mike Faenza stated the grant application estimates together put the school project total at $412,981,929. Mike Faenza continued that the schematic design estimate by Downes Construction brought that amount to $434,997,998 and the Downes design development estimate brought the cost down to $434,405,578. Mike Faenza stated that the overall project cost with the updated enrollment analysis for Moriarty and Uncas schools, and the consideration of a new school at the Teacher’s Memorial Magnet Middle School site, put the grant estimate at $379,773,123; the schematic design estimate at $398,315,543; and the design development estimate at $397,723,123. Mike Faenza reported that construction program budget with the same updated enrollment analysis for the two elementary schools and the consideration of renovating the Teachers’ Memorial Magnet Middle School as-new put the grant estimate at $371,016,566; the schematic design estimate at $389,558,986; and the design development estimate at $388,966,566. Mark Kulos asked why the comparisons shown were not apples-to-apples, as he noted the updated proposed budgets showed the contingency amount at zero dollars. Mike Faenza responded there were no contingency funds available as that money was being put towards the existing project that was already over the original authorization. Chairman Mark Bettencourt stated that the projects still contained contingencies for a construction manager, design estimates and architect. Mike Faenza stated that the CSG estimator was on the Teacher’s site on July 9, 2024 to assess the layout of the school for developing the estimates for a new building or renovating as-new. Mike Faenza noted that the Master Plan estimate for Teacher’s Memorial Magnet Middle School called for an 87,000 square foot building plus a 40,000 square foot addition which would host much more than 500 students. Mike Faenza stated he was unsure if there was something accounted for that he was unaware of, but that realization along with the budget issues was when CSG started to look at the enrollment analysis. Mike Faenza reviewed the enrollment analysis provided to members. Mike Faenza noted within the Master Plan enrollment report, as well as the district-wide demographic study update, he believed there was a formula error for the year 2023 all the way to the end of the data. Mike Faenza explained the individual summary sheets were not updating correctly to the master summary sheet, and as a result there was an inflated enrollment figure that was 202 students higher than the number that should have been used. Mike Faenza reiterated this would need to be confirmed by a certified demographer. Mike Faenza stated that the only option moving forward would be to lower the enrollment at Moriarty and Uncas to reflect the savings, which would also cause a reduction in the construction costs. Mike Faenza stated that after speaking with the district administration he used an enrollment number of 2,275 students to update the estimates in the grant application phase to reflect the smaller building size. President Pro Tem Joe DeLucia asked what the built-in contingency was for the individual projects. Mike Faenza responded there was still a good remaining amount of contingency built into the Stanton and Greeneville projects and there was an owner’s contingency at the schematic design level of $3,505,983.00. Mike Faenza stated there also remained a construction contingency at three percent and a five percent design and estimating contingency. Discussion ensued. Mike Faenza stated that a large component of the potential cost savings is what is anticipated could occur, if confirmed by a demographer, at the Teachers’ Memorial site. Mike Faenza stated the original Master Plan estimate for that site was $99,530,936 for a roughly 128,000 square foot school. Mike Faenza stated that he and Susan Lessard worked together to pinpoint the middle school enrollment number to better understand what size school would really be needed. Mike Faenza stated they utilized the enrollment at Kelly Middle School as a reference point, which had 651 students between 2020 and 2021. Mike Faenza stated they then took the remaining number within the district enrollment to base what size school would be needed at the Teacher’s Middle School site, which was 500 students based on the analysis they made. Mike Faenza continued that the bus loop and parent drop off on the site would need to be addressed, but they came to a determination that only an 84,000 square foot school would be needed which led to the cost savings discussed. Mike Faenza stated he reached out to a demographer to conduct a peer review on the enrollment information and they provided a quote for that work. Mike Faenza stated that the proposal is for a rate of $225 per hour, not to exceed ten hours total. Mike Faenza stated that regardless of ordinances they would need correct numbers prior to September 3, 2024 to move forward with the project. Mike Faenza stated that the outcome of this could have an effect on one of the ordinances needing to request a lesser amount. Discussion ensued. Chairman Mark Bettencourt stated that the first two schools in the project were being built at an 80 percent reimbursement rate from the state and the following two schools would be the same. Chairman Bettencourt stated he was working with Senator Osten to have the remaining schools in the project covered at that reimbursement rate as well. President Pro Tem DeLucia stated investigation should be made into other funding options available for components such as HVAC and electric at some of the sites, specifically at Huntington School. Discussion ensued. Susan Lessard stated that she and Mike Faenza met with the administration at Kelly  Middle School to review maps and landed at the enrollment numbers of 650 students at Kelly Middle School, 550 students at Teacher’s Middle School and 332 school readiness program slots. Discussion ensued. Susan Lessard added that she was not sure that the total 25 million dollars allotted for the Huntington would be required to make the space conform to special education and administration office space. William Hull made a motion to allow CSG to reallocate money from multivista in their specifications to cover up to $2,250 in cost for peer review of Norwich Public Schools enrollment projections. Gregory Carabine seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. V.Report from DRA: James Barrett reported that, as previously stated, value engineering had been achieved for the Greeneville and Stanton projects using the recommendations voted on by the committee in March. James Barrett stated they were able to hit the target values to lower the cost of the projects. James Barrett stated they received approval letters on the projects from the Inland, Wetlands and Watercourses Commission as well as the CCP. James Barrett stated DRA was in the second phase of site evaluations which was environmental assessment related. James Barrett presented the reporting numbers from the subsurface investigation on screen for all to see and reviewed the data. James Barrett noted there were 22 test points throughout the Greeneville site and discussed the different types of subsurface testing conducted and samplings received. Chairman Bettencourt asked if there were any preliminary ideas of the retaining wall at Greeneville. James Barrett responded there were and that had been included in the cost estimation and they would be working with that data moving forward. VI.Report from Downes: Chip Natsis stated Downes had worked hard over the past few weeks with the drawings provided by DRA to fine tune their estimated numbers. Chip Natsis stated the original schematic design budget for Stanton was 73 million dollars, which was about 7.5 million dollars over budget. Chip Natsis stated that Downes’ goal was to reduce the overall budget by 4.1 million dollars by changing and eliminating certain aspects. Chip Natsis reported that cost savings at the Greeneville site was more challenging due to the site related work conditions. Chip Natsis stated the Greeneville schematic design budget originally was 82 million dollars which was two million over budget. Chip Natsis stated Downes’ goal was to reduce the budget by 3.5 million dollars. Chip Natsis explained that the schematic design estimate for the Stanton Project had 4.1 million dollars in reduction which put the budget at 58.1 million dollars and with additional soft costs that amount came to 69.5 million dollars for the project. Chip Natsis reported that after including value management items they were able to bring the construction costs for Stanton down to 57.4 million which was $622,000 less than what his team was working to achieve. Chip Natis continued that including soft costs the Stanton project now came to approximately 2 million dollars over budget. Chip Natsis reported that the Greeneville construction costs had increased slightly which he felt was contributed to by the need to work around joint service areas included in the project, the requirement of a traffic light for the site in addition to other site related items. Chip Natsis stated that the Greeneville project budget was about $600,000 over their goal amount. Chip Natsis stated Downes may be able to reduce costs in the retaining wall as the subsurface data continued to be provided to them. Chip Natsis reported that the Stanton project value management delta was $622,916; the Greeneville project value management delta was negative $628,617; and the combined project value management delta was negative $5,701. Chip Natsis stated that overall there was approximately $5,000 more in cost than what they were anticipating which included $700,000 in items Downes was unaware of at the time of the schematic design phase. Mark Kulos asked if the price for the Greeneville site included excavation, blasting and things of that nature. Discussion ensued. VII.Discussion and potential action on any proposed scope changes if needed: Chairman Bettencourt stated the committee received a referral from the city council on the two ordinances but additional information was needed before action could be taken on those proposals. Chairman Bettencourt explained that one proposal is to change the scope of the overall project by eliminating the Teachers’ Memorial Magnet Middle School and administration building projects for the time and working only on the four elementary schools. Chairman Bettencourt stated that the second proposal was to continue with the entire project with an increased bond amount. Chairman Bettencourt stated currently the committee did not have solid numbers for those costs yet. Chairman Bettencourt stated they would have an agreement with the peer review demographer the next day who would have a few weeks turnaround to provide enrollment numbers. Chairman Bettencourt stated a special meeting could be scheduled once that information was received to allow for discussion on the project moving forward and if changes needed to occur. VIII.Consent Agenda: A. Invoices: ● CSG - Greeneville #16- $10,680.02 Stanton #16- $10,555.46 Moriarty #3 – $19,523.20 Uncas #3 - $15,000.00 DRA - Greeneville #9 - $184,403.77 Greeneville PSS (Professional Services) #1 - $3,191.25 Greeneville PSS #2 - $32,252.92 Greeneville PSS #3 - $1,788.66 Stanton #8 - $205,010.74 Stanton PSS #1 – $3,549.48 Stanton PSS #2 – $4,545.38 Stanton PSS #4 – $540.42 Mark Kulos made a motion to accept the consent agenda including the above invoices. Alderwoman Stacy Gould seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. IX.Anything else to be brought before the committee: Mike Faenza read into the record Downes Invoice #000-4 for the Stanton Elementary School Project dated July 3, 2024 for $32,609.67. Gregory Carabine made a motion to approve the payment of the invoice. President Pro Tem Joe DeLucia seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. X.Adjournment: Alderwoman Stacy Gould made a motion to adjourn at 8:23 PM. Cindy Beauregard seconded. The chairman called the roll of members present and all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. Respectfully Submitted, Katherine Rose