“On time and on budget” was how SusanMary Redinger, chair of the School Building Committee, described the new elementary school project, which is scheduled to break ground during April vacation week. Redinger and other leaders presented an update on the project Tuesday evening in Town Hall.
The audience, though small, included several children who were entranced by iPads with three-dimensional images of their future school. Quite a few adults also held iPads and pivoted slowly around, staring at the little screens as the view of classrooms, hallways, and entrances changed.
Supporting the statement that the project is on time, Redinger reported that the building committee had submitted the most recent set of design documents, which are 90 percent complete, to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) last week. In her summary of the schedule, she noted that final construction documents are slated for completion in late April, with bids due in May and June. The final notice to proceed with construction is scheduled for July.
Keeping the project on budget has been a challenge, requiring several rounds of changes to stay within the $53.5 million approved by last year’s Town Meeting and by the MSBA, which is reimbursing about $19 million of the cost. But Redinger said the changes have not interfered with the goal of making the new building “structurally sound, durable, and sustainable.”
The beginning of construction next month will disrupt the traffic patterns for cars and buses at the elementary school. Principal Josh Myler explained that the middle of Fairbank Street will be closed off by a construction fence behind the playing fields. Parents who drive their children to school will have to enter Fairbank from Route 111, drop off the child, and then go around the circle and drive out the way they came in. Parents are being notified of all these changes, Myler said.
Myler joined the School Committee in urging families to have children take the bus to school. Buses offer “door-to-door service,” he reminded listeners. To encourage more children to ride the bus during construction, the School Committee has eliminated bus fees for children who live within a 2-mile radius of the school. (Under state law, those who live farther away already ride for free.)
Finally, Myler pointed out that the months of construction will bring excitement as well as hassles. “There will be trucks and diggers, and it will be wonderful,” he said, grinning at the young children in the audience. They were grinning, too.
