While Middle And High School (Nearly) On Budget, COVID Looms Over Project

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At its 99th meeting since it first met in 2016, the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee on Wednesday, May 13 inched closer to realizing a milestone in the construction of the 451,575 sq.-ft. project as it closes in on finalizing the project’s Guaranteed Maximum Price.

With all the actual bids received by the general contractor, Skanska, and through the oversight of the project by the board (which included a series of value engineering exercises earlier in the process by the building committee to balance the preliminary budgets) the project is at the point where the committee can compare this actual cost of the project against the initial estimated price tag.

The final price of the project is comprised of the bids received, the amount of contingency used, and agreed upon general conditions/fee. Under the GMP, Skanska is compensated for all actual costs incurred from the first day of construction – actually some costs before then – onward.

Going forward, Skanska is responsible for all cost overruns, unless the GMP is increased via formal “change orders” that alters the scope of the project. To reduce their risk and cover any unforeseen costs, Skanska has a contingency fee built into the budget.

And the GMP is darn close to the original price tag for the project. Initially pegged at $238,619,850 – this figure has been revised slightly upwards with allowed transfers of preconstruction costs – after all the steel, cement, rebar wire and thousands of other material and services have been cited and reviewed, the project’s GMP has come in at $240,041,815.

And while the discrepancy results in an overage of $1,421,335, Building Committee Chair William Lovallo told the committee having the GMP coming within a half of a percent of the original estimate on a project this large was commendable.

“I think we did a darn good job,” he said, although admitting $1.4 million “is still a big number.”

Three options facing the committee

While the committee member will be digesting the facts and figures over the weekend – a final approval will come at Wednesday’s May 20 virtual meeting – Lovallo said the once the committee OKs the $240.0 million GMP, it has three options to reconcile the deficit:

  • Approve the GMP and resolve the deficit using the contractor’s contingency fund, currently at $16 million.
  • Ask Skanska to find a way to come up with $1.4 million in cost savings, and
  • Enter into a third round of value engineering that requires reopening the expenses column and cutting items that are ready to be added to the building.

While there was some give and take among building committee members on what could be crossed out at this late time – the most focus was on the artificial turf “rugby” field at $700,000, it became apparent that most members were not amiable to revisiting the process.

“We have gone painstakingly through the [value engineering] process and … determined what we placed high value on and made decisions about it,” said Steve Dorrance, the town’s director of facilities, who asked that a straw poll on members preference be taken. It soon became evident the committee members clearly favored using the contingency account and be done with it.

Lovallo told the members they “shouldn’t beat itself up” if it decided to go the contingency route as the contractor and committee have been frugal using the account.

But despite the silver lining around the GMP process, the dark cloud of the coronavirus pandemic has the potential of floating over the project. While the project still has a “substantial amount of money left” in its contingency funds – totaling roughly $18.5 million if you include the owners account and other smaller line items – Lovallo said that money could be seen as quite small if COVID-19 makes a substantial return in the fall or winter.

In a worse case scenario of a major resurgence that forces the closure of the building site or reduce the number of workers on the site to 25 would likely result in millions in incremental costs to the project. Lovallo said that similar sized projects in the Boston area have experienced losses in “seven figures.”

At that point, Belmont would have to really reconsider the project. I don’t see how [the town] would want to be supporting 10s of millions of dollars in COVID costs. It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Lovallo.

“There’s a big discussion we have to have and understand what the options ared of maybe shutting a job down and starting up when work can be a lot more efficient than just pumping millions of dollars into it … just to keep it going.”

‘Parenting in the Time of Coronavirus’: A Webinar With Belmont Schools And McLean Hospital

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Photo: A screenshot from the webinar “Surviving Quarantine with you Kids”

As part of a partnership with Belmont Public Schools, the McLean Hospital School Consultation team has recorded two webinars focusing on helping parents navigate challenging COVID-19 circumstances. 

The first video is geared toward parents of elementary school-aged children and the second is geared toward parents of middle and high school-aged teens. The videos have some overlapping content, although the examples provided are age-specific.

Each video is followed by a pre-recorded Q and A that includes answers to the questions Belmont parents submitted. 

Parent Webinar: Surviving Quarantine with your Kids 

  • Child and adult emotional reactions to COVID-19
  • How to provide validating responses to children
  • Managing challenging behavior at home
  • Skills for managing difficult emotions
  • Q&A
Surviving Quarantine with your Kids Webinar

Parent Webinar: Surviving Quarantine with your Teen

  • Teen and adult emotional reactions to COVID-19
  • How to provide validating responses to children
  • Tips for boosting mood and resilience
  • Skills for managing difficult emotions
  • Q&A
Surviving Quarantine with your Teen Webinar

Speakers: Dr. Julia Martin Burch and Dr. Michelle Silverman

Dr. Martin Burch and Dr. Silverman, child psychologists at the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program and the McLean School Consultation Service, present on the topic of managing mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic. The speakers share concrete strategies for supporting your children and yourself in tough moments. Specific topics include: what is a normal response to this type of event, how to maintain compassion for ourselves and our kids during challenging moments, skills to manage intense emotions, tips on keeping active to combat depression, and ways to manage children’s behavior at home during quarantine.

Undefeated: Belmont High Spring Season Coaches Praise Teams, Seniors [Video]

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Photo: A baseball playoff game between Belmont and Masco in 2019.

With Belmont High School students being forced to stay home and learn remotely for the remainder of the school year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, gone was the hope of hundreds of athletes participating in sports, from seniors in their final campaign to first-year students about to experience high school athletics for the first time.

In its way of saluting those teams and especially the seniors, Belmont Athletic Director James Davis and the head coaches of each of sports teams produced a video as both a pep talk and a thank you to those who could not participate in the spring season.

Wanted: A Resident To Join The School Committee

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Photo: The committee oversees the Belmont public schools

With the resignation of Susan Burgess-Cox in the past two weeks, the Belmont School Committee is seeking a resident to join the group during these ‘interesting’ times.

Under Belmont bylaws, the School Committee must give public notice of the vacancy followed by a joint meeting with the Select Board which will make the selection. The appointee must be a registered voter of Belmont, 18 years or older, according to Ellen Cushman, Belmont Town Clerk.

Those interested in the position can fill out a town’s volunteer opportunities form at this address:

https://www.mapsonline.net/belmontma/forms/insert.html.php?id=416487362

Other than that general requirement, Andrea Prestwich, the newly-appointed chair of the committee, said “these kind of boards often work best when you have a variety of backgrounds, so I wouldn’t exclude anybody.”

While there isn’t a specific timeline on when the board and committee will meet to make their joint selection, “I would say we would like to fill the position as soon as possible because the school committee has a lot of work to do in the next few weeks,” said Select Board Chair Roy Epstein at its “Zoom” meeting on Monday, April 27.

While time is of the essence, “I also want to make sure that we take the appropriate amount of time to let all the corners of the community hear about the vacancy … so we have a widest possible variety of applicants,” said the School Committee’s Tara Donner.

The newly appointed School Committee Member will serve until the annual Town Election in April 2021, at which the voters will elect the two members of the School Committee who will serve three-year terms, expiring April 2024. Burgess-Cox original term of office expired in 2021.

Prestwich Named Belmont School Committee Chair, Bowen As Secretary

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Photo: Andrea Prestwich

It was as simple as removing the word “acting” from her title as the Belmont School Committee unanimously voted to elevate Andrea Prestwich to Chair of the committee at its virtual meeting held on Tuesday, April 28.

“I’m honored to be selected as chair and I will do my best and serve the community in that capacity,” said the Alexander Avenue resident. In her second three-year term on the committee, Prestwich is an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard.

Her term continues until the next reorganization meeting a week after the town election in April 2021.

Member Catherine Bowen was elected secretary.

Prestwich replaces Susan Burgess-Cox who resigned from the board earlier in the month in a dispute over the committee’s policy on reorganizing the board’s leadership.

An Open Letter to Belmont’s High School Seniors

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Photo: Belmont High School graduation 2019

By Lisa Gibalerio

Dear Seniors:

When the news came down that schools across Massachusetts would not reopen for the rest of the school year, a collective thud of disappointment resounded across town from you and your parents.

The news confirmed what had been feared since schools closed back in March: there will be no spring athletic season, no awards ceremony honoring four grueling years, no prom, no Senior Week activities, and, perhaps most crushing of all, no Field House graduation ceremony and no All Night Party. All time-honored events. All canceled.  

How can you navigate so many losses all at once? 

Your disappointment is real and deserves to be validated. The events you will now forego are hallmarks; they celebrate the culmination of four years of arduous work, of lost sleep, of managing daunting amounts of stress, of sheer perseverance. You have every right to be sad that these events are unlikely to be held, or at least held in the traditional ways.

So go ahead and let yourself grieve; you won’t be grieving alone.

COVID-19 has wreaked devastation across the globe. More than 182,000 people have died, many alone, separated from loved ones, and hooked up to ventilators. The global economy may be careening into a depression unlike anything since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But here’s the good news: this is a blip.

For sure, it’s big and it’s painful. But the life that lies ahead for each of you is bigger than this crisis. Your life will soon enough be graced once more with joy, with other celebrations, with toasts for goals accomplished, and with high fives for jobs well done.

You are amazing and I am so proud of you – all of you!  You are hard-working, smart, kind, and strong. 

So, take a deep breath and know that this will not be your last disappointment: this will soon become just another chapter in your life.

You’ve lived long enough to know that life is a kaleidoscope, sometimes landing on pain and sometimes on joy and often on just a whole lot of mundane moments. Pause and embrace the good stuff when it comes your way. Take in the beauty of a sunset, a full moon, a perfect daffodil. And go out there and give something of yourself to others. As Barak Obama once said: “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.”

To the Class of 2020: your journey continues. I know you’re up for it. Make us proud. We love you.

Belmont District Closed For Remainder of School Year; Superintendent: Answers To Questions Coming ASAP

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Photo: Belmont School Administration Building

Belmont’s approximately 5,000 public school students will be finishing the 2019-2020 school year learning from home as Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday, April 21, that school buildings will be closed for the remainder of the school year and remote learning will continue for the remainder of the academic calendar.

In his press conference, Baker said the state was very much in the grips of a pandemic and “[w]e believe students, therefore, cannot safely return to school and avoid the risk of transmitting this virus to others.”

“It’s the right thing to do, considering the facts on the ground associated with the COVID 19 pandemic,” he said.

Responding to Baker’s remarks, Belmont School District Superintendent John Phelan said: “Given this new information and updated status, the district will continue our remote learning plan as we continue to learn the strengths and growth areas in our current program.”

“The extension of the school closure will come with many questions, and we will continue to work collaboratively with our educators and School Committee to provide you with those answers as soon as possible,” said Phelan.

Breaking: School Committee Chair Resigns In Policy Dispute

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Photo: The Belmont School Committee: (from left) Susan Burgess-Cox (Chair), Andrea Prestwich (Secretary), Michael Crowley, Catherine Bowen, Amy Checkoway, Tara Donner. (Belmont School District)

Less than a week after a school committee member said he would ask for the committee’s officers to step down to allow for a vote for a new chair and secretary, Chair Susan Burgess-Cox abruptly resigned from the committee effective, today, Tuesday, April 21.

“It has been a pleasure serving the Belmont Public School with an administration and staff who have a strong commitment to teaching and learning and continue to create a community of engaged learners,” said Burgess-Cox in a letter to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

Burgess-Cox’s resignation comes less than a week after fellow member Micheal Crowley said he would ask the officers – Burgess-Cox and Andrea Prestwich who is the current secretary – to relinquish their positions at the next school committee meeting on April 28 as part of an earlier conflict over the reorganization of the committee.

The issue was brought up at the school committee meeting on April 14 as the group discussed what is usually a perfunctory annual exercise of the selection of the committee’s chair and secretary. Under the rules, the leadership team is voted by the committee after the town election.

But with the annual election delayed to late June due to COVID-19 pandemic, just how the committee would move forward became an issue of debate. Crowley made a motion that the committee should simply move forward with the reorganization as prescribed by the town bylaws which allows for an annual election of officers. He noted the Select Board had voted its reorganization the day before.

“We need a timely transition and it was not clear when that would definitely be happening,” Crowley told the Belmontonian on Tuesday.

Burgess-Cox felt the committee should follow the three school committee policies pertaining to electing officers which would require what many saw as a time-consuming exercise. Burgess-Cox said to do otherwise would be setting a perilous precedent in which future committees could suspend policies for any reason. She also said that no candidate for either the chair or secretary had come to her to express their interest.

While no member seconded Crowley’s motion, several on the committee appeared to give Crowley’s argument more credence, especially as the district was and will continue to be under the strains of the lengthy school lockout due to COVID-19.

Matters came to a head two days later, on April 16, during a joint meeting of the School Committee’s Finance Subcommittee and the Education Subcommittee of the Warrant Committee. During a conversation between school committee members, Burgess-Cox again raised procedural issues on whether to allow the entire school committee to vote on officers at its next meeting on April 28.

Admittedly frustrated that it appeared the committee would not have a leader selected likely in the late summer or early fall “that we need to have someone involved with what could be a difficult school year,” Crowley said he would bring a motion on April 28 for all officers to step down so the committee could make their selection.

Five days later, Burgess-Cox resigned.

‘Virtual’ Topping Off At Middle/High School Project Set For Late April

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Photo: Pouring cement onto the second floor of Area B.

Over the course of the past month, the coronavirus has forced many familiar activities to become virtual events via the internet including working from home, attending town meetings and school.

Now you can add to that list the traditional construction milestone of “topping off” the new Middle and High School project at Belmont High School set for the final week in April “or the first week in May, at the latest,” according to Mike Morrison, project manager for Skanska USA, as he spoke to the Middle and High School Building Committee on Thursday, April 9.

In pre-pandemic times, members of the construction team, the building committee overseeing the development and town officials would come together to celebrate the final steel beam being hoist into place. Everyone would sign their name to the beam while a small pine tree and Old Glory would be attached to the beam, reminiscent of an old fashion, barn-raising.

So keeping with the new realities, the topping off of the high school section and administration wings of the $295 million project will be done remotely, broadcasted to the community via the internet and on local cable.

But for those who will miss the hoopla, Belmont Superintendent John Phelan pointed out there will be a second topping off, this one for the project’s Middle School section in two to three years down the road.

Morrison took the time to revealed an extensive social distancing plan currently underway at the site due to the ongoing pandemic. Belmont continues to allow the building trades to work on the job where Boston and Cambridge have halted all construction activity due to the novel coronavirus.

“The thing that is on the front of everybody’s mind is COVID-19 and Skanska has taken to heart everything that has come through the CDC, the World Health [Organization] but also from [Gov. Charlie Baker’s] health and safety guidelines,” said Morrison.

In pursuit of keeping its subcontractors healthy, the firm has custom-built foot-controlled handwashing stations with hot and cold water that are more than six feet apart “where they can really clean up” when they arrive, before and after breaks and at the end of the day, said Morrison.

“We’re emphasizing and stressing the physical distancing. … which is still a difficult thing to adapt to” for many longtime construction workers, said Morrison. Skanska has filled the site with signs on keeping a safe distance and proper cleaning as well as instituting a 7 a.m. start of the day camaraderie building session that consists of stretching and flexing and announcements on the latest COVID-19 announcements.

Morrison provided a rundown of the construction highlights in the past month including the pouring of the first concrete slab with radiant heating tubing on the second story of “area B” which is the wing pushing out towards Harris Field. Steelwork in “area A” – the administration wing that juts out towards Concord Avenue – will for all intents and purposes be substantially completed” this week.

He also heralded “the huge accomplishment” of installing a massive 32-ton, 100-foot long steel truss that will support the interior bridge in Area C and D in the high school section.

One section of the job that committees have raised concerns is the installation of the infrastructure for the geothermal system. The drilling expenses in the first of three fields spiked recently adding $275,000 to the project cost in additional water management expenses which included added labor, material, and equipment.

“We’ve had some challenges” with drilling pipes “into the unknown of the underground,” said Morrison, who told the meeting that “we feel like we have enough education under our belts now” to handle future issues.

New Principals Named For Winn Brook, Burbank Elementary

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Photo: The Winn Brook Elementary School

Two of Belmont’s four elementary schools will have new principals for the start of the 2020-21 school year starting in September, according to an email from Belmont Superintendent John Phelan.

Anita Mecklenburg, an assistant principal and curriculum director in Norfolk, will become principal of the Winn Brook, and J. Seeley Okie, the interim principal of the Burbank since July, 2019 will take over the position permanently. Both educators will officially start on July 1.

For the past six years, Mecklenburg has been the assistant principal at the H. Olive Day School, a Pre-K to second grade facility, and director of curriculum and instruction in English Language Arts and History and Social Science for Pre-K to 6th grade.

Before her stay in Norfolk, Mecklenburg spent 22 years at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Franklin, 13 years as a first grade teacher. Mecklenburg received her BA in Elementary Education from the University of Iowa and an Master’s degree in organizational management from Endicott College.

A resident of Norfolk, Mecklenburg is a candidate for Norfolk’s Select Board in its upcoming election.

Before coming to Belmont, Okie was an assistant principal at the MacArthur Elementary School in Waltham for seven years. Prior to becoming an administrator, Okie taught third and fourth grade in the Natick Public Schools, the Charles River School in Dover, and the Keys School in Palo Alto, Calif. Okie began his career in education as a K-12 science teacher in the Foothills Academy, Wheatridge, Colo.

Okie earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Colby College. He obtained a Master’s Degree in School Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Lesley College.