School facilities staff updated the School Committee Facilities Subcommittee on the Marblehead High School (MHS) roof and HVAC procurement, saying bids for general contractors and trades will be issued in October and a formal contract recommendation will go to the school committee and then the select board in early November. "The most important topic that the committee will be focused on is whether we use a recover method, which is a new membrane, or a restoration method, which is a liquid applied membrane or liquid applied roofing material," staff member Mike said at the meeting.

The distinction matters because the roofing bidders will submit a base bid and an alternate: staff said roofing contractors can submit both a membrane (recover) price and a liquid-applied (restore) alternate. Left Field (the owner's project manager) and Raymond Design Associates are supporting the procurement and prequalification process. Staff reported the procurement team received multiple submissions and prequalified most respondents: 11 general-contractor submissions (8 prequalified, 3 disqualified), six roofing-trade submissions (all prequalified), 10 plumbing submissions (9 prequalified, 1 disqualified) and 14 HVAC submissions (9 prequalified, 5 disqualified). The presenter described the selection method as a lowest responsive-and-responsible-bidder award and said "there are no negotiations permitted." Lisa Mead, the town attorney, will review contract language in September so contracts are ready after school-committee votes.

Committee members also discussed solar photovoltaic (PV) readiness for the new roof. Staff said design documents were not created to support rooftop PV when the roof was originally designed decades ago and that any PV-readiness work would require additional design and cost. The light department has signaled it will not commit to installing PV on the roof immediately; instead, it suggested running conduit down the building's exterior as an alternative to cutting roof penetrations. Staff said they would memorialize the light-department discussion in writing.

Members questioned representation on the new roof/HVAC advisory committee: the school committee authorized a roof/HVAC advisory committee the night before the meeting and members asked that local subject-matter experts be considered for the panel. Staff said they had reached out to Mike Belgy, described in the meeting as having building-envelope and MassSchoolBuildingAuthority experience, and would consider formally adding him to the advisory committee subject to the school committee's approval. Several members emphasized the value of having an adviser familiar with liquid-applied roofing techniques because the district's retained firms were less familiar with that option.

Next steps: bids will be released to vendors on October 8; filed sub-bids (trades) are due October 22 and general-contractor bids are due October 13. Left Field will analyze submissions and present findings to the roof/HVAC advisory committee and to the full school committee the week of November 3; the school committee plans to vote on November 6 and the select board is expected to vote the following week to approve contract form and certify funding availability. No contract award has been made.

The update contained both discussion-only items (pros and cons of recover versus restore, whether to add PV readiness) and direction-setting steps (bid schedule, attorney review, advisory-committee formation). Staff and committee members stressed that final material selection and contract award remain decisions for the advisory committee and school committee; no contract award or final material selection was made in this meeting.