Peabody school committee moves feasibility work forward for new Veterans Memorial High School, plans OPM advertisement

Peabody — The Peabody School Committee continued work on the Peabody Veterans Memorial High School MSBA project on Aug. 26, reporting that the district plans to advertise for an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) in January as it moves through the MSBA feasibility phase.

Committee member Beverly Dunn, who chairs the subcommittee overseeing the project, told the committee the advertisement and OPM qualifications language are being drafted and that a school building committee meeting will be scheduled in September once there is substantive material to review.

The update matters because hiring an experienced OPM is the next formal step in the MSBA process; Dunn said the OPM will help the district capture reimbursable items, guide construction sequencing and advise on managing items such as athletic fields that may or may not be reimbursed by MSBA.

Dunn and other members also described plans for field visits to completed schools, citing Worcester, Arlington, Waltham and Lexington as examples the subcommittee intends to study for design and program ideas. Committee members said they expect visits to include schools with CTE programs and schools without specialized career-technical spaces to inform decisions about program mix.

Members discussed engineering lessons learned from the recent Higgins Middle School project, including extensive subsurface work to remove peat or use deep dynamic compaction and under-drainage that routed stormwater away from the site. "There was a vein of peat underneath this building, which was very serious for a building of this size," Dunn said, describing why the team used specialized ground remediation and drainage systems on that site.

Committee members stressed they will not decide building location on the high school site until engineering studies are complete. Dunn said the district will begin hiring the project manager and architect next year after the feasibility work continues.

Discussion-only items included draft OPM qualifications, scheduling of building-committee meetings and the list of potential site and program studies. No formal vote or contract award took place at the Aug. 26 meeting.

What happens next: the subcommittee expects to post the OPM advertisement in January, hold building-committee meetings this fall, and begin formal selection of design and management teams during the feasibility phase.