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School Building Committee member Robert Ericson said parking on the north side of the building (right in this image) should be eliminated and access to a drive around the back of the building should be restricted.
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An architect's image of how the addition/renovation at Mount Greylock may look. The three-story academic wing is on the right. The main entrance is in the center.
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Superintendent Douglas Dias raised concerns about the distance of between the main entrance, bottom left, and the administrative office, in red. At left, in yellow, is the proposed media center.
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The HVAC zones favored by the committee are seen in blue (auditorium and cafeteria left and administration, guidance and nurse's office at right).

Mount Greylock Building Committee Looks at HVAC, Security Concerns

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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School Building Committee member Thomas Bartels, right, repeated his objection to using radiant ceiling panels for heat.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Even as a Dec. 1 deadline looms for submitting a schematic to the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the Mount Greylock School Building Committee continued last week to weigh the pros and cons of design elements.
 
The committee met for the second time this year at Lanesborough Elementary School, where it addressed elements ranging from vehicular traffic to materials selection for the proposed addition/renovation project.
 
The panel on Thursday revisited the subject of the project's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system — once again hearing concerns from committee member Thomas Bartels and fielding criticism from a member of the public.
 
Bartels again questioned the designers' choice of radiant ceiling panels as the primary heat source for rooms in the planned three-story addition.
 
He first raised the issue during a review of the minutes from the committee's last meeting, wanting to make sure his concerns about the efficiency of the heating system are on the record.
 
Architect Dan Colli of Design Partnership of Cambridge once again sought to allay fears that the radiant ceiling panels will not adequately warm spaces in the junior-senior high school. He said earlier on Thursday, he had passed along to Bartels three references of schools where the technology is being used successfully.
 
Bartels, who in the past has cited his own experience with the radiant ceiling panels, said he would follow up with the references.
 
Designers also were able to cite examples of successful use of dehumidification to control temperature in response to concerns that the add/reno plan does not have enough air-conditioning.
 
Lanesborough resident Michelle Johnson, an elementary school teacher, told the committee that she is worried that without air conditioning, the three-story academic wing will be unreasonably warm in the opening and closing weeks of the school year.
 
"Coming from a three-story building without air conditioning, the rooms get hot," Johnson said. "I'm disappointed because that was part of the original design, and that's why I voted for it."
 
Johnson referred to a public input session earlier this spring at which participants were asked to give their preferences for several potential designs, including one that would have retained the single-story academic wing of the current Mount Greylock.
 
Committee members told Johnson that all of the HVAC configurations would have been on the table with which ever design was chosen, but she said she was under the impression in the early stage of the process that air conditioning would be a feature of the addition.
 
"I would have been more comfortable [without air conditioning] for a one-story building versus a three-story building," Johnson said.
 
Without yet voting on a final schematic (that step comes in November), the committee has at past meetings directed designers to focus on an HVAC setup that has air conditioning in some parts of the building (the auditorium, cafeteria, media center and administration) and a combination of heating and dehumidification in the academic wing.
 
Superintendent Douglas Dias and Business Director Nancy Rauscher, who both serve on the School Building Committee, shared their experience visiting school buildings where dehumidification systems help keep rooms comfortable on hot days.
 
"It was completely comfortable," Rauscher said, referring to a school in Shrewsbury she visited with Dias.
 
"In some respects, this dehumidification system is 'air-conditioning light,' " co-Chairwoman Paula Consolini said. "It's a sophisticated approach that has not been available until recently. It's air enhancement without going full-tilt air conditioning."
 
The School Building Committee, concerned about holding costs down and fearful of giving the impression it is proposing a "Taj Mahal" of schools, has repeatedly emphasized the need to hold down costs in the planned design.
 
To that end, owners project manager Trip Elmore of Newburyport's Dore & Whittier talked about efforts to reduce the scope of the project in an attempt to drive down the bottom line.
 
In July, Elmore gave preliminary estimates of the district's share of the chosen add/reno scheme at $42.7 million. In November, the committee will have a final dollar figure to consider before asking the School Committee to send the schematic design to MSBA.
 
On Thursday, Elmore said he would not guess at this point how the number will change but characterized the initial estimate as "conservative" with the hope that the price tag would come down.
 
He also talked about one of the cost-cutting measures currently being implemented: the elimination of a new parking lot.
 
Because the committee chose a building plan that would utilize the same land for the main parking lot, designers are able to cut plans for a renovated parking lot from the project's scope. Since parking lots are considered site work, and since MSBA has a cap on site work expenses that the project likely will exceed even without a new parking lot, a paving project's cost would be borne entirely by local taxpayers, Elmore explained.
 
Parking also was a concern for committee member Robert Ericson, who suggested a modification during a review of the current plan. Ericson suggested eliminating parking on the north side of the building. The current parking in that area is misused, particularly during athletic events, and it encourages visitors to park on the grass even closer to the athletic fields.
 
In addition, Ericson commented that the current design allows for visitors to use a drive that wraps around the school building. He said only official school vehicles and emergency vehicles should have access to the loop. Allowing the general public to circumnavigate the property was a security risk, he said.
 
Architect Bob Bell of Design Partnership was amenable to both suggestions.
 
Ericson made another suggestion on the security front, recommending designers abandon the idea of floor-to-ceiling windows in the cafeteria, which faces the parking lot. Ericson suggested that instead the space be designed with several feet of solid walls at the bottom, allowing occupants to drop to the floor for safety in the event of a school shooting.
 
Dias also raised a security concern, asking the designers to consider moving the location of the administrative office to a spot adjacent to the front door. In the most recent design, the admin office faces the front door across the front lobby area. Dias suggested it would be more practical to have visitors interact with office personnel before they get into the building.
 
He also said having the admin office at the front of the building gives staff a line of sight to the parking lot and driveway entering the property.
 
Dias said he appreciated designers' efforts in giving the school's media center "prime real estate" on the east side of the building with views of Mount Greylock. But he indicated it may be more practical to locate the administration there.
 
"In this design, you get buzzed in and walk to through the lobby to get to the office and sign in," Dias said, referring to the current design. "There's not much to keep a person from going to the media center or the academic wing [without signing in]."
 
Bell said Design Partnership would take another look at the layout in light of Dias' concerns.

Tags: MGRHS,   school building committee,   school project,   

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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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