Approved April 12, 2023
MPS BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING
Oliphant Administration Building
Michael S. Pinto Conference Room
26 Oliphant Lane, Middletown, RI 02842
March 29, 2023 5:00pm
Members in Attendance:
| Present | Voting Member | Name | Title |
| X | Yes | Edward Brady | Co-Chair, Community Member |
| X | Yes | Charlie Roberts | Co-Chair, Community Member |
| X | Yes | Rosemarie Kraeger | Superintendent of Schools |
| R | Yes | Tami Holden | Member of School Committee |
| X | Yes | Theresa Spengler | Member of School Committee |
| X | Yes | Poe George | Director of Facilities Management, Transportation and Safety |
| X | Yes | Thomas P. Welch, III | Town Council Member |
| - | Yes | Jeffrey Heath | Middletown High School Principal |
| - | Yes | Michelle Fonseca | Asst Superintendent for Teaching and Learning |
| R | Yes | Shawn Brown | Town Administrator, Local Budget Official |
| R | Yes | Vincent Lechmanick | Community Member |
| X | Yes | William Nash | Community Member |
| - | Alternate | Gregory Huet | Alternate Member of School Committee |
| X | Alternate | William O’Connell | Alternate Member of School Committee |
| - | Alternate | Christopher M. Logan | Alternate Town Council Member |
| - | Alternate | Bill Niemeyer | Gaudet Middle School Principal |
| X* | Alternate | Marc Tanguay | Town Finance Director, Alternate Local Budget Official |
| X | Alternate | Marc Thayer | Alternate Community Member |
| P | Alternate | Don Morin | Alternate Community Member |
X = Present/Voting; R=Represented; P=Present/Non-voting
· Call to Order
· The meeting was called to order at 5:00 pm by Co-Chair Charlie Roberts. Ten (10) out of twelve (12) voting members were present or represented by an alternate.
· Also present: Justin Bernard, OPM, Colliers Project Leaders; Manuel Cordero, Civic; Peter Connerton, Middletown Town Council member; and many community members.
· Present via Zoom: Derek Osterman, OPM, Colliers Project Leaders, Matt LaRue, Tina Stanislaski, Hannah Keith, HMFH Architects; Doug Brown, Ed Cifune, DBVW Architects.
*NOTE: Marc Tanguay had to leave at 6:15pm
· Approval of Meeting Minutes from March 15, 2023
· MOTION: Tom Welch moved to accept the meeting minutes from March 15, 2023 and Charlie Roberts seconded. The motion passed unanimously (11-0).
· Discussion About Building Committee Rules and Procedures
· Co-Chair Roberts informed the Committee that he and Co-Chair Brady have received some guidance from the Middletown Town Solicitor and the Middletown School District Legal Counsel. They both feel that the Building Committee has been complying with the RI Open Meetings Act. He added that the Committee would like to encourage more public input in the future but would like to change the process to be followed.
· The Co-Chairs will ask that anyone who wishes to speak to notify them in advance, and that the speakers will need to stick to the topics that are on the agenda and limit their comments to five minutes.
· Don Morin asked why the meetings, which were being taped via Zoom, were not being broadcast so the community could watch live as the meetings were taking place. Superintendent Kraeger agreed to investigate whether the future meetings could be broadcast live via Zoom.
· ACTION: Determine if future Building Committee meetings can be broadcast live via Zoom. – Superintendent Kraeger
· Don also mentioned that he is working with Principal Heath at the high school to enlist the support of a couple of high school students to develop a new Building Committee website to share information with the Community about the project.
· Status of Architect Contract and Enabling Legislation
· Town Finance Director Tanguay informed the Building Committee that the architect contract was approved at the last Town Council meeting. Co-chair Brady added that the bond vote would take place on November 7th to coincide with the special election for the soon to be vacant RI House of Representatives seat.
· Several pending legislative bills are progressing through the State House and the belief is that they will make their way through the process by the end of this legislative session, which ends in June. It is important for the Building Committee to hit its target date to complete a preliminary RIDE Stage II application by June to align with the legislation.
· To ensure good communications moving forward, Co-Chair Roberts suggested we have updated distribution lists for all to use. Don agreed to reach out to the consultants to ensure that the proper contacts are included. Don will also connect with Kiki Fulmer, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent to ensure that accurate lists be used and will post updated distribution lists to the Building Committee Dropbox.
· ACTION: Contact consultants to align on who should be copied on Building Committee communications in the future, create new lists, and post to Dropbox. – Don
· Review High Level Schedule with Key Milestones
· Derek Osterman explained that he didn’t have a documented schedule to share but informed the Committee of the following upcoming activities. Site investigation work will take place during the April vacation and the preliminary Stage II application will be ready in June. Co-chair Roberts asked about field usage during April vacation and Director of Facilities Poe George informed the Committee that there are no plans to use the field during the week of April vacation.
· Derek said he would have a schedule for the next meeting, and Don asked if it could be a live schedule that could be posted somewhere for the Committee to view at any time. Derek agreed.
· ACTION: Create a live project schedule that can be viewed at any time by the Committee. – Derek Osterman
· Educational Planning Update
· Manuel Cordero, Educational Planner from Civic shared a current snapshot in time to give the Committee a sense of the work that he has been doing. He reminded the Committee that this is an iterative process that will be built upon as more information is gathered along the way.
· Manuel reminded the Committee that a baseline was established in the fall with building walkthroughs, meetings, and feedback sessions. He has been having weekly programming meetings with the Middletown School Administration team and is ensuring that his work is aligned with the school district’s strategic plan.
· He has held focus groups with the high school teachers this past week and will be doing the same with the middle school teachers in April.
· Surveys have been sent out and received from the faculty, staff, School Committee and Town Council members. A community survey is going out in the next day or two and will be open for two weeks. He added that a group of students from the high school’s AP Government class proactively approached him to develop its own student survey and he will be working with them to make it happen.
· Manuel explained that the educational plan will form the underpinning for the architectural work that will take place later. The building design needs to be consistent with the educational plan. The educational plan will drive the square footage needed, which will ultimately determine the cost of the project.
· Regarding space planning, grade clusters are the preferred approach for grades six through nine, with topic clusters such as science, language, etc. in grades ten through twelve. The high school prefers integrating CTE with the academic offerings, while at the middle school the preference is to have some shared Maker/CTE spaces for each grade.
· Classroom spaces will be larger than the current spaces. A large gym with a potential smaller one to allow up to three stations at one time is preferred.
· With respect to spatial adjacency, the middle school will be on one side and the high school on the other side with common public spaces in the middle, such as the cafeteria, gym, etc. with an auditorium off to one side with music and art nearby, easily accessible for the community.
· Manuel’s work will produce an educational program and specification that will drive the building design. The design will also be driven by enrollment projections, which should be locked in by the end of April. An external consulting firm is working on these enrollment projections. The next update from Manuel will be in mid to late April.
· Feedback on Westport MA Middle/High School, Saugus, MA Middle/High School and Weymouth, MA Chapman Middle School Tours
· Matt LaRue shared feedback from those who attended the tours of the Westport, Saugus, and Weymouth schools. A high-level summary is as follows:
· Westport Middle/High School:
· No feedback was reviewed on the Westport school as the other two schools were much more appealing to those who visited.
· Saugus Middle/High School:
· Close in size; rings true to Middletown’s needs.
· Light and openness made it feel free, flexible spaces.
· Great feeling for overall middle school / high school delineation.
· Simple form outside with interior complexity, gets away from a square box feel.
· Liked the pod organization: rooms around the periphery with specials in the center.
· Branding was prevalent, honoring the locality, sending a message that the school was built for the whole town.
· HVAC was unobtrusive.
· The cafeteria division felt comfortable, with a foldable wall.
· Liked giving high school students more leeway. Middle school should be more contained.
· Liked separation of administration offices; two principals, like two different identity signs.
· Stagger buses? Cost decision might influence number of entrances; bell schedule; mixed schools on buses?
· Schedule alignment would benefit some shared spaces.
· Weymouth Chapman Middle School:
· Color was central to the building organization.
· Want programs that spark interest; need the spaces to house them.
· Love the fabrication area; ties into STEM and into high school programs; learn mechanics hands-on.
· Lesson for how to devise a middle school to high school career pathway program start to finish, grades 6-12.
· ACTION: Send a drawing and pictures of the Fabrication space at Saugus Middle/High School to the Building Committee. – Tina
· Don read a question from a teacher who attended the tours regarding the safety of the students and teachers given all the glass. Tina informed the Committee that the classrooms would all have shades to cover the glass if a school lockdown was needed. She added that bullet resistant glass is used on external entrances to delay entry into a school. Delaying an intruder allows time for law enforcement to arrive and for students to move to areas of the school that are more secure than a classroom.
· Open Discussion
· Antone Viveiros asked about the size of the school and was informed that the size will depend on the enrollment projections that are due by the end of April.
· Adjournment
· MOTION: Tom Welch moved that the Building Committee adjourn at 7:07 pm and Ed Brady seconded. The motion passed unanimously (9-0).
Future Meeting Schedule – The next meeting will be held on April 12, 2023 at 5:00p.m. at the Oliphant Administration Building.
Respectfully Submitted,
Don Morin