By Sal Ghamo

The New Somerville High School Building project met last week and voted to approve the submission of the Preliminary Design Plans proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

For those of you who may have been out of the loop these past couple weeks, perhaps hiding from the snow, you should know that plans are thawing for The New Somerville High School Building project.

On February 10, the project committee passed a vote approving submission of the Preliminary Design Plans (PDP) proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). This will be the first big submission since the MSBA board approved the schematic design, and the PDP acceptance process that concerns the feasibility of the project.

The PDP will be submitted on approximately March 1. Currently, there are nine building design options on the table for review by the MSBA. In June, the building committee will have the first shot at sending the MSBA a preferred option for the New High School Building’s design.

The building committee has created the following website: http://www.somervillema.gov/highschool/. All building committee actions and documents will be posted on this website.

One of six alternative possibilities for a new high school rebuild or renovation project.

The committee is working with the information department at City Hall so brochures with information about the project can be made available in a variety of places in Somerville. The brochure can also be found on the website.

The project’s budget will not be established until the schematic design phase of the new high school is complete, which is currently anticipated for April of 2017. Funding for the project is the responsibility of the City of Somerville, with a funding grant from MSBA. The maximum reimbursement rate, for reimbursable expenses, for any school district funded through the MSBA is 80%, and the base reimbursement rate for this project, established by the MSBA, is 71.79 %.

A feasibility study is currently in the works and results are expected in July of 2016. Design and documentation of the project will begin around the same time and continue up until August of 2018 when construction for the project is expected to begin.