Essex School Building Committee Seats Seven-Member Construction Manager Selection Panel

School Committee · Meeting of June 9, 2026

Essex Elementary School Building Committee seats construction manager selection subcommittee and narrows site design choices. The committee voted 10-0 at its June 9 remote meeting to formally establish a seven-member subcommittee — comprising Gordon Brewster, Kim Provo, Lisa O'Donnell, Tyler Verdon, Pam Bowdoin, Michelle Cresta, and owner's project manager Teresa Whitman — to guide the CM-at-risk procurement process, with six firms already having submitted interest forms and formal qualifications due June 17. Whitman outlined a compressed summer schedule leading to a full committee vote on a preferred construction manager at the July 28 building committee meeting.

Landscape architects Studio 2112 presented three pre-K circulation options, with Provo and the committee gravitating toward option three, which mirrors the front-entry roundabout at the pre-K entrance and avoids dead-end parking. On gym seating, JCJ Architecture's Jeff Elliott presented two approaches to close an 83-seat gap from the 715-seat benchmark set by the Manchester-Essex Memorial School; the committee reached consensus to widen the cafeteria-to-gym partition opening to 60 feet rather than rotate the gym, which Provo said would have compromised outdoor recess supervision sight lines.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,737 words

Source: the School Committee meeting of June 9, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.