LYNN — Inspectional Services Department (ISD) Chief Michael Donovan told members of the School Committee Thursday night that the construction of a new Pickering Middle School will begin in 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2027.
He said the reason for the five-year timeline is because of the multiple steps that are necessary before starting construction — including the hiring of an owner’s project manager (OPM), the hiring of a designer and a feasibility and schematics study.
“Five years might sound like a long time but for building schools, it is the right amount of time,” Donovan said. “I hope to be in the ground in 2024 and see an opening in 2027.”
The first agenda item on the five-year timeline would be the creation of an OPM selection committee by the city. The OPM acts as the clerk for the project — sitting with the owner and reviewing and valuing engineering.
“All of the documentation from the job goes through the OPM, and they are responsible (for overseeing) that the city meets the documentation schedules,” Donovan explained.
The selection committee will work with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) — a quasi-independent government authority that helps to fund capital-improvement projects in the Commonwealth’s public schools — to process standard Request For Services (RFS) for problems at the work site and the project schedule.
The OPM will also be in charge of finding a designer for the project and will send the top-three candidates to the 16-member MSBA panel for final selection. This is expected to take place in May.
After the designer is selected, the project will go into the feasibility and schematics study and decide whether the city wishes to build a new school or refurbish the old building.
The feasibility study will cost $1.5 million and the final cost of the total project will be between $110 million to $140 million. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Tutwiler told The Item that the city has enough money to pay for the project through its budget and would not require a citywide vote for a debt exclusion, which would raise taxes on residents.
A previous attempt to replace the 106-year-old Pickering Middle School was overwhelmingly defeated by voters in a ballot referendum in the spring of 2017. In that instance, the city was seeking to replace Pickering with a two-school option. However, this time, Tutwiler said the city will not have to ask voters to help fund the project.
“We will have enough for this project,” Tutwiler said. “We will be able to pay for the entire cost of $110 to $140 million.”
School Committee member Brian Castellanos asked Donovan about communication strategies for the Pickering project.
Donovan said compared to 2017 when the first attempt failed, means of communications and social media have evolved and there will be a robust communications effort by using online meetings and forums.
“It is a lot different than it was in 2017,” said Donovan. “Look at your phone, look at Zoom. The atmosphere has changed and we can have meetings in a room like this online.”
Tutwiler responded to Castellanos’ question as well and told him his team was working in early fall on an outreach plan.
“That might be more of an item for me rather than Mr. Donovan,” Tutwiler said, with a laugh.
The city was invited back into the MSBA Grant Program in April 2021 for School Building Construction and Renovation Projects in order to build a new Pickering.
