Submission of the Record on Round Table Meeting held on February 26, 2019 regarding plans for Tobin/Vassal Lane Upper School design and construction process

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1 ROUNDTABLE/WORKING MEETING TO DISCUSS PLANS FOR THE TOBIN/VLUS SCHOOL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESS DATE February 26, 2019 TIME 5:51 PM LOCATION SULLIVAN CHAMBER ATTENDEES Mayor McGovern, Councillor Carlone, Vice Mayor Devereux, Councillor Kelley, Councillor Mallon, Councillor Siddiqui, Councillor Simmons, Councillor Toomey, Councillor Zondervan, Louis DePasquale, City Manager, Lisa Peterson, Deputy City Manager, David Kale, Assistant City Manager for Fiscal Affairs, Taha Jennings, Acting Budget Director, Paula Crane, Deputy City Clerk and Donna P. Lopez, City Clerk School Committee members: Manikka L. Bowman, Emily Dexter, Alfred B. Fantini, Patricia Nolan and Dosha Beard, Confidential Secretary, School Committee, Dr. Kenneth Salim, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Carolyn Turk, Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Maryann MacDonald, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education, James Maloney, CEO, School Department, Claire Spinner, CFO, School Department Elizabeth Liss, Education Liaison for Mayor McGovern. OTHER ATTENDEES Michael Black, Construction Program Manager, Brendon Roy, Construction Project Manager, Project Team: Carol Rego, P.E. Principal in Charge, Mark Salvetti, P.E., Environmental Engineer/Remediation, Jagrut Jathal, P.E., Geotechnical Engineer, Representatives from CDM, Inc.: Michael Schultz, P.E., Geotechnical Engineer and Kathleen Murphy P.E., Licensed Site Professional. DISCUSSION SUMMARY Vice Mayor Devereux convened the meeting at 5:41 PM. She stated that this is a Roundtable Meeting between the City Council and the School Committee to discuss plans for the Tobin/Vassal Lane Upper School design and construction process. She announced that the meeting is being televised. Introductions were made, and the meeting was turned over to the City Manager. Mr. DePasquale stated that the working relationship with the School Department, the City Council and the administration is exceptional. He went over the accomplishments since FY 12. He stated that in 2011, Mayor Maher talked to City Manager Healy about taking on three major school renovations as an important initiative for the City. The City is currently discussing the third school and when completed

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2 this will be over $500 million. He stated that the MLK/Putnam School, a cost of $95 million is bonded and paid for and the King Open and Cambridge Street cost is $160 million and is on time and on budget. This school will open in September. He further stated that $240 million has been bonded to support these schools. He spoke about the cost of the schools and the City’s commitment to keeping the tax bills at a reasonable rate during this process by using debt stabilization. He said property tax levy increase over the last five years has been 4.5% annually. Tax bills have been controlled and consistent. He said that the City is now addressing the $250 million Tobin School project. He said that one of the concerns is how it will affect everything else going on in the city and on the school side. He acknowledged that the City has addressed over $10 million in repairs and renovations at the Fletcher Maynard, Graham and Parks and Morse, over $3 million in boiler repairs, and $5 million in playgrounds connected to schools and Russell Field. He stated that the current bond schedule through 2023, there has been $165 million put aside for the Tobin School in the schedule. The remaining $85 million will be bonded in 2025/2025. He said that the School Department is looking at study to look at remaining six schools with the discussion focused on does the City continue the process of doing one school at a time or finding substantial amounts of money to do multiple schools at a balanced number. He stated that the City is positioned to afford this. He said that there is $55 million in the debt stabilization fund anticipating this was coming. He is excited to start the Tobin School process. He thanked the City Council, the School Committee and the School Administration for their support and open dialogue. He stated that Deputy City Manager Peterson is the project manager for the City Manager’s Office and she will discuss the Tobin School. Deputy City Manager Peterson stated that the purpose of tonight’s meeting is to provide update on Tobin/Vassal Lane Upper School and for CDM Smith to give a presentation and to talk about the geotechnical and subsurface conditions of the entire site including the field. She said that over the last year the subsurface conditions have been reviewed and data has been collected and characterizing the conditions section by section to figure out the best way to build a building. She noted that this is a clay pit and a municipal dump that has been capped. She said that we need to ensure that work is being done in the safest way possible. She introduced the construction team. She announced that Perkins Eastman has been selected as the architect for the site. They did MLK and Putman Avenue Upper School. She noted that Perkins Eastman will be working with CDM Smith as the project moves to the next stage on the feasibility study. She said that in terms of the study, the goal is to have a campus for each of the lower and upper schools that will have a pre‐school and community school programs, looking at open space to ensure that it is a positive open space. They are looking at what will be the best location for the school. Looking at a variety of options for the school. She said part of the plan is to build an underground stormwater storage tank which will be over a million‐gallon tank. This has always been part of the West Cambridge Huron Avenue program that will be integrated. She said that they are targeting Net Zero emissions building for this project. She said that in terms of timeline, the City does plan on the students and faculty moving out of the building in June of 2020 and they are anticipating the opening of a school for September 2024. These dates may change but they are feeling that 2024 is a good date for the facility to be open. She introduced Mike Schultz from CDM Smith.

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3 Mr. Schultz introduced the CDM Smith team and his colleague. A Presentation on the work done thus far was presented (ATTACHMENT A). He gave a brief overview of the conditions of the site, both current and future conditions. He spoke about the site challenges for the new school construction. He noted that the site is safe for its current use as a school; there are not concerns about the current site. He stated that the geotechnical and environment investigations were key for the site. He explained that the next steps are to develop the options for the site and program. He stated that CDM will work with the architect to identify the key issues and the site work. He spoke about the challenges of the site. He stated that what is under the ground presents challenges for the foundation design and construction of the new school. He stated that the existing building is on piles that were installed through the dump materials on the site. He stated that when the ground is disturbed the soil, ground water and environment will require special handling. He stated that with the team expertise these challenges can be met and everything possible will be done to protect all. He highlighted the history and the geotechnical aspects of the site. He added that when the dump was filled in the Tobin Field and the Father Callahan Playground was built on the site in 1938. The school was constructed in 1971. He stated that inside the yellow line, which was the border of the clay pit, was where soil borings through the waste material into the clay and into the bedrock. Test pits were done to classify and characterize the materials. Monitoring wells were installed to monitor the groundwater level and quality. He stated that laboratory testing was done of the physical and engineering properties of all the materials so that when the time comes the information needed will be available for the architects to understand the conditions of the site to complete the feasible study. He added that the yellow line can be viewed as the area within which the waste exists and outside the line in the residential areas east is the line where the edge of the clay is and there is no waste beyond the yellow line. He characterized the waste fill material and the majority of the material is below the water table. Kate Murphy talked about the current environmental conditions of the site that is managed under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan Requirements. She stated that the site is safe under the current conditions. She added that there is no contact with the waste material and there is three feet of clean material on top of this. She stated that VOCs are not seen. She stated that in the existing school there is a sub‐slab vitalization system which protects the indoor air. She stated that with the ground water impacts are seen with metals. She commented that the Fresh Pond Reservoir is kept artificially high so that the so that the local brown water does not get into the reservoir. She reviewed the samplings that were done on the site. She stated that Methane has been found in the waste material and will need to be monitored and mitigated during construction and will be part of the feasibility study. Mr. Schultz talked about the geotechnical and environmental challenges. He stated that it may be better to leave the material in place and to stabilize the material in place. He spoke about protecting the construction workers working on the site. Any water taken from the site would need to meet a discharge standard. He stated that one of the challenges is that the waste extends under the Armory building and will be looking to isolate this from the school property. He spoke about the next steps. All options for the site and the cost will be weighed.

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4 Ms. Peterson noted that there was a public meeting a few weeks ago with more detailed information that is available on the City’s website. Councillor Zondervan asked about the option to remove the material, if we were to do that, where would the material go? Ms. Murphy said that the material would have to go to an out‐of‐state facility because instate landfills have certain criteria that must be met, and the samples exceeded the criteria. Councillor Zondervan expressed real reservations about taking our waste and making it someone else’s problem. He stated that a preferred option is to leave the material in place. Ms. Murphy said that it will be part of the feasibility study. She stated that the complete reports are available on‐line. Ms. Murphy said that she covered all the categories that were found. Councillor Zondervan asked if there is any consideration for remediating this site and leaving it as green space with the idea of relocating the school. Ms. Peterson said that they are not looking at acquiring a parcel to put the school on. She commented that the City owns this property and that there are advantages to building on property that the City owns. Councillor Kelley said that there is a lot of trucking that will take place. He stated that he hoped there will be bike safety measures put in place. Patty Nolan stated that community meetings are very important. Anything that can be done to minimize disruption to the neighborhood would be good. She said that if it turns out that the existing foundation and building can be used with minor renovations, would that then mean that most of the environmental and geotechnical concerns would not be as onerous. Mr. Schmidt said that in terms of the foundation, all the as‐built drawings of the existing school, the structure is well‐built, and he believes that there is a possibility that the school could stay at the location it is. Ms. Nolan said that it is good news that it is solid construction. She said that if we could build on to this building, many issues could be mitigated. Mr. Black said that there will still be a significant amount of excavation. All problems that will need to be overcome will still need to be overcome. Ms. Peterson said that there will need to be excavation for the underground storage tank. Ms. Nolan asked if this is one of the buildings that is all electric. Ms. Peterson responded in the affirmative. Ms. Peterson said that the facility does need to be rebuilt and renovated. Councillor Carlone stated that there must be a complete overhaul of the electrical system with a major gut at a minimum if the structure is saved. He said that maintaining the Fresh Pond height could fail and the National Guard Armory is part of the swap collection. He asked if we are considering a slurry wall or something between our site and the Armory site. He asked if there is any reason to consider it along the parkway and the park? Does it add protection? Mr. Schultz said that they may consider a slurry wall or something else, but the water level is kept high. If the water level came down, the water flow does not happen quickly so there would be ample time to fix a problem. As it relates to site selection of a future building, Councillor Carlone said that he recalls that there is a general slope from Alpine Street toward the pond. He said that we might want to consider building between the two streets along the property line of Alpine Street. He asked if there is any geotechnical or environmental reason to do that? Mr.

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5 Schultz said that the bedrock surface is floating away from the site. He said that it is beneficial to locate the building where the bedrock is shallow but that is a cost issue for the most part. Vice Mayor Devereux asked if the odor is related to the fact that it was a dump. What kind of odor are we talking about? How bad? Ms. Murphy responded that the odor is from the waste material. They did some test pits and there could be some odors but as soon as you got 20 feet away it dissipated very quickly. The odors are from the decompensation of the waste material. She said that the warmer it was, the stronger the odor. Mr. Schultz said that the idea would be to put engineering controls on that so that when the ground is exposed there would be a contingency plan in place to mitigate. There are some things that can be done to control and mitigate those odors. Vice Mayor Devereux asked if underground parking is part of the conversation. Mr. Black said that they will be putting parking below‐grade. Vice Mayor Devereux asked if we can be told what will be done to look at the mature trees in and around the Vassal Lane and Alpine Street area. She would like these trees to be given consideration. She said that the trees are very important for a lot of reasons. Ms. Peterson said that in the feasibility study will look at the impact to the significant trees. Ms. Bowman asked if CDM Smith is used to making a building with renovations and turning it into a net zero building. Ms. Peterson said that it would be better to hold this conversation until the team including the net zero consultant are present. She said that it is challenging to take an existing building and making it a net zero building. Councillor Siddiqui said that it would be helpful to have dates of the feasibility study on the website. She is trying to understand timeline for when the feasibility results will be received and the time for next steps. She stated that community input is important. Ms. Peterson stated that the goal is for the feasibility to be completed in the fall of 2019. During the feasibility process, there are going to be many meetings with options presented publicly. Ultimately, the City Manager will make the decision, ideally by January of 2020 because the schematic design with the preferred option should begin in early 2020. Councillor Siddiqui said that there is a lot of questions and concerns from the community, so the more outreach, the better. Councillor Mallon stated that the feasibility study will contain a lot of options. She asked how the City gets to the preferred option? She is curious about how the options will be presented to the City Council and the School Committee as well as residents and neighborhoods. Ms. Peterson said that some of these issues will evolve and feedback will be taken into consideration from everyone. The ultimate decision is made by the City Manager. The goal is that there is general agreement about what the school should be. Mr. Black commented that it was known that there were subsurface problems. He said that the options may become clear as evaluations begin. He said that there are many factors that must be considered. He said removal of material will have to be managed. He said that they are trying to get the

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6 Construction Manager on board and is important to the logistics of the project. Councillor Mallon said that this is a challenging site and she asked if other waste from King Open and MLK sites needed to be shipped out of state. Mr. Black answered in the affirmative on both schools. Mr. DePasquale reminded the City Council that nothing can be done without the vote of the City Council for the appropriation of the funds. Ms. Bowman asked for more information about the elevated levels of methane in the waste material and possible impacts in potentially moving these materials. Ms. Murphy stated that the levels of methane that are seen are not uncommon. There were a few locations where the levels were high, so it must be monitored and controlled during construction. It will be a concern for the construction workers. Mr. Schultz said that the ability to control this is first and foremost, the safety of the workers. There are ways of early alerts and detection. He said that it must be considered very carefully. Ms. Bowman noted that there must be due diligence on this. Councillor Zondervan stated that the methane is not in and of itself terribly harmful. Ms. Murthy stated that it is not toxic and is very common in a municipal landfill and needs to be controlled during construction. Councillor Zondervan asked how geothermal would be done on the site. Mr. Schultz responded that geothermal wells go deep into the soil and the piping would go into the bedrock. Councillor Zondervan stated that if the material is left in place, it would bypass with a heat exchange below? Mr. Schultz responded in the affirmative. Mayor McGovern now focused on the design, process and programming. Vice Mayor Devereux noted that the area is vulnerable to flooding. Having students out of building for 4 school years. Does installation of the underground storage tank and restoration of playing fields take place after that or require additional time? Mr. Black said that the plan today is to ensure that all construction is done during the timeframe. He said that some scenarios that could happen is that you could build the school on the field, demolish the school where it is now and put the tank where the school is now. There are many different concepts, but the intent is to get everything done contiguously. Councillor Carlone asked about the program. He said that part of the architect’s responsibility, with the School Committee and staff, is to develop the program. Regarding Pre‐K, he thinks that the number of students will increase at this location. He said that in the new facility on Cambridge Street, there are only 2 pre‐k classrooms. How many are being considered for this location? Ms. Peterson said that it is not programmed but there are more options to add space to this project. Councillor Carlone said that he hopes that the City maximizes this benefit within reason. He said that he sees a connective road going through the site for drop off and pick up of students. Ms. Nolan commented about there are a couple of other schools in dire need of renovation that are in worse condition that the Tobin. She stated as the City moves forward, are we thinking that these other buildings will be put out another five years or done earlier. We need to ensure that they are reaching the minimal level of renovation and upkeep. Mr. DePasquale said that the bond scheduled runs through

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7 2025. There is no additional bond money is programmed for schools until FY26. He said that some projects can be undertaken but even though we have bonded $243 million to date, they have tried to balance the needs of other schools that need work. Ms. Nolan asked for timelines more in line with school districts around the state. Anything we can do to ensure that students are out of the building for less time would be beneficial. Councillor Mallon said that pick‐up and drop‐off must be looked at as it relates to potentially increasing the student population. Regarding the swing space, will the same space be used? Mr. Maloney said that it will be a challenge to fit the Vassar Upper in the Kennedy Longfellow building and putting the Tobin in the Kennedy Longfellow building. The short answer is that it is possible that it may be opposite. The study is ongoing, and they are hoping for a decision relatively soon. Councillor Mallon asked if there is a possibility that there will be a lag of a year. Mr. Maloney said that the goal is to get the project underway as soon as possible. Ms. Bowman said that she is curious as we approach this new opportunity at the Tobin School, how do we approach thinking about increase growth and incorporating that when thinking about space and capacity at Tobin. Ms. Peterson said that there is more opportunity at the Tobin to create more space. It will get fleshed out in the feasibility study. The existing Tobin school is 135,000 square feet and they are estimating, including pre‐schools, that what will be built will be a 250,000 to 300,000 square foot facility. Ms. Bowman said that design matters. She said that it would be beneficial for the group to have conversations around inequities and start thinking about planning for many years out. Mr. DePasquale said that he agrees, and this is an opportunity to determine how to move forward. Councillor Simmons said that she wants to be clear about programming. She said that she does not want to see fighting over the building as it relates to programming. She wants to be mindful about how community schools and other programs that have utilized the building are treated when it is complete. The building needs to be good for everyone. Ms. Bowman asked if there are any reports of women and minority owned businesses who have contracted on these types of projects. She stated that it is incumbent that there is some level of connectivity with the residents. Mr. Black said that the City has far exceeded all goals requested. He noted that the data is available. Ms. Peterson stated that she will furnish this information. Mayor McGovern echoed his colleagues’ comments around space. He stated that there is a lot of room at Tobin and he would like to see utilization of this space. He noted that regarding the swing space, he thanked the Kennedy Longfellow for their cooperation. He stated that during the Huron Avenue construction project he heard that people had questions about things that were happening in the moment and there was no on‐site person to communicate with. He commented that the City has to stay on top of the community conversation and communication. He stated that he would love to see the Tobin building demolished as it looks prison‐like in his opinion. He would like teachers and staff to give input on the interior of the building.

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8 Vice Mayor Devereux asked how large the new Cambridge Street School is. Mr. Black responded 273,000 square feet; the existing building is 114,000 square feet. Vice Mayor Devereux questioned how large this building will look amongst the small‐scale houses. She stated that when doing the geothermal wells, the City Council had to sign off on designated open space being changed. Mr. Black responded that there is no Article 97 on the Tobin Project. Vice Mayor Devereux asked how much open space can be lost? Ms. Peterson noted that the King Open School will increase the open space by one acre by utilizing underground parking. The goal is to not lose open space. She added that the feasibility study will explore this. Councillor Mallon asked if there have been conversations around the arts. Will this be a true one percent for the arts building? Ms. Peterson responded that she and Mr. Black had a meeting with the Arts Council this morning and it is included in the budget for one percent for the arts. They discussed whether all that money should go for one site or have it put in the arts development fund for other public art projects. She said that the City Manager has committed to one percent for the arts. Councillor Mallon stated that she is very pleased. Ms. Nolan stated that she would like to do everything for kids in building that are sub‐par. Mr. DePasquale said that they are trying to find that balance. Ms. Dexter asked if it possible to save money and not have the building be so state of the art as to use funding to build up other buildings. Mr. DePasquale said that they have always tried to develop the best project. If there is a push to downsize the project, there will certainly be a discussion. He said that the projects are difficult to have them come in at the price less than what is predicted. Mr. Maloney stated that the School Department can only handle so much interruption in the school year on projects. He noted that they are still meeting on the King Open and Cambridge Street Administration building. They are dealing with five construction projects internally which is a lot of work for staff. He stated that there is a limit as to how much can be done at once. Mayor McGovern thanked other departments in the City who have been waiting for improvements to their facilities. He commented that this shows the City’s commitment to young people and schools. On a motion of School Committee member Bowman and seconded by Councillor Mallon the meeting adjourned at 7:33 PM. ATTEST:‐ Donna P. Lopez City Clerk

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