School Committee Resolution — File 23-0896

School Committee Resolution Regarding Timeline and Scope of Work for Addressing School Facility Challenges The School Committee requests that the Mayor accelerate the proposed timeline for evaluating, creating plans and starting construction (renovation or rebuild), including specific concrete steps and budget allocation to begin in the 2023-24 fiscal budget, to: • address the current deficiencies with facilities for the over 640 students currently attending the Brown School and Winter Hill Community Innovation School • address limitations of the facility housing SCALE (Somerville Center for Adult Learning Experiences) • Establish an actionable plan for emergency school space, that may serve a role as swing space (temporary location for classrooms) to support efforts to renovate or rebuild schools. An example of an accelerated timeline: • Year 1 include funding project management resources, gap analysis & costs estimates work, and creating published timeline, • Year 2 complete feasibility and community process, begin design • Year 3 bonded for construction costs • End of year 3 broken ground on construction To demonstrate the City’s commitment and further these goals, the School Committee is also requesting: • a collaborative and transparent process including working with SPS on currently contracted work and Request for Proposal scope definition and awarding contracts for future work (as was done with enrollment study) regarding school facilities, • clarification of the systems, structures and communication mechanisms, including roles and responsibilities, between SPS, the School Committee, the Mayor and City Staff, • a published timeline with clear milestones and is updated with progress on a regular basis, • Clarification of funding plans, • Creation and execution of a communication plan with the community and public bodies The School Committee will not consider releasing the 1895 building to the City before: • there is a clear plan to address the future of the Winter Hill Community Innovation School, • there is an interim risk-mitigation plan addressing both capacity and facility conditions of the WHCIS, • there is a commitment from the city to fund additional swing space as it is required, to house students and teachers, • the City pledges to support with facilities, the growing programming needs for the current and future populations served at the WHCIS.