Franklin Forward team says high‑school referendum is on budget and has a guaranteed maximum price

At its April 29 meeting, the Franklin Board of Education heard that the Franklin Forward high‑school referendum project has reached a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) and is tracking on budget, district and construction representatives said.

District officials and the project team — including Mitch Kit, project executive with CD Smith; Philowski, senior project manager with CD Smith; Andy Daniels, director of buildings and grounds for Franklin Public Schools; and Mike Hacker, the district's owner's representative — presented construction progress, procurement results and student engagement work on the referendum scope. They said pre‑cast walls are up on the north side of the fieldhouse, science lab renovations are underway, and the project sequencing requires finishing the north/athletics phase before interior demolition and CTE work in later phases.

The presenters said the GMP establishes the contract value CD Smith is responsible to deliver for the majority of work in the referendum scope and that, following a lengthy bidding process, the district is on track to deliver the work within the available referendum revenue. Project leaders said the overall referendum revenue pool is approximately $151 million and that interest and bond proceeds have been factored into the total program budget. They described an iterative value‑engineering process used after each bid package to compare alternates and preserve quality while reducing costs where appropriate.

The update described procurement as a multi‑package strategy: the team broke the work into five major bid packages containing roughly 60 individual bid categories to encourage competition and to advance critical work earlier. Presenters acknowledged a small number of categories received fewer than three bidders despite outreach, citing a busy construction market, but said in some cases the construction manager recommended alternative bidders in the district’s interest.

Local participation was a notable emphasis. The project summary reported about $27 million of the total referendum investment is committed to three contractors located within roughly five miles of the high school (named in the presentation as Lee Mechanical, Greno [plumbing], and Edertton's Earthworks). Presenters described efforts to subdivide bid scopes and pre‑qualify local firms so more local subcontractors and workers could participate, and they said contractors have committed to try to maximize the number of local employees on the project.

Student engagement was woven into the construction program. The team described student testing of furniture prototypes, hands‑on project experiences (including a CD Smith hire and a May 13 signing day for a student apprenticeship), visits by local firms to classes and tours for capstone students, and plans to align CTE equipment and internship opportunities with partner needs.

Officials also described non‑construction work tied to the project: posting open‑house materials and 360‑degree renderings to the Franklin Forward website, forming a branding/wayfinding committee, and developing a sponsorship framework for permitted partnerships.

Next steps identified by the team include continuing value engineering where appropriate, posting detailed bid and site materials online, advancing construction through the summer months, and a planned Update No. 8 this fall that may include a guided tour of completed science lab spaces if it can be done safely. The board welcomed the progress report and asked for continued transparency on budget, scheduling and local participation metrics.

The presentation is scheduled to be posted on the Franklin Forward web pages along with open‑house renderings, and the team said further updates will follow as key bid packages and construction milestones occur.