New Pine Hill Elementary School on Track for February 2024 Opening

By Darcie Fisher for Westwood Public Schools

Almost a year into the construction of the new Pine Hill Elementary School on Gay Street, the School Building Committee (SBC) is happy to report that the project is going well.

“Thanks to the diligence of our general contractor and the hard work of both our project manager and our architect, plus a little good luck with the weather this past winter and spring, we are excited to report that the new school building is more than 50% complete,” said Superintendent of Schools, Emily Parks. “Even better, it’s still on budget.”

The SBC, working with the Permanent Building Committee (PBC), put the project out to bid to general contractors in June of last year. However, with the significant increases in costs that hit the construction industry last summer, the SBC and the PBC knew the project would face economic challenges. Therefore, leading up to the bid process, the SBC engaged in substantial value engineering and designated a number of items as alternates in order to keep the project within the budget voted by residents at Town Meeting in 2021. Despite those efforts, when the construction bids were submitted in July 2022, they were higher than anticipated.

“While the budget as voted by residents would have covered the cost of the construction contract, the PBC was concerned that the project didn’t have enough contingency funds remaining to responsibly move forward with the project,” explained Maya Plotkin, Chair of the SBC. The School Committee, the Select Board, and the PBC all held meetings to consider options.

To ensure that the construction contingency was fiscally sound, in June 2022, the School Committee voted to allocate $2.1M in University Station unrestricted mitigation funds toward the Pine Hill School project. In addition, the Select Board voted to submit an application to Norfolk County for $1M in restricted ARPA grant funds for the school project, which was subsequently approved. With these additional funds in place, the PBC was able to award the construction contract to Brait Builders Corporation and the school project moved forward on schedule.

Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. Construction continues on the new Pine Hill Elementary School, but progress permits a view to the end result.

Now, nearly a year into the project, and with some major uncertainties (such as the amount of ledge removal required) in the rear-view mirror, the project budget is in good shape and has not required significant use of contingency funding. In fact, at its last meeting, due to the healthy budget, the SBC and PBC discussed opportunities to restore items to the project that had been taken out through the value engineering process.

The new Pine Hill Elementary School has an anticipated completion date of January 2024, with the teachers and students scheduled to move in the next month. Demolition of the current Hanlon School and construction of the new multi-purpose field and ball field will begin after the new school opens and be completed by Fall 2024.

“Given the on-going challenges with the supply chain, our team is closely monitoring shipping dates for certain key pieces of equipment,” said Parks. “Right now, however, we are on track for a February 2024 opening. If the supply chain issues do impact us, that opening will shift to later in Spring 2024.”

When the building opens, it will consolidate two schools – Hanlon and Deerfield – into the new Pine Hill Elementary School. Though the physical consolidation will not take place until more than halfway into the 2023-2024 school year, starting this fall, Hanlon and Deerfield will be considered one school with two campuses. Both campuses will be led by Principal Josh Baumer and Interim Assistant Principal Donna Olson. Baumer and Olson will alternate between the two campuses as they prepare to unite students and staff at Pine Hill later in the school year.

Thanks to Darcie Fisher and Westwood Public Schools for contributing this article to Westwood Minute.

Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. Inside the new Pine Hill Elementary School, walls have been erected and doorways have been framed.

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