The Warwick School Committee has selected Symmes Maini & McKee Associates (SMMA) as the outside consulting firm to study the district and recommend a long-term master educational and facilities plan, awarding the firm a $238,243 contract at its meeting Tuesday. The decision was not unanimous, as the contract was approved by a 3-2 vote, with Bethany Furtado and Terri Medeiros dissenting.

Although the committee had previously set aside $150,000 to hire a consultant, Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci said based on a preliminary review of contingency accounts; legal; insurance claims; tuitions and other costs; and “very preliminary” reviews of salary, with savings achieved during the process of filling January open positions, the remaining $88,243 “should be covered without having to impose programmatic cuts this school year and sustain a balanced budget by the end of the school year.”

Ferrucci said if the contract was approved Tuesday, he would include a budget adjustment in his year-end projection report to be presented in March.

It’s been a long road getting to this point. The school committee voted to hire an outside consultant instead of following the recommendation of the Long Term Facilities Planning Committee (LTFPC) to close Warwick Veterans Memorial High School for a year while it was converted to a super junior high school to house students from Gorton and Aldrich junior highs, both of which would be closed the following year. Vets students would have been split between Pilgrim and Toll Gate high schools. The LTFPC spent three years examining data before developing its recommendation.

After holding two public hearings in December 2013 following the LTFPC recommendation, the school committee unanimously voted in January 2014 to table the matter and hire a consultant. The school committee then established a sub-committee in March that would be responsible for drawing up the requirements of consultants in the Request for Proposals (RFP). The school committee then approved the RFP in July. Twenty-four companies requested the RFP, but only four submitted bids.

SMMA, based out of Cambridge, Mass., was selected as the lowest qualified bidder. SMMA’s bid proposal totaled $280,243, which consisted of a $167,000 bid for a 90-day study, as well as an additional $113,043 bid for a post-90-day study. However, with the implementation of several contract alternatives, the school department was able to reduce the total contract award to $238,243.

SMMA was approved during last month’s school committee meeting and Ferrucci was authorized to engage in contract negotiations with the firm. He then met with School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn and Superintendent Dr. Richard D’Agostino to review the bid proposal.

“We then contacted the company and proceeded to engage in dialogue where we stated our intent was to maintain the overall integrity of the bidder’s proposal but to reduce costs to the district due to budgetary limitations,” Ferrucci said.

Following a face-to-face meeting on Jan. 20, where Ferrucci, D’Agostino and School Committee Vice Chairman Eugene Nadeau met with SMMA senior representatives Edward Frenette and David Frieder, SMMA presented nine cost reduction alternatives for consideration.

Ferrucci said the department selected four alternatives, three cost reductions and one cost addition, to adjust the bid price “while maintaining the overall integrity of the initiative.” The alternatives included: reducing the architectural and engineering representation from seven professionals to three for a $36,000 savings; reducing SMMA’s involvement from 12 project meetings to eight and from six community meetings to four at a savings of $9,000; reducing the number of master plan scenarios from up to three to up to two for an $8,000 savings; and adding community outreach alternatives, such as surveys, polls and other means that would not rely solely on attending public meetings at a cost of $11,000.

“If we’re adding $11,000 for a community outreach alternative, I want more clarification on ‘other means,’” Medeiros said.

Frenette, the principal senior vice president of SMMA, was at Tuesday’s meeting to answer questions.

“There’s more of an emphasis on electronic media, which we have skills in and can provide,” he said. “There’s a shift of time being focused more on electronic media and less face-to-face meetings, in terms of both the input and output of information.”

Frenette said the firm could receive input from the community through questionnaires, while it can provide text and graphics to help get the school department’s message out.

“Our job is to delve into the facts and provide the best course to move forward, including alternatives for facilities and education,” he said. “Our job is to explain what’s missing educationally in the lowest cost alternative and how are you missing your budget in the highest cost alternative, and everything in between.”

Medeiros said since the bid was being revised, she would have preferred to allow the top two bidders that same courtesy, instead of just SMMA.

“When we look at how this was revised, I look back to if we had given the top two choices a chance to come back and revise,” she said.

Ahearn said she understands Medeiros’ reservation, but the other top bidder came in above $400,000 and if it was reduced by 20 percent, as the SMMA bid was, it would still be more than $300,000.

“I don’t feel like their bid could be reduced by 75 percent,” Ahearn said.

Furtado said while she appreciates the work that went into SMMA’s bid proposal, she can’t support a quarter-of-a-million-dollar contract for a company to tell the district what it already knows.

“My estimation is that the conclusion of SMMA will be parallel to the conclusion drawn by the Long Term Facilities Planning Committee that met for three years,” she said. “We’ve kicked the can so far down the road, it’s dented beyond. To delay this further does no good for anyone, especially the kids.”

Nadeau said that while the LTFPC was comprised of above-board, intelligent individuals, it only looked at six schools and not all 23 in the district.

“A tremendous amount of work has gone into this, and we get the best of both, which bodes well for Warwick and the thousands of students in our schools,” he said. “We can say that we did our homework and came up with something we can all be proud of, an excellent report that will be meaningful for us in the years to come.”

Committee member Karen Bachus said she stands by her belief that the school department needed to go outside the district for a consultant.

“This needs to be researched by professionals who know about the buildings and the process, which has to be clear, fair and unbiased,” she said.

Frenette said it’s SMMA’s job to advocate for all members of the school committee.

“We will work very hard to produce a report to reach consensus with all of you,” he said, adding that if the contract is approved Tuesday, SMMA would begin work the following day.

The firm has 90 days to complete its study and provide a recommendation to the school committee. That recommendation will be presented in time for the committee to notify the state fire marshal whether or not Aldrich and Gorton would be closed or remain open, which must be accomplished by June 1. The buildings are still in need of fire code upgrades; if they are to remain open, Ferrucci said that work would be completed during the summer of 2016.

When asked if there would be enough time to implement a consolidation plan, should it be part of SMMA’s recommendation, before the start of school in the fall, Ahearn said it depends on a variety of different variables.

“We’re navigating along a path of going with the best recommendation and moving forward as quick as possible, but it all depends on what the recommendation looks like,” she said. “We want what’s most prudent and beneficial for students.”