• Early construction set up will begin on May 28th, 2024

• On the 28th construction trailers will be placed parallel to the fencing that separates the baseball field and the parking area in the back of the building. Be advised that this area will be closed for parking for the remainder of the school year.

• On the 28th, fencing will also begin going up around the tennis courts, while still allowing access. The courts will be closed off with fencing at the beginning of June to allow for geothermal well drilling.

• Full site enabling begins the day after school gets out with perimeter fencing around the entire work site, and work on the parking lot.

Superintendent Update to Nashoba RSD Families Dated May 3, 2024:

 Dear Nashoba Community,

This week, I am excited to share a significant milestone in our Nashoba Regional High School Building Project. In September, all three of our communities came together in support of the NRHS Building Project, which showcased the values and priorities of each of our towns. This unified support was crucial, and five years after the building project began, it was fully passed. Since then, we have been hard at work developing and finalizing design plans.

On June 7th, 2024, we will officially break ground on the new Nashoba Regional High School. To ensure that everyone can celebrate this milestone, we are collaborating closely with our community public access stations to televise and post the officially groundbreaking ceremony. This is a pivotal moment that will shape the future of not only our highschool, but also our community as a whole. We hope that you will join us virtually!

Stay tuned for additional details. We will continue to provide community updates on the NRHS Building Project through The Common, The NRHS Building Project website, and scheduled School Building Committee meetings.

We are grateful for your support, and look forward to continuing our collaboration as we move forward through the building phase.

Peace,

Kirk Downing

(He/Him)

Universal bathroom design for the new Nashoba High School was presented to the School Building Committee on March 21, 2024 .  An updated schedule was presented to the SBC, showing Construction beginning in June 2024 with installation of geothermal wells.

IN a presentation to the School Building Committee, Consigli reported that an 800-foot deep test geothermal well was succesfully installed, allowing a cost savings to be realized with a revised geothermal system design.  Skanska presented a schedule showing occupancy of the new building on August 16, 2027.   Please view the full presentation here.

Bolton, Mass. (December 15, 2023) - 

On October 25th, 2023 the Massachusetts School Building Authority voted to award a supplemental facilities grant to Nashoba Regional School District.

This supplemental funding raised the eligible reimbursement square footage cap from $393 to $512.

Earlier this week, Nashoba Regional School District received the award amount, and an additional maximum $14,938,628 of funding. This increased participation on behalf of the MSBA reduces the total maximum impact to Nashoba taxpayers, decreasing total taxpayer

contributions from $176,903,564 to $161,982,847.

This additional funding resulted from a strong partnership with Massachusetts government representatives. The ongoing advocacy and support throughout the budget development process from Senator Robin Kennedy (Bolton), Senator John Cronin (Lancaster), Senator James Eldrige (Stow), Representative Kate Hogan (Bolton and Stow) and Representative Meghan Kilcoyne (Lancaster) played a key role in the district’s efforts to decrease the cost of the project to Bolton, Lancaster, and Stow taxpayers.

September 28, 2023

Dear Nashoba Community,

Today, I write to you humbled by the decision of our three communities to design and build a new Nashoba Regional High School. The school district has been engaged in this process since the Fall of 2018 and to see our community endorse the project is a testimony to the values of our three communities.

I intentionally used the word humbled because we recognize that this decision was not the desire of all of our residents. We respect our citizens who asked deep questions about the project and had concerns about the cost. We share those concerns and you have our pledge that we will be responsible stewards for the town as it is our goal to bring a first class high school to our community on time and under budget.

As we proceed in the design process we will bring you updates through school building committee meetings and our social media channels. This is an extremely exciting time for our community and we look forward to bringing this amazing opportunity to our towns. 

Superintendent of Schools, Kirk Downing

On Monday, September 18th, all three of our towns approved the borrowing authorized by the School Committee for a new Nashoba Regional High School. According to the regional agreement, each of the town's shares are:

Bolton: 31.87% ($56,433,052)

Lancaster: 32.97% ($58,380,851)

Stow: 35.16% ($62,258,742)

Town elections pursuant to the provisions of proposition two and one-half will take place on the following dates:

Stow: Saturday, September 23rd, 2023

Bolton: Monday, September 25th, 2023

Lancaster: Monday, September 25th, 2023 

Voters in Bolton, Stow and Lancaster will approve the project as proposed in Special Town Meetings on September 18, 2023.  The warrant article reads: To see if the Town will approve the $241,714,926 borrowing authorized by the Nashoba Regional School District, for the purpose of paying costs of a new Nashoba Regional High School, 12 Green Road, Bolton, MA 01740 including site work and athletic fields, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto (the “Project”), which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children of at least 50 years, and for which the District may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), said amount to be expended at the direction of the Nashoba Regional School District’s Project School Building Committee. The MSBA’s grant program is a non-entitlement, discretionary program based on need, as determined by the MSBA, and any Project costs the District incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the District and its member municipalities. Any grant that the District may receive from the MSBA for the Project shall not exceed the lesser of (1) fifty-five and 09/100 percent (55.09%) of eligible, approved Project costs, as determined by the MSBA, or (2) the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA. 

Ballot elections will be held in each town  to authorize debt exclusions.  The ballot question will read as follows: Shall the Town of (Bolton, Stow or Lancaster) be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition two and one-half, so-called, the amounts required to pay (Bolton, Stow or Lancaster's) allocable share of the bond issued by the Nashoba Regional School District for the purpose of paying costs of a new Nashoba Regional High School, 12 Green Road, Bolton, MA 01740 including site work and athletic fields, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto? 

On August 30, 2023, the Board of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (the “MSBA”) has voted to approve the Nashoba Regional High School Project in the Nashoba Regional School District (the “District”) to replace the existing Nashoba Regional High School with a new facility serving grades 9-12 on the site of the existing school. The Board approved an Estimated Maximum Total Facilities Grant of $63,147,901, which does not include any funds for Potentially Eligible Owner’s or Construction Contingency Expenditures. In the event that the MSBA determines that any Owner’s and/or Construction Contingency Expenditures are eligible for reimbursement, the Maximum Total Facilities Grant for the Nashoba Regional High School Project may increase to as much as $64,793,451. The final grant amount will be determined by the MSBA based on a review and audit of all Project costs incurred by the District, in accordance with the MSBA’s regulations, policies, and guidelines and the Project Funding Agreement. The final grant amount may be an amount less than $63,147,901.

On August 2, 2023, The Nashoba Regional School Committee unanimously voted in favor of the following motion: That the Nashoba Regional School District hereby appropriates the amount of $241,714,926 for the purpose of paying costs of a new Nashoba Regional High School, 12 Green Road, Bolton, MA 01740 including site work and athletic fields, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto (the “Project”), which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction  of school children of at least 50 years, and for which the District may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), said amount to be expended at the direction of the School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation the District is authorized to borrow said amount, under and pursuant to Chapter 71, Section 16(d), of the General Laws and the District Agreement, as amended, or pursuant to any other enabling authority.   (FULL MOTION CAN BE FOUND IN MEETING MINUTES for the School Committee )

On June 27, 2023, The School Committee unanimously voted to recommend the approval of the Module 4 Schematic Design Report prepared by KBA and Skanska USA for submission to the Massachusetts School Building Authority on behalf of the Nashoba Regional School District
The entire report contents are available for viewing at this link; the report text, design drawings and DESE submitall requirements have been posted on the Schematic Design page.

On May 31, 2023, The School Committee unanimously approved  to adopt the Nashoba Regional High School Building Committee's recommended Schematic Design Project Budget in the total amount of Two Hundred Forty-One Million Seven Hundred Fourteen Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty-Six Dollars and 001/00 ($241,714,926.00) and to further adopt and approve the recommendation of the Nashoba Regional High School Building Committee to direct Skanska USA, the owner's project manager, to include and/or submit the Schematic Design Project Budget as adopted and approved to the Massachusetts School Building Authority on behalf of the Nashoba Regional School District no later than June 27, 2023.

Tours of the High School will be given for anyone interested on April 1st and April 29th, 2023.  Signups will be required and more information is forthcoming. Use the below form to register for the tours.  

Tour Sign Up 

The SBC has voted to appoint members Vivirito, Gleason and Cohen as Liasons to the Selectboards of Stow, Lancaster and Bolton beginning in January 2023.  The liasons will share Board Briefs developed by the Superintendent and OPM to share updates on the progress of the Building Project, and take questions from community members back to the Building Committee.

Excerpted from the 12/21/22 letter from the MSBA to NRSD:

"The Board of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (the “MSBA”) has voted to approve the Nashoba Regional School District (the “District”), as part of its invitation for Feasibility Study, to proceed into Schematic Design to replace the existing Nashoba Regional High School with a new facility serving grades 9-12 on the site of the existing school." 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOQmCfA_olROt6xy3WYUBPzNjFJvMYBjfADW_FmGRZ4vyY2Q/viewform

On Tuesday, October 11th at 6pm the architects from Kaestle Boos Associates will present to the residents of Bolton, Lancaster, and Stow the preliminary design options for the Nashoba Regional High School building project. Members of the community will have an opportunity to ask questions about the design options and provide feedback to the School Building Committee (SBC). See specific details about the forum in the graphic below.

How can I participate in the forum?

The best way to learn about the options is to attend the forum on October 11th. If you cannot attend the forum in person you can participate remotely by clicking on the meeting link for the forum. In the meeting link you can submit questions for consideration in the chat box and a designated member of the School Building Committee will present your question to the presenters.  If the question you submit has been answered in the presentation it will not be asked for efficiency purposes. However, the meeting will be recorded and you can always review the presentation. 

What if I can not attend the forum in person or remotely?

The forum will be recorded and a link will be available on the School Building Committee website. You can view the recording of the meeting any time that is most convenient to you. 

How do I provide feedback on the options?

At the beginning of the forum, you will be presented with a link to the NRHS Preliminary Design Concept Feedback form. It will also be  posted on the SBC website. After the design options are presented, we will ask participants to fill out the feedback form. You will have an entire week to complete your feedback form and submit it to the School Building Committee. 

Will I be presented with information about the options prior to the forum?

YES!!!! Here is the link to the slide deck presentation, NRHS Preliminary Design Options. You can help the efficiency of the presentation by reviewing the slide deck and submitting your questions in advance of the meeting.  To submit your questions, please complete the Design Options Questions form. Remember, you can choose to ask your questions at the forum or online during the forum. By submitting your questions ahead of time, you will give the presenters an opportunity to embed their answers into the presentation

What happens after the forum?

The School Building Committee  will convene on Tuesday, October 18, 2022. The SBC will review the comments from constituents, deliberate, and vote to  recommend a preferred option to the Nashoba Regional School Committee. The Nashoba Regional School Committee will convene on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 to deliberate and vote on whether to accept the recommended option, which will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority no later than October 27, 2022.

It is important that the residents of our three towns appear and participate in this process of selecting a design option. Our communications team will work with all three towns to disseminate this information to all residents, including those who do not have children in the school system. You can help that effort by forwarding this email to friends and neighbors who live in our towns.

NRHS School Building Committee will be hosting a public forum at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, in the NRHS Auditorium. Please join us for a community meeting to lean about and share your thoughts on a new or renovated school project! Focus of discussion will be preliminary building options development and updates on the feasibility study progress and next steps.

Please use this link to view or participate in the meeting in real time; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CZSFloESzA

On June 14, 2022 we will have our third public forum for the high school building project at 6:00 p.m. in the NRHS auditorium.  Representatives from Kaestle Boos Associates, Skanska and the school district will be present to discuss site selection and preliminary design options.

For those of you who cannot attend the meeting, you can submit a question by completing this  form .  Bolton Access Television will be recording the meeting for you to view at a later date.

On Monday, April 25, 2022, we will have our second public forum on the educational visioning process for the high school building project at 6:00 p.m. in the NRHS auditorium.  Representatives from Kaestle Boos Associates, Skanska and the school district will be present to discuss how educational visioning impacts the design of the building project.

Click here to view the flyer.  

For those of you who cannot attend the meeting, you can submit a question by completing this  form .  Bolton Access Television will be recording the meeting for you to view at a later date.

On March 30th, 2022 the Nashoba Regional High School Building Committee will be hosting the first of multiple Public Forums related to the High School Building Project.  The Forum will be held at 6pm in the High School Auditorium.  Join us for a community meeting to learn about and share your thoughts on a new or renovated school project.  This first forum will focus on the Project Schedule and Feasibility Study process including a review of the current facility’s conditions.

Click here to view the flyer

On the morning of December 14, 2021, the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s (MSBA) Designer Selection

Panel selected Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc. as the design firm for future improvements at Nashoba Regional High School. After contract negotiations and approval by the Nashoba Regional School Committee on January 5, 2022, the contract has been signed by all parties. The school building project will now enter into the design phase of the feasibility study.

The Designer Selection Panel was formed by the MSBA which included 13 appointed members and three

representatives of NRSD, including the Superintendent of Schools, Kirk Downing, the business and operations manager, Patricia Marone,  and NRSD building committee member, Ken Frommer.  The 13 MSBA appointed members of the Designer Selection Panel were recruited from recommended candidates of the Boston Society of Architects, the American Council of Engineering Companies ofMassachusetts and the Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts, as well as MSBA staff, and independent design and construction professionals.

Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc. is familiar to the residents of Bolton, Lancaster and Stow as they were the project designers for the Minuteman Regional Technical High School.  Currently they are wrapping up construction with the Attleboro High School project.

The designer will be a key participant in the renovation/rebuild of Nashoba Regional High School. Kaestle Boos will:

·       guide information gathering on current building condition, educational program, and community goals

·       assist the school administration in using this information to develop an educational plan

·       create preliminary designs for the rebuilt high school that support the educational plan

·       help the NRSD Building Committee and community select the preferred design

·       develop complete plans for the chosen design

·       ensure the new structure is built according to plan

With Skanska USA on board as the operations project manager, the team is in place to begin the design phase of the proposed building project to the MSBA.

On July 27, 2021, the OPM Selection Subcommittee interviewed  three companies (Colliers Project Leaders, Dore+ Whittier, and Skanska) who were chosen from the 11 applications received to provide services as the Owner’s Project Manager for the Nashoba High School Building Project.  On July 28, 2021, the OPM Selection Subcommittee voted to select Skanska as the OPM finalist.  At the OPM Review Panel on September 13, 2021, the MSBA approved Skanska as the OPM for our building project. This is a significant milestone within the MSBA process, and Nashoba is extremely excited to welcome Skanska to our project team.  Skanska has successfully led a multitude of other school districts through this process, including Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School.  Skanska will promptly begin to assist the District in undertaking the designer selection process to complete our project team.   Skanska’s presentation to the MSBA is linked.

In an effort to keep our community informed about the High School Building Project, the School Building Committee (SBC) of the Nashoba Regional School District has the following update: In April, Nashoba completed the Eligibility Period and entered into the Feasibility Period (Module 2) of the MSBA process for the High School Building Project. The first step in Module 2 is ‘Forming the Project Team’ consisting of the Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) and the Design Team. The OPM, once selected, will play a critical role in providing advice to the SBC as the building project moves through the design and construction phases. The OPM Selection Subcommittee received eleven (11) submissions in response to it’s June 2, 2021 Request for Services (RFS), a robust response. As a result, it will be presenting its OPM selection to the MSBA’s OPM Review Panel on September 13, 2021 instead of August 2, 2021 as had been tentatively anticipated. The tentative schedule only allowed for one day to review applications which was deemed to be insufficient for the number of applications received. The additional time will benefit the community by giving our volunteer OPM Selection Subcommittee enough time to properly review applications, rank them according to the selection criteria approved by the SBC in accordance with MSBA guidance, interview those who meet the minimum criteria, and negotiate with the selected candidate, prior to coming before the Review Panel. It also allows the OPM Selection Subcommittee enough time to seek and incorporate input from our new superintendent, Mr. Kirk Downing, who has just completed a middle school building project for Natick with the MSBA. If you have any questions, please contact Joseph Gleason, chair of the Nashoba SBC at jgleason@nrsd.net .