Delivering K–12 Schools with Masonry: Controlling Risk, Cost, and Schedule

Tuesday, June 9 , 2026 | 12-1 p.m. Eastern Time
THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO AIA FOR CREDIT.

Join us to examine the cost and constructability advantages of structural masonry in K–12 schools. We’ll share how strategic material selection, system coordination, and sequencing can reduce risks such as cost overruns, schedule delays, and safety hazards.
 
You’ll learn how informed masonry decisions support efficient staffing, trade coordination, and greater project predictability. Plus, see how masonry’s durability and low life-cycle costs help owners control budgets and reduce future maintenance. We’ll also connect these benefits to broader industry goals, such as building resilience, improving energy performance, and advancing sustainability in design-build and design-assist projects.

 Learning Objectives:

  • Explain how structural masonry contributes to fire resistance, structural stability, and impact durability.
  • Evaluate sequencing and coordination strategies that reduce jobsite risk, improve labor efficiency, and enhance schedule reliability.
  • Analyze how durable material selection influences long-term maintenance and its costs, warranty exposure, and owner risk.
  • Identify how constructability decisions in masonry systems support energy performance, occupant safety, and resilient facilities.

About the Speakers

Tom Elliott 
Director of Industry Development and Technical Services, IMI

Tom Elliott-1

Tom is a journey-level craftworker who joined the masonry industry in 1985 as an apprentice bricklayer for BAC Local 5 in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout his time in the industry, he has worked as a journey-level bricklayer, project foreman, and field superintendent on larger masonry projects in Ohio and surrounding states. He also served as a project manager for a restoration contractor and oversaw the restoration of several historic structures.

Previously, he managed his own mason contracting business and helped to negotiate local labor contracts as a board member of the Northeast Ohio Contractors Association.

Tom is a member of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and is a CSI-Certified Construction Document Technologist. He is a voting member on several TMS subcommittees and is actively involved in the ACE Mentoring program. He is also a lecturer at both the Ohio State University and Kent State University and the Chairman of his local Architectural Board of Review and Planning Commission Board. 

Sunup Mathew, SE, LEEP AP
Director of Industry Development and Technical Services, IMI

Sunup Mathew

CSunup is a structural engineer with more than 20 years of experience in masonry, concrete, and steel design. He has expertise in the design of new structures, evaluation and retrofitting of existing structures, and identification and resolution of field construction problems.  

Sunup is an active member of the Masonry Society (TMS), Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards (MACS), and C 12 and C 15 committees of ASTM. He has co-authored structural engineering papers in TMS, American Concrete Institute (ACI), and Precast Concrete Institute (PCI) publications. He actively participated in the editing and drafting of several sections in Building Code Requirements and Specifications for Masonry Structures (TMS 402 and TMS 602), Masonry Designers Guide (MDG), and standards under the jurisdiction of C 12 and C 15 ASTM committees. 

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