City Puts Clapp School Lease Out to Bid

The city is advertising for a non-profit educational organization to .

Toward that end, the city issued a Request for Proposals last week, on April 6, which was published in a number of places, both locally and in the Central Register, the secretary of state’s Web site for public projects, according to Sarah Stanton, the city’s purchasing director.

The proposed leasing of the Clapp School has been contentious, between .

Potential school lessees must complete two documents. One asks for non-price information; the other, the price the applicant proposes to pay for each of five years of a lease. They will be opened separately, according to the proposal documents.

The estimated rental value of the space, according to the Central Register listing, is $175,000 a year. The lessee must pay for utilities. The value of the building, according to the listing: $4 million.

The non-price proposal “must contain all information pertaining to the proposed lease of the George I. Clapp School, including, but not limited to, the number of occupants, parking plan, proposed use of the building,” according to the proposal documents.

The city will evaluate proposals based on five criteria, the proposal documents state. They include the:

• "quality and completeness of (the) proposal;
• “ability to meet all minimum qualifications;
• "organization’s experience, including, the engagements of similar scope and complexity; 
• “timeline for occupation; and     
• “organization’s prior record of performance with other municipalities or governmental agencies.”

The school will become vacant at the end of this school year, when students move to either the new or the .

No potential lessee has picked up a proposal package yet, Stanton said Tuesday afternoon.

But “an abundance of residents,” about six people, “who are curious,” wanted to see the documents, Stanton said.

City and school officials propose to rent the Clapp School building for up to five years, until they anticipate they will need the school as “swing space” during the next elementary school building project.

Some residents of the Clapp School neighborhood say a lease runs counter to a that state legislators passed this past spring.

They contend that, in exchange particularly for accepting portable classrooms at the Clapp School to help temporarily house students from the old Goodyear School while the , and related traffic and congestion, the former mayor agreed to close the Clapp School after public school students move out.

The home rule petition calls for the school to become recreation space when the School Committee deems it unnecessary for educational use.

Area residents and their attorney say the home rule petition limits the school’s use only to the Woburn School Department.

City and School Department lawyers disagreed when, earlier this year, —or space in Melrose or Stoneham—for a program. They , at the .

Proposals to lease the Clapp School are due on May 10, a Tuesday, at 11 a.m., in the purchasing agent’s office in , according to the Request for Proposals.

All proposals that meet “the minimum requirements and conditions” may be held by the city for up to 60 days from when the proposals are opened so the city can review them and investigate the qualification of the potential lessees, the proposal document concludes.