Budget for School Facilities Study Put Under Scrutiny

The latest meeting of the Hudson Budget Committee saw a barrage of questions about a recent facilities study designed to examine local issues related to elementary and middle schools in Hudson. Lavallee Brensinger Architects conducted the analysis in 2022-early 2023. The study was completed in March 2023.
“They met with facilities, they met with building-level principals, and administrators to walk through our buildings: size of rooms, size of spaces, to look at all of that information,” said School Board Chair, Maureen Dionne. “The purpose of it is for the Board to utilize that information to consider any future needs of the district.”
The idea was to make it easier for the School Board and the town to make informed decisions. Any future buildings or expansions would require approving a related warrant article.
“The facilities study is really a piece of the School Board and the school district, looking at all of education in Hudson,” said Dionne.
Committee member, Randy Brownrigg, indicated that Dr. HO Smith and Library Street Schools would likely need to be torn down and replaced sooner or later.
“How do we prepare for that?” he wondered. “That’s going to be a lot of money. I don’t know if you’ve been in Library, but that building is crumbling.”
Dionne indicated that the release of information related to the study, public walkthroughs, and the formation of a special subcommittee next fall would make it easier for town officials to gain support for replacement schools. Brownrigg was particularly interested in a walkthrough of the buildings.
Budget Chair, Bill Cole, was unhappy with the $85,000 price tag behind the study.
“With all due respect, it’s a document that’s nothing more than a cut-and-paste of public information, and a couple, computer generated squares and rectangles where they say, might want to put a room,” he said.
The Budget Chair wanted to know why the document did not include a state safety report. He was told some information related to that report was not publicly releasable.
“How long ago was the last facility study?” asked Brownrigg.
There was a 2018 safety and security report on the schools, but the only earlier study anyone could think of was around 1998.
“What is the status of the facilities study right now? What is it being melded with and looked at in relationship to the taxpayers getting something for $85,000?” asked Cole, who was informed that the study was still under review. “$85,000, and I have not seen progress on that study.”
“With any significant capital improvement project, the organization does its due diligence. For example, the Hudson Police Department did a spatial needs study in 2019 and then the warrant article was 2022,” said Dionne. “The facilities study enables us to make informed decisions. That did not occur in 2023, we were just presented it in mid-to-late March of 2023 and those things take time to create a strategic plan, to engage our voters, to have listening sessions and things like that.”
She stressed that a strategic plan for replacing multiple buildings would take time.
“The School Board, do they believe they got value from this report?” asked Selectman Liaison, Heidi Jakoby.
According to their Chair, the School Board was confident what they got from the study was worth the price.

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