The items in green are those for which the SBC is seeking additional funding at Town Meeting (click image to enlarge).
The School Building Committee answered questions and made its case for appropriating another $828,945 for the school project during a June 4 public forum conducted via Zoom.
The forum, which had 27 participants (about half of whom were SBC members and construction staff), was one of two such events scheduled before the June 13 Town Meeting, when residents will vote on moving money from the town’s free cash to restore some of the items that were cut from the project after bids came in $3.5 million over budget. The second Zoom forum will be on Monday, June 8 at 8 p.m. (participants must preregister but may do so right up until the start of the event). Click here to see a recording of Thursday’s forum.
The $828,945 would add back some items that either cannot be restored later, or could be restored later but only at significantly higher cost. The requested amount is a reduction from the $2.08 million that the SBC had planned to seek in March before Town Meeting had to be postponed and the town budget reexamined in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SBC outlined background material and the list items on the list in this memo and this slide deck shown during the forum, when officials offered more details about some of them:
- The obsolete auditorium divider dates from the building’s opening in 1963 and is necessary for separating the stage and performance space from the lecture hall. Installing a new one later would mean tearing up some of the newly refurbished areas that are being particularly funded by a gift from the late Harriet Todd.
- The sun control louvers in several areas of the building are needed to reduce glare and save money on heating and cooling.
- An interior glass wall will allow more natural light into a deeper part of the building and allow greater space flexibility. Also, although minimizing contagion was not its original intent, the interior glass wall will enable teachers to separate students into smaller groups while “still maintaining sight lines and supervision,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said.
- Concrete pavers are much more durable and attractive than asphalt, and ripping up the surface and installing pavers later “would not be good value for money,” Selectman Jennifer Glass said. “Going back and undoing work makes it much more expensive.”
- The partial restoration of the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) budget will allow replacement of the outdated phone system and some of the oldest furniture.
The cuts in February were “rough,” SBC co-chair Chris Fasciano said. “For the first time, the SBC needed to eliminate parts of the project that we had tried really hard to protect and that represented collective community values. They’re so important to the project that we were willing to come back to the town and ask for additional funds. The SBC is acutely award of the pressure of the current situation… but in the end, we feel the responsibility to deliver a school project with the greatest long-term value for the community.”
Not included in the June 13 request are other cuts including bike paths, playground equipment, replacement trees, interior benches, theatrical rigging, and the majority of the budget for FF&E. Some of them may be eligible for future Community Preservation Act money, Complete Streets grants, or private fundraising.
In answer to resident Sara Mattes’s question about whether there was a “hard stop on what we’re spending,” Fasciano said the SBC has not made a decision about when or whether to come back to voters for more supplemental funding. However, the remaining FF&E budget “will have to go to the town again,” he said, as purchases have been deferred for many years while the town struggled to approve a school project. “The economic environment and town finances will be a major factor in those decisions” about any future requests, he added.
Resident David Stifter expressed disappointment at some of the cuts, saying, “it seems like we’re getting some very different from what was in the renderings.”
“The SBC is as frustrated as you are,” Fasciano replied.
“We’re all disappointed it’s not going to turn out exactly as we envisioned it… but there are so many things that are great about this project,” said Buck Creel, administrator for business and finance for the Lincoln Public Schools. “I’m actually delighted we’re able to accomplish as much as we can given all the constraints.”