Pittsfield Sets $120.8M Budget, Design For New Taconic
 The School Building Needs Commission approved the project on Monday. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has a new school design that will cost $120.8 million to build.
Now, the City Council and the state have to decide if they want to finance it.
On Monday, the School Building Needs Commission unanimously approved the project and the budget.
The new three-story Taconic High School would be built across the driveway from the current building, with construction beginning next spring and opening in 2018.
"It's a big, big day for Pittsfield," said Superintendent Jason McCandless.
"We're very excited. This is a good indicator that Pittsfield's best days are still in front of us."
Work on designing the project began a decade ago. Last year, the commission completed the feasibility study stage and, in November, the Massachusetts School Building Authority approved moving the plan into the design phase.
The process included the crafting of a new educational plan, weighing the spectrum of options from renovating to building new, and then got into the specific details including the types of materials to be used.
"I am so pleased we got to this point," said state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, who has been involved with the project through its entire history.
"This is the most important economic development decision for the city of Pittsfield in a generation."
Monday's vote approved the third design that architects Drumney Rosane & Anderson Architects Inc. crafted for the board based on the educational and funding parameters established. This design was a compromise on a clustered classroom model.
Carl Franceschi of DRA cut some 37 items out of the first design to hit a target of $116 million. Most notable was the reduction in square footage to save $3.4 million. However, that required the elimination of clustering classrooms around flexible working spaces. Those sections or "neighborhoods" had been approved in the educational plan by the School Committee.
Franceschi on Monday presented a plan that brought that arrangement back to the classroom spaces but still reduced some of the square footage.
"We were able to shrink the flex space in the center of these clusters by essentially sliding the teacher space and resource room into the cluster design," Franceschi said. "We now think it costs about half that, $1.8 million, because we were able to save space elsewhere in the program."
The School Building Needs Commission unanimously approved adding $1,782,000 back into the $116 million design. McCandless said the clustered classrooms provide "infinite opportunity" for educators and is a "crucial element" of the design. He added that there is a safety aspect to the clusters as well.
"I think functionally it works. It accomplishes what we all wanted educationally and it does it at less of a premium in square footage," Franceschi said.
 Architect Carl Franceschi designed a building with the clustered classrooms but scaled back the size. |
Then, the group added a $1.9 million air conditioning system to cool classroom areas — another proposed cut — back into the design.
Last week, it added LED lighting back into the design for $97,000; solar panels for $200,000, storm retention system at $240,000; and increased thickness of parking pavement for $85,000. All of those items had been removed from the plan to cut costs.
"There are costs and there is value. I consider them value items. By trying to avoid the cost of them, you are diminishing the value of the building," said Mayor Daniel Bianchi.
"We've gotten rid of a lot of things. We got rid of some of the floor materials. We got rid of windows."
The remainder of the 37 items pulled from the design will now be ranked so should aspects of the project come in under budget, those items could be added back in.
"We have to build a list of contingencies," McCandless said.
The commission approved a maximum expense of $120,800,000. It had already opted to go with a construction manager at risk, so the selected company will be paid only that much to do the project, eliminating the city's risk of overruns and putting that risk on the construction manager.
The City Council will be asked on April 14 to fund the project. The city would have to bond for the entire $120,800,000 and the MSBA will need to approve reimbursing the city for some of the costs. The city is expecting to receive about 80 percent reimbursement on eligible items. With some items being ineligible, the city will likely pay more than $40 million. That is expected to add just short of $70 per $100,000 of assessed value to tax bills.
"I am also worried about the tax impact. I look at this a long time this week and instead of $63 per $100,000, it is $69 per $100,000 of evaluation," said commission Chairwoman and City Councilor Kathleen Amuso.
Commissioner and Ward 6 Councilor John Krol said he believes the City Council will be in favor of the project. Krol said if the city chooses not to fund the project, it will still need to pay more than $30 million in renovations over the period of the anticipated bond. The new school is expected to bring in 100 more tuition students at $12,000 — offsetting much of the cost difference between renovation and a new school, he said.
"We didn't come by this lightly," Krol said.
Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont, who does not sit on the commission, gave his word of support to the commission on Monday as well.
"I would highly encourage you to vote for this plan ... These clusters and building a school for the 21st Century is the way to go," Clairmont said. "We have this opportunity once in 50 years so we shouldn't be pennywise and pound foolish."
He was one of six members of the public to voice support of the project.
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Tags: school building committee, school project, Taconic High,
