Medford building committee approves submission of Preliminary Design Report to MSBA

The Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee voted to submit its Preliminary Design Report (PDP) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for review and feedback, approving the motion by roll call after the project team described corrections to earlier cost estimates.

Project team member Matt told the committee the team had found "a couple of estimate anomalies" while finalizing the PDP for the MSBA. He said early-childhood center space areas had been double-counted in some alternatives, reducing total project costs by about $30–44 million for options that included those program elements. He also said three new-construction alternatives had double-counted a standalone pool building, reducing those options by roughly $16 million each. "So that was the bottom line number that we were looking at in terms of reduction," Matt said.

The corrected figures will be reflected in an updated table the team shared via QR code and a downloadable PDF. Jenny Graham, the meeting chair, said the team would also post highlights and a short summary to the project website and include the materials in superintendent and mayoral communications to help the public digest the large PDP document.

A motion to submit the PDP was made and seconded; the committee approved the submission by roll call with 13 members voting in the affirmative, 0 against, 1 abstention and 1 absent. After the vote Graham said, "This submission has been approved to go to the MSBA," and thanked the project team for their work compiling the materials.

Why it matters: Submitting the PDP to the MSBA marks a formal, early milestone in the state grant and review process; the MSBA’s comments and guidance will help shape the next schematic-design steps and the narrower set of options the committee will evaluate.

What happens next: The project team will incorporate the corrected cost tables into the PDP package, produce a concise public-facing summary and continue work on the PSR (preferred schematic report) phase. The committee asked the project team to return a clearer explainer of how evaluation criteria will be applied to the remaining alternatives at the next meeting.