The School Committee has directed Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci and the School Department’s Business Office to begin putting together a contract to hire a long-term planning consultant to study the district and provide a recommendation regarding consolidation, which it plans to award to Symmes Maini & McKee Associates, out of Cambridge, Mass.

The committee approved the directive by a 4-1 vote at its meeting Tuesday night.

However, before the committee could get down to the business of the agenda, a new slate of officers was elected. Jennifer Ahearn was selected as the new chairwoman, Eugene Nadeau was selected as the new vice chairman, and Terri Medeiros was selected as the new clerk.

The committee was scheduled to meet in December to compare the four bid submissions it received and determine which company to award the contract. Since that meeting never took place, Ahearn said she wanted to select a candidate at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We were not able to tally our votes as a committee, so I would like to tally the votes and select a candidate,” she said.

Twenty-four companies initially requested the 17-page request for proposals (RFP) documentation issued by the school department, but only four submitted bids.

The four companies and their bids are: Robinson Green Berretta Architects (RGB) from Providence, with a base bid of $396,900; Lerner Ladds Bartels (LLB) from Pawtucket, with a base bid of $325,000; Studio JAED (JED) with offices in Delaware, Maryland and Rhode Island, with a base bid of $150,000, an expanded bid of $376,600, a combined bid of $526,600, and an additional bid of $96,760, for a total bid of $623,360; and Symmes Maini & McKee Associates (SMMA) from Cambridge, Mass., with a bid of $167,000 for a 90-day study, as called for in the RFP, as well as a bid for post-90-day study of $113,043, for a total of $280,243. SMMA also submitted an alternative bid of $185,000.

Ahearn explained the process of how a candidate would be selected.

“There were five core areas graded on a point scale for each bid. The bids were then ranked 1 through 4, with the highest point-getter receiving a 1,” she said. “The final bid will be awarded to the firm that receives the most scores of 1.”

Ahearn then asked each school committee member what they ranked each company, and the results were tallied.

SMMA received four rankings of 1, with only one ranking of 4. RGB received four rankings of 2, with only one ranking of 3. Therefore, SMMA and RGB were the top two selections for awarding a contract.

There was some discussion before ultimately deciding on drawing up a contract to be awarded to SMMA.

“I thought we were going to interview the top two companies,” Karen Bachus said.

Bethany Furtado said time is of the essence, as it’s been nearly a year since a subcommittee was formed to draw up the RFP.

“We need to move on this sooner, rather than later,” she said.

Medeiros agreed with Bachus.

“We only have so much money in the budget, so my concern is if we choose to do certain aspects of the bid and eliminate others, I think we need to interview the top two companies and see what they can offer,” she said.

Ahearn said part of what is driving up the cost in RGB’s bid, which is nearly $100,000 more than SMMA’s bid, is RGB’s need to use an outside consultant to perform the educational component of its study.

“SMMA can do that themselves, which keeps their cost down,” she said. “I’m not sure RGB would be able to come down enough to achieve a savings if we met with them.”

Ahearn said she felt comfortable with her assessment and ranking of the four bids and didn’t need to questions the companies any further, as she had previously reached out to them with questions.

Nadeau agreed.

“I spent hours going through each bid and the quality is high for all of them,” he said. “Time is of the essence. We need to choose the best candidate and give them the time to do their study.”

Ahearn made a motion to direct the business office to draw up a contract for SMMA, with her direct oversight to assist Ferrucci if he has any questions or needs guidance. Once finalized, the contract would come before the school committee for final approval at a future meeting. The motion passed 4-1, with Medeiros dissenting.

When asked how long it would take to draw up the contract, Ferrucci said it depends on how closely the contract is aligned to the RFP.

“If there aren’t many changes, we could have it by the February meeting, or March at the latest,” he said.

Ferrucci then requested a copy of the RFP as well as SMMA’s bid to get started on drawing up the contract.