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Marblehead facilities staff recommend $8.61 million debt-exclusion request to fund high school roof and rooftop HVAC units
Summary
Facilities staff told the Marblehead Public Schools facilities subcommittee the district needs $8.61 million to add rooftop HVAC replacements to the high school roof project and recommended a placeholder debt-exclusion warrant article; $1.6 million from the Brown School closeout may offset part of the cost next May if state closeout is completed.
Facilities staff recommended the school committee pursue a warrant article asking voters for a debt exclusion of $8,610,000 to fund rooftop HVAC replacement and related work at Marblehead High School.
Mike, a facilities staff member, told the facilities subcommittee the shortfall for the HVAC work is roughly $8.6 million and that the district already has most funding for the roof itself. "The difference...the amount we need for the HVAC work is about $8,600,000," Mike said. He advised the subcommittee to place a placeholder warrant article for a debt exclusion at the upcoming town meeting and noted that a Brown School project closeout — expected to free about $1.6 million — could be reallocated at the town meeting in May 2026 to reduce the net borrowing need.
Why it matters: the rooftop HVAC units were not part of the original roof project scope and were identified after contractors inspected the roof. Replacing rooftop HVAC at the same time as re‑roofing avoids voiding the roof warranty and reduces mobilization costs. If the projects are staged (roof first, HVAC later), Left Field and RDA estimated the district could pay about $2.5 million more because of double mobilization and rework.
Staff described a compressed procurement and construction timeline if the debt-exclusion warrant is approved. Preliminary design work can start before town meeting, but Mike said the vendor estimate is that custom rooftop HVAC units likely would not be delivered to the site until December; actual installation would most likely occur over the summer of 2026. "They feel like they could get HVAC units on-site would be December," Mike said, noting the units are custom and the specification, bidding and ordering steps take months.
The subcommittee discussed operational impacts at the high school field house if work were staged. Staff recommended avoiding midwinter rooftop work at the field house because the building is used for winter athletics and graduation staging. Mike said contractors advised against attempting to split the projects because doing the roof now and installing units later would likely void the roof warranty and cost more over time.
Next steps: subcommittee members said they would bring the recommendation to the full school committee at its meeting tomorrow night; staff proposed starting design work now if the committee endorses placing the debt-exclusion article on the warrant. No formal vote was recorded at the facilities-subcommittee meeting.
