FAQ

The project must receive approval from all three of the following:

• Approval at the March 2, 2022 MSBA Board Meeting
• Approval at the March 14, 2022 Norwood Town Meeting
• Approval at the April 4, 2022 Norwood Town Ballot

The project will have the necessary educational spaces to support the Educational Program for the 5-8 grade students such as classrooms with daylight, specialized classrooms such as arts, music, world languages, and fitness. There will be a library media center, science and technology labs, and a black box theater.  A TV production and broadcast studio similar to the one at the high school will also be included. The project includes a 600 seat auditorium with up to date technology, an appropriately sized stage, seating with proper sight lines, and wheelchair spaces dispersed throughout the seating area. There will be a one and a half full court gym, similar in size to the existing middle school. There will be a synthetic turf multi-use athletic field with sports lighting allowing for much more field time for the sports teams and other groups in town.

In late 2020 and early 2021, over forty meetings took place between the design team and educators, School Committee members, Norwood Public School staffs, Middle School and Elementary School Staffs and public members to establish a plan on what is the best educational model for the future of middle school students in Norwood.  With the inputs from these meetings, the Education Planner worked with members of Norwood Public School staff to draft the vision of middle school education.  The Educational Program was approved by the School Committee and submitted to MSBA as part of the Preliminary Design Program.  In follow up meeting with MSBA, the Board of MSBA pointed out that this is one of the best Educational Program MSBA has received.

In 2017, the town commissioned a study on the space needs of the Norwood Public School.  It was clear that all of the elementary schools were overcrowded and the middle school needs a lot of work.  A dozen of options were developed and all of the options requires upgrading the middle school as part of the solution.  This is why the Middle School project was chosen as the first project to be submitted to MSBA. (Link to 2017 study)

The total project cost will be $150M.  Norwood also anticipates MSBA will reimburse the town up to $46M.  The final town share will be $104M.

Norwood will have to borrow the money via bond to support the construction of the school.

Calculated with 30 year bond, 3.25% with flat payment, an average household of $550K home value will pay $386 per year.

With the approval of the MSBA, Town Meeting, and Town Ballot, the project will start construction in late spring of 2023. The new building will be completed by the fall semester of 2025 followed by demolition of the existing school and installation of the synthetic turf athletic field.

The project team had looked at 19 options and explored many sites in town for the project during the Feasibility Study phase of the project. Through the review of all options, building a new school for 1,070 students was the most fiscally responsible option that best met the District’s education goals.  Please see the Preliminary Design Program (PDP) and the Preferred Schematic Report (PSR) for additional information.

The MSBA allowed the town the option to move the 5^th grade to the middle school.  The team studied the pros and cons of a 6-8 option vs. a 5-8 option.  The School Committee devoted many meetings to discuss the grade configuration for the middle school.  In the end, moving the 5^th grade to the new middle school will give 5^th graders access to a modern, educationally appropriate, facility.  The existing elementary schools overcrowding will be relieved with the 5^th grade moving out.

All five elementary schools are currently overcrowded.  The classrooms freed up by moving the 5^th graders to the middle school will be used for Art, Music, or Special Education space which are currently housed in hallways, closets, or other unsuitable spaces. This would dramatically improve the conditions of the elementary schools.

Renovation / addition options were reviewed as two of the 19 options explored.  These options were deemed problematic as the existing middle school classrooms are not arranged to support the District’s team teaching structure.  Additionally, the center cluster of classrooms lack windows; a critical element in educational spaces.  Construction costs combined with the necessary phasing costs of renovation made the total project cost for the renovation / addition options more expensive then building a new building.

The existing Coakley Middle School deficiencies can be categorized into two areas; the physical building including the systems, and the building’s constraints on delivering 21^st Century educational goals of the district.

The building itself is nearly 50 years old with many of the original systems and finishes still in place.  Systems like the heating and ventilation system are beyond repair as the installed equipment is obsolete.  Many spaces utilize supplemental heating and cooling units to make the spaces more comfortable.  The electrical system is inadequate in providing enough outlets to support the current technology required in modern day education.  Power strips and other ad-hoc systems have been implemented to provide staff and students with enough outlets to charge devices and deliver the education.  A new roof was installed in 2002 but with a 20 year life expectancy, is nearing the end of its useful life.  The exterior masonry shows signs of water infiltration and has visible cracks.  Repair and repointing should occur to the entire exterior masonry surface to address the failing façade.  The Coakley Middle School is a well maintained building, however with the harsh middle school environment, finishes are worn and in turn failing, including large portions of flooring needing to be replaced and walls needing to be patched.

The Coakley Middle School is the poorest performer within the District in terms of its ability to provide a modern 21^st Century educational environment.  It is significantly overcrowded and lacks even the most basic educational space.  85% of the educational spaces at the existing Coakley Middle School do not meet the space requirements set by the MSBA.  It does not include the appropriately sized and located special education classrooms and support spaces.  The building organization does not support the middle school model but rather a junior high school which is what it was originally constructed for.  The classroom organization does not allow for proper separation between grade levels and does not fully support the teaming structure the District implements at the middle school level.  There are multiple internal classrooms with no natural lighting or ventilation.  The school also relies on six modular classrooms that have been in place for a couple of decades.  Modular classrooms are intended to be temporary solutions rather than a permanent fix.  These modular classrooms are isolated from the rest of the academic spaces.

The new school will have only one grade level per floor. 5^th graders will have their own floor and will have a cafeteria which they share only with the 6^th grader.  (7^th and 8^th graders will have their own cafeteria on a different floor) The 5^th grade team will continue their current two classroom, co-taught model in this new building. There will be car and bus drop off entrance for the 5^th and 6^th grader and another set for the 7^th and 8^th grader.  The 5^th grader will be seated in the front of the school buses to provide separation from the older students.

The Feasibility Study has identified a project cost of $70 million for the base repair option. This base repair would be to fix all the systems and make the building fully accessible, which is required by code.  The $70 million does not add any additional square footage needed or address any educational deficiencies identified in the study.  This base repair would also not have any impact on the overcrowding of the elementary schools; meaning the town would still need to address this issue if the base repair option for the middle school was selected. During the Feasibility Study, the team looked at the option of base repair plus the cost to add modular to the elementary schools to address the overcrowding, the total cost was higher than the cost of a new 5-8 Middle School.  This was part of the reasons the committee chose to go with the grades 5-8 option.

Most of the 5^th graders will likely be arriving by bus.  The traffic study concluded that Washington Street would be able to handle the added traffic.  The current traffic issue at the middle school is the result of poor traffic flow on the school grounds.  The pick up / drop off loop was not designed to handle the number of parents using the loop.  The new school is designed to have two loops, one for school buses and one for parents with enough length for queuing on site for smooth flow of traffic. The number of parking spaces will also be increased to accommodate the added staffs.

The construction will take place mostly on the fields behind the existing school and away from the existing school.  The impact will be the delivery of materials and construction noise. The Town and the school will establish a workable solution for contractor access minimizing the impact to school operations during the construction period.

The design team will do everything possible to reduce the impact to the existing school operation.  Detail phasing plan will be developed once the project is funded.

The field directly behind the school will not be available for use during the two years which it will take to construct the new building.  Once the new building is completed, demolition of the existing school will start and the replacement field will be constructed.  A loss of use of the field for three seasons is anticipated.

The existing concession stand will be demolished for the construction of the new middle school.  A new concession stand is planned as part of the project. The cost is also included in the overall project budget.

The contractor will follow the Town’s construction work hours.

Construction Manager at Risk is an alternate way of public procurement.  It allows the awarding authority, the Town, to hire a construction manager during the design phase for pre-construction services such as pricing, phasing ,and review of documents.  Once the Construction Documents are complete, the Town and the construction manager will work to arrive at a Guaranteed Maximum Price for the contract.  If an agreement can not be reached, the town has the right to put the project out to bid. The Middle School Building Committee chose to use this method of project delivery to capitalize on the construction manager’s insight into current market trends in the construction industry, allowing them to provide accurate and current pricing. In the recent years, most middle schools project in the state use this method of project delivery.

A Net Zero building is a building that produces as much energy as it uses.  A Net Zero Ready building is an extremely efficient building which operates with as little energy as possible but does not have any source of energy generation.   The new Coakley Middle School is being designed as Net Zero Ready.  Most net zero ready buildings are also fossil fuel free; the new Coakley Middle School included.  The new middle school will be designed to have a low EUI or energy use intensity.  EUI is energy use, per square foot of building, over the course of a year.  With the designed low EUI, the building energy use can easily be offset by a renewable energy source like photovoltaic (PV) panels.  The project budget includes a alternate to purchase PV panels for the roof and over parking spots to offset the project energy use.  The decision to include PV panels will occur during the bidding phase.  If the Middle School Building Committee votes to include the PV panels and they produce enough energy to support the entire building, then this project would be Net Zero.

Yes, all of these areas are accessible.

The architect designed the building to meet the current building code. They also hire a code consultant to review plans and specifications for compliance as well. Once the contractor applies for a building permit the Town Building Commissioner reviews plans for code compliance as well, prior to issuing a permit and they make inspections at various stages throughout the project.

Based on building type, this is not a code requirement. However public safety officials have requested the design team include areas of refuge within each stairwell, which the design team has implemented into the design.

We have not consulted with students and parents who have accessibility challenges, but we can assure you the building will be constructed to meet all ADA codes and allow all students, staff, and parents with all accessibility challenges the same opportunities.

Door openers will be provided on select doors as required by accessibility regulations. These doors are typically the exterior entry doors.

Please visit the project website for all updates and please share all comments and concerns with the team via email. https://newcmsproject.org/