WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday approved a building project budget that lowers the projected cost to local taxpayers by about 16 percent from the figure estimated just four months ago.

 

The committee, on the recommendation of its School Building Committee, authorized owners project manager Dore & Whittier to submit a schematic design to the Massachusetts School Building Authority that includes a total project budget of $64.8 million.

 

That was the number that came out of this week's reconciliation of the estimates from the district's construction manager, Turner Construction, and Essential Estimating of Marlborough.

 

In July, the School Building Committee heard an estimated project cost of $69.5 million for the addition/renovation. The new total cost is $64.8 million, a drop of 6.7 percent.

 

"We've made some significant strides in the right direction, and I think we were trying to be all-encompassing when building the overall project budget," Dore & Whittier's Trip Elmore said.

 

Because of where the cuts came from — often areas that are not eligible for MSBA contribution — the local share of the project is expected to drop significantly.

 

In July, Dore & Whittier was projecting the local share to end up between $38.1 million and $42.7 million, depending on the final degree of MSBA participation.

 

On Thursday, those local numbers were pegged at $31.9 million to $35.8 million.

 

That means in the worst-case scenario (with the lowest level of MSBA participation reasonably foreseen), the local share has dropped by $6.9 million from July to now, a change of 16.2 percent.

 

Now, the MSBA will take its crack at the budget and return a figure it believes is reasonable for the scope of the project, Elmore explained. The district will negotiate with the authority to arrive at a final number that the district hopes th MSBA will bless at its Jan. 27 board meeting.

 

If that happens, the district then would have 120 days from Jan. 27 to get a debt exclusion passed by voters in Williamstown and Lanesborough.

 

The $4.7 million reduction in the total project cost came after a series of School Building Committee discussions over the last few months. Many of those talks have focused on how to reduce the new school's pricetag.

 

And committee members emphasized on Thursday that while the district may ask voters to approve a project costing up to $64.8 million (or a similar sum), the district does not need to spend up to that budget.

 

"We've pulled the parking lot out and pulled theater lighting and AV equipment," said School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene, who also serves on the School Building Committee. "We've demonstrated our ability to bring the numbers down. We've demonstrated our dedication to bringing the numbers down.

 

"We can go to the voters and say, 'We will continue to bring the numbers down. This is what we're going to ask you to approve. We're not going to necessarily spend it all.' "

 

On Thursday evening, the cost-cutting discussions continued.

 

School Building Committee member Robert Ericson, a member of the Lanesborough Board of Selectmen, suggested that the committee delay finalizing the schematic design (and budget) until it had a chance to comb through the design for more savings. Specifically, Ericson challenged the inclusion of new desks and furniture before the district has a chance to decide what from the old building can be salvaged from the current high school.

 

"A lot of things are questionable," Ericson said. "We've been buying file cabinets for the administration for years, and those things don't wear out.

 

"Do we need to put another new file cabinet and put the other thing in the junk pile? That's not very 'green community-ish' of us."

 

Greene said Thursday's meeting was not the time to tear apart the budget looking for incremental cost savings.

 

"With [furniture, fixtures and equipment], it's important to carry a conservative number," Greene said, alluding again to the fact that the district does not have to spend the entire budget.

 

"We're not going to inventory the classrooms now. That's a task group assignment. It's not our job. Hopefully, we guess high and hopefully we don't spend it all."

 

In the end, Ericson joined an 11-0 vote of the SBC to recommend the $64.8 million budget to the School Committee. The four members of the seven-person School Committee who attended the joint meeting promptly voted to authorize Dore & Whittier and architect Design Partnership to send the schematic design to the MSBA.

 

In other business on Thursday, the School Building Committee heard a report from Turner's Mike Dombrowski Ziobrowski and Jim Liddick about their thoughts on staging for the project.

 

The main change from Turner's earlier thoughts about staging is that it now favors a renovation plan that focuses first on gutting and rebuilding the central core of the building — including the auditorium and the current home of the Tri-Distict administrative offices.

 

"If we can start in that area first, we can start in on the abatement and demolition early," Dombrowski said.

 

School Building Committee Chairman Mark Schiek asked the pair how the committee could help them keep an aggressive schedule that projects a move-in date of spring 2018 for the new academic wing.

 

"By letting us start the abatement in the middle section as soon as possible," Liddick said.

 

"That comes down to approval of the project," Schiek said. "We need a vote — the sooner the better."