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School Building Committee gives update on progress

Date: 2/23/2009

The Longmeadow School Building Committee (SBC) has been hard at work during the past few months and would like to take an opportunity to update the community.

First and foremost, the committee would like to thank the residents for their support for Ballot Question #4 (the debt exclusion for the Longmeadow High School Feasibility Study) on Nov. 4, 2008. We thank you for your confidence in the SBC, and we thank you for giving us the ability to move forward in this first step of the process as outlined by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

In order to begin the Feasibility Study, the town of Longmeadow is required by the MSBA to hire an Owner's Project Manager (OPM) who will oversee and manage the entire process. The SBC is charged with reviewing, interviewing and fully vetting all of the applicants to the Request for Services (RFS) for the OPM. The committee has chosen the top candidate who must then be approved by the MSBA. Currently, we are in negotiations with our chosen OPM, and we hope to have the contract negotiated and finalized/approved by MSBA sometime this spring.

Shortly before the holidays, Katherine Craven, Director of the MSBA, and others came to Longmeadow High School (LHS) and enjoyed a tour with Superintendent Jahn Hart, Principal Larry Berte and members of the SBC. We are pleased with the MSBA's interest in LHS and their willingness to come out to personally view our school.

On Jan. 12, the SBC invited the School Committee to a joint meeting to hear from an Educational Planning and Visioning specialist who will assist the community in determining and aligning our future vision for education in Longmeadow.

The SBC will continually provide updates as decisions are made and milestones accomplished. For more information or to contact the SBC, please visit www.longmeadow.org/sbc/index.htm.