Bridgewater committee reviews three-site options, cost ranges for Central School MSBA application

Bridgewater School Committee members heard a detailed briefing on Tuesday about options for replacing or renovating Central School as the district pursues a construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Architect Jean Raymond said the town has submitted a preliminary design program to the MSBA and is preparing a preferred schematic report. "The town applied to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a construction grant," Raymond said, adding the process requires a sequence of MSBA board votes before a grant is set. The designers presented three viable sites and multiple grade-configuration options the committee will weigh in coming months.

The presentation matters because it will determine project scope, cost and the grade configuration that Central will support. Raymond said the building committee narrowed the study to three options: (1) an addition/renovation on the current Central Street site that would reuse the historic 1951 portion and add a modern wing, (2) a new building on the softball fields behind the junior/senior high school, requiring replacement of a varsity field after construction, and (3) a new build at Leland Farm, a larger site with wetlands and permitting challenges. Each viable option would be configured either for pre-K–2 or pre-K–3; the difference changes required square footage and costs.

Alyssa Chaitani, the district's owner's project manager, said the next major steps are selection of a preferred option by the school building committee, submission of the preferred schematic to the MSBA, and then schematic design and cost estimating. "We are currently in just submitted what's called a preliminary design program, to the MSBA," Raymond told the committee. Chaitani described community outreach planned during the design process and said the project team will hold quarterly public forums and attend town events to explain options.

The architects provided order-of-magnitude comparative costs for high-level planning. Raymond said a code-only renovation of the existing building (no program improvements) was roughly $50 million and therefore would not qualify for MSBA reimbursement because it does not address educational program changes. For MSBA-eligible program options the architects showed total project cost estimates clustered in the mid-to-high hundreds of millions: several schematic scenarios were shown in the presentation in the $149 million–$152 million range (figures are order-of-magnitude and do not yet include MSBA reimbursement calculations). Raymond emphasized these estimates are preliminary and that final grant/reimbursement percentages and town-share numbers will be set after schematic design and MSBA review.

Committee members asked about who decides the grade configuration. Raymond said the configuration decision (pre-K–2 versus pre-K–3) is a district and town decision; the building committee will make a recommendation to the school committee in about two months so designers can finalize space requirements and proceed to schematic design. Committee member Amy asked whether cost estimates include projected inflation; the presenters said their projections account for a year of design and part of construction when setting escalation assumptions.

The district plans to bring a recommendation on a preferred option and grade configuration back to the school committee before the preferred schematic is sent to MSBA for a board vote. If the MSBA board authorizes schematic design and later approves a grant, the project would move to detailed design, followed by town meeting votes on the town share and then construction. No formal vote on a preferred option or site was taken at Tuesday’s meeting.

The presentation slide deck and a project website will be posted publicly for review; the architects and project manager said they will return with further details and cost refinements as the schematic design work proceeds.

Less urgent next steps include a school-building-committee recommendation, continued public outreach, submission of the preferred schematic report to the MSBA, and schematic design to produce the detailed estimate that will set the Town’s expected share of the project.