Board of Mayor and Aldermen — Manchester, NH
Date: 2026-06-09
Time: 17:00

COMMITTEE ON JOINT SCHOOL BUILDINGS
 June 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM
 Aldermanic Chambers, City Hall (3rd Floor)

 Members: Aldermen Bonilla, Fajardo, Thomas
 School Committee Members O'Connell, Turner, Hamer

 AGENDA
The Chairman calls the meeting to order.

The Clerk calls the roll.

1. Presentation from LeftField regarding the School District Priority One Project to
 date.

2. Monthly status and financial report for May 2026 submitted by LeftField.
 If the Committee so desires, a motion is in order to accept the report and
 submit it to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and Board of School
 Committee for informational purposes.

If there is no further business, a motion is in order to adjourn.

COMMITTEE ON JOINT SCHOOL BUILDINGS
 June 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM

Chairman O’Connell called the meeting to order.

The Clerk called the roll.

Present: Aldermen Bonilla, Fajardo
 School Committee Members O’Connell, Turner, Hamer

Absent: Alderman Thomas

Messrs.: Alderman O’Neil, M. Lenfest, H. Cobanoglu, A. Thomas

1. Presentation from LeftField regarding the School District Priority One Project to
 date.

Mark Lenfest, Senior Project Manager at LeftField: The updated summary, you'll see
that there's been progress made in programming at Hillside, Parkside, Southside, just a
little bit remaining there, bidding, large improvement on Beech up to 75%. All other
projects are 100%. Construction, you will see that Beech has started, McLaughlin,
Hillside tracking 55%, and then 25% at Parkside and South Side. We are still closing out
the modulars. Again, that's not construction related. That is just contract documents. So,
everything is progressing within schedule.

Chairman O'Connell: Would you remind us of the dates of completion again for these
projects? We know because now it's imminent, right? We have McLaughlin, that is going
to be opening in September.

M. Lenfest: Correct. That'll be open for the 2026-2027 school year in September. Hillside
will be for the following school year, 2027-2028.

Chairman O'Connell: Hillside will open during the February vacation.

M. Lenfest: The addition will open. And then we'll have another summer construction
series and then we'll be opening that fall.

Hamdi Cobanoglu, Senior Project Manager at LeftField: Parkside, we will be completing
the addition and actually for Southside as well 2027 in February and right before the
school vacation week. And 2028 summer, the entire project will be completed. For Beech
everything will be completed in summer of 2028. Except phase two, probably phase two
will be completed by the end of that year, the end of 2028.

Chairman O'Connell: And just so people understand, Beech Street School will be
completed in the summer of 2028 and will open completely as a school for around
September 1. And when you're talking about phase two, what you're referring to is the
remediation of the land where the current Beech Street School is, and the parks and other
stuff that has to be done. I just want to revisit that for people since our first date is coming
at us. After two and a half years or so, we've got McLaughlin on the horizon being
complete.
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Alderman Bonilla: When was phase two to be completed?

Chairman O'Connell: Beech will be open September 1, basically, of 2028. And then the
work will have begun and will be going on for phase two. I don't know if we've got an exact
date, do we? The plan is to have it done by the end of 2028.

M. Lenfest: Correct. It's subject to programming.

Chairman O'Connell: This project is dependent on some things from. One of the issues
is the school building, the current school, once the school district declares it no longer
needed for school purposes, it becomes the property of and the domain of the Board of
Mayor and Aldermen. The school district at that point doesn't have the right to go in as a
school district and say and start demolishing the Beech Street school until those decisions
are made. Now they've been made and there actually isn't a big choice about that. But
that's why it can't be as a school board, we're a different board than that. We're a joint
board. But the school board can't be in the position of mandating or deciding on behalf of
the Board of Mayor and Aldermen this is what we're going to do because we want to be
deferential to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. But the expectation is that that work will
be done in the fall of 2028, barring something happening.

Alderman Bonilla: I do recall having an agreement with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen
at the time, though, for the land swap of Amoskeag land. Didn't we have some sort of
agreement that we would swap it?

M. Lenfest: Yes, that's correct. But again, as the chairman was stating, there's still the
process. So once the programming is complete there is action that does need to happen
from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen just to execute the remainder of that agreement.
He's right in saying that there would be those process steps, for lack of better terminology.

Chairman O'Connell: I think it's important what you're pointing out, Alderman Bonilla,
because there are legal agreements underpinning this, which don't allow for freedom of
action. Right. There was an agreement reached with the Amoskeag company with regard
to the land swap. And so that agreement needs to be honored. I think we have a high
level of confidence that phase two will be finished in the fall of 2028. You know, we have
Harvey Construction as the contractor on that project. They're not going to sit around,
sitting on their hands with their equipment there for a couple of months while they're
running delays. So, the expectation is to roll through it. And as we get into the middle of
2028 or earlier, we'd expect to tighten all that up.

M. Lenfest: Going into the ongoing and completed activities within the last 30 days. Again,
we continue all owner architect, contractor meetings for all projects. The group one, which
is Hillside and McLaughlin schools, interior and envelope construction continued. We
resumed group one site work construction, the furniture fixtures and equipment, and
technology meetings and procurement progressed on all four projects. Summer work
schedules and move ready planning and mover procurement were all done as well. The
group two schedule refinement was continuing, procurement of group two was wrapping
up, group two steel detailing. Group two is Parkside and Southside schools. Group two
steel detailing in the rough end of the mechanical systems and site work continued, as
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well as the envelope construction. Envelope construction is the framing of the exterior
walls, which then leads to the sheathing and then the start of masonry construction. So,
anybody that's been by those schools has seen that work. Ongoing Beech continued
procurement coordination with New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services,
soil management coordination, Beech site improvements began.

H. Cobanoglu: I believe we started last Tuesday. We had six working days and all the
materials; the site contractors started hauling off the materials to the approved facilities.
Some goes to Rhode Island facilities; some stays in New Hampshire and some goes to
Massachusetts. So, depending on the contamination level, all the materials go to the
appropriate facilities. So, we have a couple more weeks to complete this work. We are
also waiting for the New Hampshire DSS approval for the exterior of the building footprint
area. Right now, we are working only within the building footprint area. And as soon as
we get the approval, we will also start exterior areas. The pile contractor will start drilling
piles on June 22nd. So, we have good momentum there.

Alderman Bonilla: The last time I had a conversation with our chairman and then also
Alderman O'Neill about the piles at Beech, we're going to communicate to the community
that we're going to start driving piles, right? What's the form of communication going to
look like to the surrounding communities when we start driving piles?

H. Cobanoglu: Harvey created a website. They are updating that website weekly for the
upcoming week. So that information should be there. But if not, I'll make sure it's included
there.

Alderman Bonilla: I recognize we have the information on our website. I've never had a
career in construction management or on being on a site, but from what I recall, the piles
are going to be pretty loud. I just want to make sure that I can take whatever information
you have and disseminate it, especially to my constituents.

Alderman Fajardo: Is it possible to send letters to the abutters? I know having it all on the
website is obviously handy.

M. Lenfest: No, we can do community outreach. Yes, absolutely. There's a messaging
board, but absolutely the abutters can be notified. Not an issue. We also did versions of
piles at a couple of the other schools and we did notify those director abutters.

Alderman O'Neil: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for recognizing me, because my name was
used earlier. One suggestion that was made to me from folks in the construction industry,
because of the complexity, the density, you could come up with a lot of words about Beech
Street, was other communities have done a once a month meeting that the residents are
invited to for an update because not everybody has internet access, not everybody's on
Facebook and all the social media and you send mail to addresses but you don't know if
the people still live there. When I visited there pretty early on, they were dealing with some
complaints from Auburn Street, if you remember, Alderman Bonilla. And there were
multiple languages involved that I recall. So, a suggestion was made and maybe this has
been done in other places, a once-a-month meeting. You can pick the existing Beech
Street school, I'm making this up, on the second Wednesday of the month. That way
nobody has an excuse to not know what's going on.
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Chairman O'Connell: I think we can take that onboard. Right. We'll bring that back to the
team. I know that Harvey has been made aware from the very beginning, and they've
assured us of their expertise in managing community expectations, etc., but that is
something that I haven't seen. And I'll make sure you get full credit, Alderman O'Neil.

Alderman O'Neil: I'm not looking for credit, just for the best way to reach out. It's very
dense, with multi-unit buildings around there. There's a lot of residents that live down
there.

Chairman O'Connell: And there has been ongoing communication with the residents to
this point. I take your point and there's a lot of mitigations in place for this as well. And as
we were told at our last meeting, the daily reports have the results, there are vibration
sensors and sound sensors that capture this site. So, the project knows exactly the level
of noise on this site minute by minute, all day, every day. And that will continue for the
duration of the project. And the vibrations are measured on that site every minute, right
through the project. That's an assurance that's assuring people, but I think it's a good
suggestion to say let's have some ongoing meetings. So, let's talk about that if you guys
want to bring it to Harvey for our meeting tomorrow.

M. Lenfest: We'll definitely review that. We had a lot of success when SMMA ran the
neighborhood meeting series during programming. And especially at the Beech school.
And they brought in interpreters, talking about the language barrier. So, we'll definitely
look into that.

Alderman O'Neil: I've been working where we just drove piles, and there was a lot of pre-
work done. And talking to the neighbors, this was not in Manchester, and there was
monitoring going on. And some people still made sure the project knew they didn't like
the vibrations. And just regarding language, Director Thomas is up there. She has staff
that speaks how many languages?

Anna Thomas, Public Health Director: Seven.

Alderman O'Neil: Seven different languages; she could be of great help.

M. Lenfest: Excellent. So, jumping over to the 30 day look ahead, continuing
communication in the OAC meeting process. Group one masonry and interior
construction continues as well as site work, furniture fixtures and equipment, and
technology procurement are ongoing. We actually executed the purchase agreement on
the furniture for the McLaughlin school. And the advertisement for the technology has
gone out. Summer work begins June 22nd. So last day of school is Wednesday the 17th.
Teacher pack up day is the 18th and the schools start to move on the 19th and 20th.
Group two procurement will be wrapping up. Group two site work continues. The envelope
construction continues. Hamdi spoke about the Beech school schedule, refinement,
continued procurement, and most importantly, the soil management and site
improvements. The rest here is really just the ongoing coordination meetings, cost
management schedule, refinement and communication with all stakeholders. The
communication, I'd just like to key on that with Alderman O'Neill joining us and Alderman
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Bonilla's suggestion. We will definitely look into those. As you know, our biggest
stakeholders are the neighbors and the children.

Chairman O'Connell: At Parkside-Gossler, the impact on the playground there, has that
started? Right now, there's around a two-week period where the playground is going to
be impacted. Is that right?

H. Cobanoglu: We are waiting for the exact date from the vendor, but it will be towards
the end of the month. At that point, the playground will be shut off for approximately 2 to
3 weeks. So, there will be additional rubber surfacing and relocation of some of the
playground equipment.

Chairman O'Connell: I think it's important to telegraph that because we think about
neighbors and when people see that playground being impacted. I want it well
telegraphed that it's planned. It's going to be back as good and better than it is today
because that was a newer project. And so, there's great pride in it and it'll be out of action
for maybe three weeks.

M. Lenfest: We got a lot of positive input from the DPW on getting that accelerated. So,
it'll be shut down for the least amount of time possible, so the kids will have it for the
majority of the summer.

Chairman O'Connell: I'm glad. I know there's great care being taken with it. And I want
the public to be assured.

Alderman Fajardo: Is there a plan to maybe post a sign or signage around the park with
the time frame?

H. Cobanoglu: Yes, that's our plan. But the time is still TBD.

Alderman Fajardo: When the construction starts, for example, it might say it is a temporary
project and it is reopening.

H. Cobanoglu: That's our plan. We also moved the futsal court to the back of Gossler and
Parkside. That futsal court also will be shut down for a week because we will need to do
the surfacing of the futsal court. We will also telegraph that one.

Alderman Bonilla: A recommendation is to utilize the futsal courts at the Sheehan-Basquil
park in the meantime. How many futsal courts do we have in the city?

M. Lenfest: I don’t know about in the city.

Alderman Bonilla: We have the futsal court you're talking about. We have another futsal
court in Sheehan-Basquil. So, in the meantime, when you post about under construction,
you can have a sign or post about that, and direct people to utilize the futsal court at
Sheehan-Basquil because we do have one. Maybe we can talk about maintaining that
one in the future. That's a conversation for another time, but we do have a futsal court
available for those families on the west side to utilize it in the east side. Because we want
to make sure that they have other opportunities.
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M. Lenfest: We'll include that.

Chairman O'Connell: The other thing that just needs to be visited at these meetings is
that this project is currently on budget and on time. And the third leg of that stool is that
everybody has gone home safe every day as long as this project has gone on.

M. Lenfest: Yes, sir. And that's the next slide. As the chairman said, we are within the
$306 million budget. Here's the screenshot of the master budget cover page. The detailed
budgets are included in the monthly report. This is the picture of the cover sheet for last
month's invoice. This month's invoice was submitted today and will be processed for next
week. We'll be including that in your updated report, I would say Monday of next week
that should be available. And currently, no change to the schedules that have been shared
with the group. And if you look at the very bottom of Beech Street site restoration, that's
what we're calling phase two, the abatement demo happens roughly at the same time.
But then the continuation is what we're calling phase two, Beech Street site restoration.
And you'll see that does have a completion date of December 2028. Again, we included
the links to the project websites. We encourage everybody to go to those; they're being
well maintained with some excellent photos and information. And again, if anybody has
any questions feel free to contact us through those websites.

Chairman O'Connell: As we come to the end of this tonight, I know there's another
meeting, believe it or not, maybe not quite as important as this one, but there is another
meeting coming up later this evening in the chamber. I don't know if we noted it here, but
I'd like the public to be aware that as part of the payment of permits for this project, the
school district from this project paid $506,000 to the city at the beginning of June to ensure
that it got into this financial year. I wish that was heralded more from on high because
with all the numbers that people are going to be discussing tonight, the number that might
not be mentioned is the money that comes from the school district to the city. It's more
than $2 million. There are some in our community and others that would look at this and
say how is it that a city is charging the school district for permits for buildings, and
potentially because of our budget process, actually borrowing money to do it for 25 years.
It's kind of hard to understand, but I don't want to visit all that controversy here. I just want
people to be aware of it. The most recent one was the approximately $500,000, which
was ensured that it would hit this financial year. I wish there were more cognizance taken
of that. The second thing I want to say as we come to the end of this, is just the work
that's been done with regard to students and students visiting these properties. A lot of
work has gone into bringing students from all our schools to do tours of these schools.
And if you see the reaction of these students, especially the students who have visited
these buildings, they see the reality of what they're learning in the classroom and they
see it going up in these buildings. I want to commend all of you, but especially our two
contractors, Consigli and Harvey, for facilitating that work. It's been a pleasure to see and
I know it's ongoing.
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2. Monthly status and financial report for May 2026 submitted by LeftField.

On motion of School Committee Member Turner, duly seconded by School
Committee Member Hamer, it was voted to accept the report and submit it to the
Board of Mayor and Aldermen and Board of School Committee for informational
purposes.

There being no further business, on motion of Alderman Bonilla, duly seconded by
Alderman Fajardo, it was voted to adjourn.

A True Record. Attest.




 Clerk of Committee
Meeting Start Time: 5:00PM
Meeting End Time: 5:26PM
Minutes Prepared By: Michael Intranuovo