Countryside Elementary

In April of 2021, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted to invite the Countryside School project into their Eligibility Period, the initial step in the MSBA process to be eligible for state funding for a school construction project. 

The School Department and the City then worked to quickly complete all MSBA Eligibility Period requirements, including identifying a School Building Committee, Maintenance and Capital Planning documents, an Educational Questionnaire and Enrollment projections; and all completed requirements were submitted to the MSBA in June of 2021. 

On December 15, 2021, the MSBA Board voted to invite the Countryside Elementary School project into the Feasibility Study phase of their program.  Based on the enrollment agreement with the MSBA, the Feasibility Study for the Proposed Project will include the following two study enrollments:

• Grades K-5: 340 Students

• Grades K-5: 465 Students 

The City’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) included $1.25 million (from ARPA) for the feasibility study in FY2022 to continue to move this Title 1 School project forward. This funding was docketed with the City Council for approval in June 2021.  

The Countryside project moved into Module 2 of the MSBA process, Forming the Project Team, the first step of which is hiring the Owner’s Project Manager (OPM). The OPM Request For Proposals (RFP) was advertised on January 27, 2022, and 7 proposals for OPM services were received on February 10, 2022.  The Designer Selection Committee (DSC) met on March 3, 2022 to review proposals and to identify a short list of firms to interview. 

On March 10, 2022, interviews were conducted with three firms and the DSC voted to rank the three firms for their recommendation to the Mayor.  The Mayor reviewed and approved the Committee’s recommendation of Dore and Whittier as the top ranked firm. The recommendation has been submitted to the MSBA and we anticipate being on the May 2nd agenda of the MSBA’s OPM Review Panel for approval.

Once the OPM selection is approved by the MSBA, a contract will be executed and the OPM will then help manage the designer selection process, which is anticipated to take three-four months to complete.

Information about the MSBA’s Module 2 can be found at MSBA Module 2 - Forming the Project Team, and an overview of the entire eight module MSBA process can be found at MSBA Module Overview.   

Countryside School Building Committee (SBC) meeting presentations and recordings can be found below. Project information can also be found on the Newton Public Buildings Department website at  Countryside Project.

The project is going very smoothly. The crews have been hard at work with the earthwork and foundations. Concrete will be flowing for the next month, and steel is expected to arrive early in August. To maintain our overall project schedule, the project will be drilling the geothermal wells starting early in the fall.