School Committee to Vote on Construction Budget Reductions

will vote at its Thursday meeting to consider the Pell Building Committee's Level 1 recommendations for. The recommendations total approximately $2.7 million in cuts.

“We want it to have a nice exterior and a good place for kids to grow and learn,” Superintendent John Ambrogi said.

The building committee will continue to look at other items not yet recommended, which have not been reviewed and will move forward.

“We can’t afford to continue to delay,” Ambrogi said.

He added that there is about $800,000 in contingency and furniture funds that could help fill the gap in the budget, although he said he was not sure what percentage of the contingency fund will be maintained.

“The School Committee will vote on whether we cut some of the things out of the building now and have more left over or we have more in the building now and hope we have a favorable bid,” he said. “Obviously this thing is a moving target.”

School Committee member Rebecca Bolan said during the Pell Building Committee meeting Tuesday morning that creative fundraising could boost savings, such as having community members donate to have their names on classrooms and facilities.

Ambrogi also addressed value engineering, which was the topic of a

“There has been value engineering done already," he said. "It may not be what some people want it to be." Ambrogi said it had been addressed before the list of possible recommendations had been put together.

Ambrogi also stressed there was no plan to reduce the footprint or size of the school as a cost-saving measure.