Please Save the Date – January 10, 2023

We have dedicated this special edition of our newsletter series to focus solely on the Nauset Regional High School building project.

On February 9th, 2020 a budget for the anticipated building project for the Nauset Regional High School was finalized and acknowledged at a meeting with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The original budget set and approved for this project was $131,825,665.

As we have moved through this building process in partnership with the MSBA, we have established our Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) as well as our Engineer/Architect firm. These two firms are active partners who we work with daily.

Recently we received both the Sub-Trades bids and those for the General Contractor.The Sub-Trade bids came in approximately $20 million dollars more than anticipated, and the lowest General Contractor bid came in almost $10 million dollars higher than anticipated.

This project also included a side project of acquiring modular units to house staff and students while the main project is ongoing. The purchase of additional modular units increased the cost of that particular component of the project, but allows the project timeframe to be shortened.

The contingency line now needs to be readjusted to the new anticipated amount of the project, and the gap left as a result of purchasing additional modular units.

Throughout the spring and early summer, the School Building Committee (SBC) met for the purpose of value-engineering the project, which in essence meant making certain cuts to the project to keep it in-line with the established budget. It is impossible to further value-engineer the amount of funds required to make up the current shortfall, the shortfall is simply too large.

In looking ahead, the SBC also reflected on the previously established budget for FF and E/IT (basic furniture, equipment, and technology) and realized that with the escalation factor at play, that particular budget also needed to be increased at this time. (A formula was used to come up with the additional $814,500.)

Three other line items were also in need of being increased as a result of natural escalation – Testing and Inspection costs, moving services and the Builder’s Risk Insurance.

The matrix that outlines all of this is linked with this report here.

As a result of this escalation of costs the SBC recommended to the Nauset Regional School Committee that the district go back to the voters to decide upon the next step for the project. The Nauset Regional School Committee held a vote at their last meeting to accept that recommendation.

The Nauset Public Schools leadership team has also been holding regular meetings with our four Town Administrators (TA’s) who have been connecting with their respective Town Clerks.

Moving forward, a date of January 10, 2023 (11:00 am – 7:00 pm) has been established for a school district-wide vote. This process follows the same pattern as was held the last time the district went out to the voters for this project. There will, in essence, be two questions asked – one from the school district to decide whether to move ahead with the project, and the second from each of the towns looking to establish a debt exclusion for this amount of money.

We have sought, and been allowed, a 90 day extension on all construction bids. We need to work in a timely fashion to ensure that we meet all deadlines.

The total being requested is $38,100,000.

We will be presenting to all of our Nauset Public Schools’ School Committees, and have requested to meet with all of our Board of Selectmen Committees. We have also reached out to multiple legislators requesting relief. We believe that a targeted supplemental budget or pothole account would help to close gaps between the budgeted and actual costs for school building projects like ours across the Commonwealth. We recognize that we are not the only school district in Massachusetts that is experiencing this, these are challenging times, and we recognize that.

Our timeline is relatively short, and we are doing all we can to meet every deadline before us.

Thank you for your support as we continue to work through all of this.

Yours in partnership,

Superintendent Brooke Clenchy