Select Board approves Tapay Architects to proceed on elementary school project

The Select Board voted to accept the elementary school building committee’s recommendation and to award the contract to Tapay Architects, authorizing the committee to negotiate final terms and return the contract to the board for approval.

The committee reported it received five responses to the request for services and advanced a shortlist after initial scoring. "At the end of the deliberation, we decided to move forward with TAPA Architects," the committee member who presented the report said, describing long interviews, a subsequent hour-and-a-half deliberation and a close final choice between Tapay and Arrowstreet.

The selection prompted questions from board members about process and participation. A board member expressed concern that only three of the five firms participated in on-site interviews and said that left the town open to criticism about transparency: "I am concerned that only 3 of the 5 people got to go through that interview process," the member said, urging broader engagement and noting the previous committee had been criticized for insufficient transparency.

Committee members responded that the interviews were recorded, that the same questions were asked of all responders, and that scheduling constraints and an accelerated timeline limited in-person participation. The presenting committee member said the committee had authorized a designee to lead contract negotiations with assistance from the school committee as needed and will return the negotiated contract to the Select Board for final approval.

The board’s action was procedural approval of the committee’s recommendation; the contract itself will next be negotiated by the appointed designee and brought back to the board for formal execution.