School building committee sets tentative Nov. 25 vote to submit OPM RFS, plans tours and working groups

The PBMHS School Building Committee set a tentative Nov. 25 meeting to vote on submitting a request for services (RFS) to hire an owner's project manager (OPM), Chair Deb Griffin Dunn said Tuesday at a meeting at the PVMHS Leather City Cafe.

The vote matters because selecting an OPM and finalizing the RFS are required steps in the three-year planning process the committee is following under the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) timeline. "I feel like we're just on the precipice of really starting to get into the, big steps here," Mayor said during the meeting.

Staff member Dan Doucette told the committee that the chair circulated two sample RFS templates — one used for the Welch School project and one from neighboring Salem — and highlighted four sections the committee can tailor, including experience and evaluation criteria. "We sent out through the chair, several templates that you can all use as means of of examples," Dan said, describing the compare-and-contrast approach to drafting solicitation language.

Committee members emphasized energy-efficiency goals and program options they want the OPM and later design teams to consider. Chair Deb Griffin Dunn said the committee expects to prioritize items such as LEED-related provisions and other energy measures in the RFS. The chair also offered an eight-person tour of Essex North Shore’s recently completed geothermal project and described how that site repurposed a mechanical space into a classroom for students to learn systems maintenance.

The committee agreed to form working groups to examine specific topics during the planning period. Dan said those groups — for example, safety and security, athletics and instructional programs — will collect details that may not be part of the initial OPM solicitation but will inform the planning and programming phase.

On scheduling, the chair proposed meeting roughly one month from Oct. 28 to vote on submitting the RFS. Committee members accepted Nov. 25 as a tentative date despite its proximity to Thanksgiving. The committee also discussed timing for appearing before the MSBA board, targeting a March 9 appearance under the current timeline.

Members were warned about procurement rules. Chair Deb Griffin Dunn advised committee members not to respond directly to firms that contact them about potential work on the project and to forward any outreach to the chair or staff. "We have to take a hands off approach on that because those are people who would be looking to contract with us," the chair said.

The meeting concluded after a motion to adjourn was made and the committee left without recorded further business.

Votes at a glance: The only formal action recorded in the transcript was a motion to adjourn. The transcript does not record a mover/second or a roll-call tally; the meeting ended after the motion.