Mass School Building Authority presentation

really glad not to have to come up with what happens if Q.3 passed (1 cent of 6.25 sales tax dedicated to MSBA)


$2 billion backlog in funding when they took over
waitlist of 44 buildings when MSBA took over; last 2 are currently building
auditing has made this a much better, more honest process

1776 schools been reviewed
progress payment system: check is in the mail 15 days after district bill is reviewed ("pay as you build")
last year of $2.5 billion of the first five years of the capital pipeline
$500 million to spend a year


what the sales tax is projected to bear

former program was created due to the baby boom...now have opposite problem

fund projects first that have structural deficiencies (Southbridge's library broke away from the building): have an empirical study that shows where the needs are

how to potentially close down schools that money is still owed on
getting away from the "keeping up with the Jones": what's the right size solution?

Green Repair, encourage renovations

no project until it's seen that your need is as great as those that came in with your peer group
"making sure you avail yourselves of our money as much as possible for repair"

Project status chart (up on the MSBA site) 135 buildings in the pipeline, 129 new, 45 green repairs
once you file a statement of interest and you're waiting for a feisibility study, you go on the chart
MSBA pays for 100% of building commissioning
feisibility study; agreement on design; cost

6 to 10 model schools: not every new school is a model school (that's where you pick a design they already have)
building same; facade can change to reflect local community character
elementary school needs tend to be similar from district to district

Green Repair: up to $300 million in roofs, windows, and boilers
summer 2011 construction
extends life of otherwise sound buildings
streamlined procurement
multiple projects in a single community (there's three in Worcester, and when I asked later, I was told that our buildings are still being reviewed)
190 applications
Tier 1 projects get funded first
"tired building projects": much better to preserve and repair than build new

(you can follow the MSBA on Facebook; who knew? I wonder if they give reimbursement points for that?)

non-intrusive load monitoring: MIT project to remotely monitor energy use from a central location
"turning off the computer labs that are on all night" save (yes, Worcester does that already...and did it internally)

Needs Survey: actually VISITING schools: they've done 1775 so far
capture intangibles (like no windows, class size, do you have an open floor plan...hey, this sounds familiar!)

maintenance, space use utilization, building conditions

districts that are expanding, districts that are shrinking

Report in January giving three ratings
over 80% of received buildings are rated 1 or 2
"buildings still out there that don't have a cafeteria or gym in elementary school"
one million square feet of unused space in the state
75% had average maintenance
21 "gross" schools
maintenance task force--excellent, good, poor ratings for building
rating by best practices earns reimbursement incentive points
up to 2 reimbursement points for Maintenance practices as a district (this is on their website)

New website coming soon
ratings by school
where schools are in the MSBA pipeline
can just deal with smaller projects: dealing with all of your needs from large to small

contractors say the only thing they're working on is schools

empowering the school districts to have a punch list of things they need fixed before they accept the building

DCAM can decertified contractors

positions on ESCO's?
"more safeguards in place now...third party oversight now"
amortize contract over time (?)
how long is the actual payback on ESCO?(what you're buying, what's the price, and what's the payback?)
"it could make a lot of sense to deal with an ESCO company" depending on the district

speak to the process for smaller projects: is the process still the same?
Yes, now BUT
"maybe, if the Green Repair program works well, we could make the argument for a separate process for projects under $10 million"

"we generally try not to tell people no"
"we're back at it"