PEABODY — The Peabody School district moved another step closer to its first major school improvement in more than a decade, appearing this week before the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to present three design proposals for the renovation of the William A. Welch Elementary School on Swampscott Road.
While the MSBA declined to select an architect, it invited the three firms who submitted proposals to attend an August 4 interview.
“We knew it (would) depend on what MSBA decides and that we could have gotten a decision (at the hearing) or we could have to wait until Aug. 4 if they decided to interview,” said Welch School Building Committee Chairman Beverley Griffin Dunne, who represented the committee along with Mayor Ted Bettencourt and Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala. “It would be nice to have a decision today, but we are absolutely right on our time table, it’s been rigorous but we are still on schedule.”
A subcommittee of Dunne, Beth McGivern, business manager Joe Scanlon, city councilor Peter McGinn and Jim Hafey was tasked with ranking the proposals. It gave Boston-based DiNisco Design the highest score.
DiNisco has extensive experience in elementary schools and also provided the design for the Higgins Middle School.
Boston-based MDS/Miller Dyer Spears and SLAM Collaborative also submitted proposals, ranking second and third respectively.
Bettencourt told the panel at the hearing that DiNisco was the committee’s top choice and that Peabody has a history of trust and confidence with the firm.
“We were all very impressed with DiNisco as they presented a very well-thought out proposal,” Bettencourt said. “There are a lot of challenges with this project, both socio-economic and neighborhood, so we feel the trust factor based on past experience is extremely important.”
Vadala said DiNisco’s approach to address the wetlands issues on the property was impressive.
“I had concerns about SLAM being inexperienced and I thought that MDS gave a good proposal, but, overall, DiNisco was the best and most organized,” he said. “What resonated most with me was the wetlands. They really addressed the site issues and that put them over the top for me.”
Dunne, who served on the Higgins Middle School Building Committee, also spoke.
“We looked for overall experience, experience with MSBA, experience with the Core program and experience with tight budgets and timelines. Some of the subcommittee members didn’t really know of our prior relationship with DiNisco, but it was striking to see how each member came to the same decision. The message came through very clearly.”
Several MSBA panel members, including Karl Brown, agreed that DiNisco’s proposal was the strongest. He said that MSBA needs to rely on firms that know and have experience with MSBA, saying, “You cannot beat DiNisco’s experience with MSBA. Iit is a high quality firm.”
The panel ranked all three firms and the results were strikingly similar to those of the subcommittee, with DiNisco far and away the top candidate, MDS in second and SLAM a distant third, prompting Brown to say during discussion on a motion to interview the three firms, that the panel should dispense with the interviews and “award the job to DiNisco.” On the ensuing vote to interview, he was the only panel member voting no.
Panel member Jack McCarthy noted that while the result was “unfortunate for Peabody as they are anxious to get ahead, it was important to give everyone a fair shake when they apply and was sorry (for the two-week delay).”
“I think that Jack made a great point, two weeks is not the end of the world.
In the end they made a good decision and I support it,” said Vadala. “We did think that DiNisco was the best of the three. The complexity of the site has a lot to do with it so the thoughtful way they addressed both the conservation and wetlands issues was what we liked.”
