Nov. 21, 2024 | AIA Central Massachusetts 2024 Design Award Recipient

The David Mindess Elementary School received an Honor Award at the AIA Central Massachusetts 2024 Design Awards. The prestigious recognition was presented during a ceremony at the Top of the Tower in Worcester, Mass. on Saturday, Nov. 16. 

This year’s jury, composed of a distinguished group of architects from the AIA Atlanta chapter, recognized the school for its exceptional architectural design. The project designer, Flansburgh Architects under the direction of Principal Kent Kovacs, AIA, was joined at the event by key stakeholders including Superintendent Jim Adams, School Building Committee Chair Paul Kendall, Town Manager Michael Herbert, Owners Project Manager The Vertex Companies LLC, and Construction Manager Shawmut Design and Construction among others. The 105,000-square-foot building was developed in collaboration with the project team, the community of Ashland and the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Oct. 19, 2023 | Paving Work Update

The previously scheduled paving work, which was supposed to occur in the afternoon, will now be moved to 6 p.m. The paving company has notified the project team that they are delayed and can not arrive and begin until 6 p.m. With the pavement already milled in preparation for the paving and with the shrinking number of days left available to pave this year, they will have to pave between 6–9 p.m. They will continue until the paving is completed.

Removal of Fiske Access Road | Sept. 7, 2023

Now that the school building is open, the team will begin the removal of the temporary access road on Fiske starting Monday, Sept. 11.

They will start by installing some temporary fencing at the top of the hill, placing a "road closed" sign, and removing the jersey barriers. Road removal will start at the bottom of the hill. They expect to work on the sidewalk later in the week, around Thursday or Friday. Any sidewalk work will occur after school starts, and they will have someone on Fiske to safely direct walkers in the afternoon. The sidewalk will be left in a walkable state each day (if it takes more than one day).

Tour the new Mindess School on Sept. 9

The Ashland Public Schools invites the community to come out and support its grand opening of the David Mindess Elementary School on Saturday, Sept 9. Building tours will be available from 12:30–4:30 p.m. at 90 Concord St. Ashland, MA 01721.

Weekend work and possible Labor Day weekend work | Aug. 25, 2023

The tight building schedule has been exacerbated due to delays related to some trenches at the base of the foundation, which contained asbestos. Due to the location of the asbestos, the delay impacted the site work and paving for the main entrance, which is critical for the first day of school scheduled on Sept. 5.

The team has had to work on Saturdays to make up for lost time. Given the previous delays and recent poor weather, the team will need to work the next two Sundays and (depending on the timing and weather) potentially Monday, Sept. 4. The weekend work will be between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Furniture Donation Report

View the full report from IRN.

Oct. 21, 2022

During the spring, steel erection began on the project. In June, we hosted a beam signing and raising ceremony for the Mindess School Building project, a milestone for the project, as it signified the completion of the steel erection portion of the project.

This summer, the concrete floors were poured, and the Mindess School Building Project committee toured the second floor of the new Mindess building, providing a fresh perspective.

This fall, work has continued on the geothermal wells, interior concrete slab preparations, exterior sheathing, roofing and much more. Our team has begun picking out design elements, such as paint colors and furniture style, bringing us closer to the anticipated opening day. The project is on track to be completed by fall 2023.

June 6, 2022
On Monday June 13 at 10am we will be hosting a Mindess Beam Raising Ceremony. WACA will be live streaming the ceremony and the community is encouraged to watch this milestone event. It will be streamed on WACA-TV Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WACATVNEWS) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5o3wrtOMXvsxFH7XdJdrXQ) pages.

May 18, 2022 - Construction & Schedule Updates
Structural steel placement began on Monday, May 16th. Rock crushing will continue next week, May 23rd to break the remaining rock down for fill. Blasting will resume after school dismisses for the summer. 

April 26, 2022 - Construction & Schedule Updates
Please note there will be some activities this week that will temporarily increase site noise including a hoe ram breaking down boulders. Next week, contractors will process broken boulders with a rock crusher. Crews found some unsuitable soils while excavating for foundations, so additional filling will also take place.

Please note, to better align with the concrete schedule, the short blasting mobilization will be pushed out to mid-to-late May.  We will provide more specifics as we get closer.

Feb. 15, 2022 - Construction & Schedule Updates
Mr. Conroy updated the committee on construction. Since the last meeting the blasting contractor was mobilized, and as of last Friday, demobilized the blasting contractor, concluding phase 1 with 23 blasts. The rock crusher has been mobilized to create structural fill from the blasted and excavated site rock.

The team plans to utilize school break week to get most of the remainder of the overburden soils off site. We expect to begin preparations for foundations and the delivery of form materials in the next couple weeks, weather permitting. Eversource is currently scheduled to perform work for the temporary power during school vacation.