Revere High School held a community forum on Monday, February 26, to discuss the progress being made on the new building construction projects as well as to release a new timeline for the projects.

Superintendent Matthew Montgomery discussed one of the most important topics of the night: school safety.

“I want to talk about safety and security because that is at the forefront of our minds, and I am sure it is with yours with everything that is going on across the nation, safety is paramount; it always has been; it’s just really the focus of the national conversation. Tonight is not a safety forum, but I want you to know that safety is in every decision we make, and safety has been an integral part of this planning process,” Montgomery said, citing safety concerns.

Montgomery also commented that Revere’s safety plans are under review by security experts and other law enforcement officials to ensure the safety and security of all students and staff members.

“We have really leaned on our local law enforcement agencies, so Richfield and Bath have reviewed the plans, we are using state-of-the-art best practices in terms of safety and security from our architectural firms. We have a representative from the Homeland Security meeting with the architects and the administration on March 12 to review the plans, and we are looking at two separate proposals, one proposal from another state entity, as well as one at the national level to review our plans. We believe that we are using state-of-the-art  practices in the district, but I want you to know that we are constantly reviewing and revamping [our plans] to ensure that your children are safe,” Montgomery said.

Treasurer Rick Berdine commented on safety and security changes being made over the summer at the schools that will not be receiving new buildings, those being Hillcrest Elementary and Revere Middle School.

“There will be some activity that will occur. . . at Hillcrest and at the Middle School, in light of the security that Superintendent Montgomery spoke about; we intend to get all these secured entries put into those two buildings, so that you would come in through kind of a dual-entry system, where those would be secured at the point of entry,” Berdine said.

Matt Collier, manager of the ICON Construction firm, gave an updated timeline on the projects for Bath Elementary, the new bus garage, and Revere High School.

“We will be receiving the bids for Bath Elementary at the end of March and [we] expect to break ground in April,” Collier said.

Collier also commented on the bus garage timeline next, which closely follows that of Bath Elementary in when bids will be received and construction is estimated to begin.

“We’re going to bid [the bus garage] in March, open bids at the end of March, and start construction out there in April. We have some demolition [to do]. . . there are some houses and a couple of barn-like structures that need to come down. We expect the bus garage overall to be a nine-to-twelve-month project,” Collier said.

Collier also gave an updated timeline on the high school and the expected construction timeline on that building, which will be built once Bath Elementary and the bus garage have been completed.

“What we are going to do on the high school is . . . have an early site package, which means we are going to move dirt [and] put some utilities into the ground prior to starting any construction. We hope to undertake that and start that [process] this summer. We’ll follow that up with the foundations and then jump right into the building construction. [The high school] will be complete by the August 2020 school year,” Collier said.