Dear Superintendent:
As a follow up to our email sent on June 17, 2016, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (the “MSBA”) is pleased to announce that we are ready to start the 2016 School Survey Assessments in the coming weeks. The School Survey will serve as a statewide assessment of the general facility conditions of all public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth, for the purpose of providing the MSBA with a clear and accurate understanding of how the needs of individual school districts fit within the statewide spectrum of need. This email provides further details about the upcoming MSBA School Survey.
Between September 2016 and January 2017, design and engineering professionals (the “assessors”) from STV Inc. as well as MSBA Staff will be visiting each school in your district to evaluate general conditions, building systems, capacity, maintenance and educational environment.
The following information will help you and your school administrators prepare for a successful and efficient on-site assessment:
- Representatives from STV Inc. will be contacting you approximately two weeks in advance of the visit to your district to discuss the specifics of the on-site assessments and to answer any questions you might have at that time. Assessors will work to accommodate any significant scheduling conflicts that you may have, but your flexibility will be appreciated as we schedule assessments at more than 1,650 schools across the Commonwealth during the next four months.
- You and/or a designated member of your staff should coordinate with STV Inc. to provide information to each school principal about the school visits and to gather the information and materials needed by the assessors prior to their arrival in your district.
- An assessor will need to meet with you and/or a member of your staff who can answer district wide questions. This meeting should take no longer than 15 minutes. For your convenience and to assist in your preparation, a list of the district wide questions and the individual school questions that the assessor will ask is attached to this email. We request that you forward this list to the principals of each of your district’s schools so they can provide this information to the assessors at the time of the visit.
- Individual school assessments will last approximately two hours, while assessments of bigger buildings, such as large high schools and vocational-technical schools, may last as long as four hours. The time in the district is dependent on the number of schools in your district.
- During the individual school assessments, an assessor will arrive at the school and commence with a meeting with the principal to review school contact information and pre-site visit questionnaire information. Please plan to have a meeting space for approximately 6 to 8 people for this meeting. At the meeting, the assessors will also look to collect and review the current floor plan with the spaces designated as to their current use, eg general classroom, art, music, science, break-out space etc. At the conclusion of the meeting the assessor will walk through the school observing all areas of the school. During the school visit, either the school principal or someone with knowledge of the history and use of the building, as well as a member of the building’s facilities team should be available to accompany the assessor on the walk through.
Here is a link to some frequently asked questions regarding the 2016 School Survey that might be helpful: http://www.massschoolbuildings.org/programs/needs_survey/School_Survey_FAQs.
If you should have any additional questions about the 2016 School Survey, please view our website http://www.massschoolbuildings.org/programs/needs_survey or feel free to contact us by e-mail.
Our team looks forward to working with you during this process and we thank you in advance for your flexibility and assistance.
Sincerely,
Maureen Valente Chief Executive Officer |
John K. McCarthy Deputy Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director |