Stoneham School Building Committee Submits 90% Construction Documents to the MSBA

STONEHAM –Stoneham School Building Committee (SSBC) members recently approved the 90% Construction Documents, which were submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on Sept. 28.

Submission of the 90% Construction documents allows the MSBA to monitor the project to ensure it remains on track and meets the expectation of both the School District and the MSBA as defined in the Project Funding Agreement. 

This milestone brings the Committee one step closer to the guaranteed maximum price phase – the highest amount of labor, materials and profit costs the town can be charged for the project. The maximum price will be finalized in early January 2023.

As continued inflation, supply chain and workforce challenges affect the construction industry and have had a profound impact on the project, the Committee has agreed that once the GMP is assessed, it will very likely be necessary to return to Town Meeting to seek an additional sum of money to be added to the budget. These cost increases are affecting virtually the entire construction sector.

“We have moved several important pieces of the project to the Bid Alternate status in order to keep our initial commitment to open the new building in September 2024, on time and on budget” notes Committee Co-Chair Marie Christie. “But, we feel very strongly that these aspects of the project are necessary to deliver the project we promised. While it is too early to know the exact amount of the request, the Committee continues to work with the project partners to assess and communicate the impact to the community on a timely basis.”

To keep the project on time for delivery in June 2024, the Committee approved the early procurement of materials needed to construct the building’s structure, although the costs for structural steel had increased by 30% since the last cost estimate. Delaying purchase would dramatically increase delivery time.

The additional costs forced the Committee to revisit plans and move some items of significance to the project to the Bid Alternate category – which included items that could easily be added back into the design if additional funding became available.
Among items that have been placed in the Bid Alternate category are the Athletic Building adjacent to the new stadium – which includes home bleachers, visitor bleachers for the stadium, a turf field and an outside study area off of the second-floor arts wing.

In addition, over the past year, the Committee has made a number of value engineering decisions on items that changed the product/process initially chosen – i.e. changing from moveable to solid classroom walls, removing the Central Office area from the project and swapping various architectural finishes – which did not in any way impact classroom or programming. These changes were necessary in order to keep the approved project on budget as inflation impacted the original cost estimates.

The Committee continues to meet on Mondays to advance the project and work on the next pricing phase. Information from all meetings, site pictures and more can be found at http://www.stoneham-ma.gov/hsbc. Meetings are generally held twice a month on Monday evenings beginning at 7 p.m. The School Building Committee meetings are open to all and the Committee welcomes your attendance and input. Details for attending meetings virtually can be found at https://www.stoneham-ma.gov/hsbc.

If you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can find online versions of the meeting live, on Stoneham TV government channels (Comcast 22, RCN 15 and Verizon 36). You can also view the meetings at any time on https://www.stonehamtv.org/ondemand.

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