Great Barrington — With the November 4 re-vote of a proposed $51.2 million renovation of Monument Mountain Regional High School right around the corner, and a downsized project slated for the ballot, it’s power up time for the high school renovation Steering Committee. Of that $51.2 million total cost, the state would reimburse the district $23.2 million, leaving the three district towns to finance the remaining $28 million, according to Superintendent Peter Dillon.
Chaired by Karen Smith of Great Barrington, the committee, which works on every aspect of renovation planning, information gathering and dissemination, met last Thursday (July 30) in the high school cafeteria for a “status update,” as Smith called it, and will continue to meet weekly in the months ahead.
The Massachusetts Schools Building Authority has determined the 48-year-old school is in need of substantial renovation to comply with their codes and standards, and will give the Berkshire Hills Regional School District almost half the money to do the work.
Without the upgrade, that $23.2 million in state money is lost to another needy district.
Last November, Great Barrington voters shot down the original $56 million renovation proposal and the Proposition 21/2 override necessary to fund it. Stockbridge and West Stockbridge approved it by a narrow margin. The new plan shaves $5 million off the rejected proposal. For Great Barrington taxpayers, that means reducing the annual tax bite by 26 percent, 30 percent for Stockbridge taxpayers, and 18 percent for West Stockbridge property owners. The state will throw in their reimbursement of 48.52 percent, and the District would take out a 25-year, tax-free bond for about $28 million.
As a result, a home assessed at $250,000 in Great Barrington would see an annual increase of $225; the average property tax bill increase for Great Barrington would be $337.67, according to the School Committee.
The Steering Committee is putting finishing touches on a comprehensive document to explain all of this, a “book” as committee chair Smith calls it, of revamped renovation and financial details, which should be completed by mid to late August. Production costs have so far been paid out of pocket by committee members, said Smith, and copies will be available at Town Hall, the library, and on the renovation Outreach Committee’s website, MonumentMatters.org.
The document will also contain a comparative tax study by Stockbridge resident Ruth Pearce, an economist who works as a project manager for Mass Mutual. Pearce said that while she is still working on the study, which compares local tax rates with that of surrounding towns in New York and Connecticut, she said that “given the property values (in the District) it is striking that we pay significantly less in taxes (than surrounding areas).”
The tax study was the subject of a flare-up at last Thursday’s meeting, when Housatonic resident Michelle Loubert demanded a copy of the study by the end of the day, citing her rights under public information law. Smith demurred, saying the document “isn’t finished yet.”
Indeed, Pearce, who was not at the meeting, said by phone that she later found errors in the tax rate numbers for New York state, which she has since rectified for inclusion in the Steering Committee’s document.
It’s a tricky landscape to navigate. While the Steering Committee is planning the project, and by necessity includes three members of the Berkshire Hills District School Committee, Superintendent Dillon and Monument Principal Maryanne Young, it is prohibited from using public funds to advocate for the re-vote. For that purpose, it has an Outreach Committee, a separate, privately funded political arm, to inform residents about the ballot issue, and urge them to vote in favor. State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and State Rep. William P. “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox, have co-sponsored a bill – expected to pass easily, according to Karen Smith — to allow the balloting on the school renovation to occur during the general election. Current state law limits the number of hours polling stations can be open for such a school vote.
Between now and November 4, the Outreach committee will hold community forums and neighborhood “coffee klatches,” said Smith.
During the campaign for the first vote, the Outreach Committee called itself “Monument Now,” but for this year’s re-vote it has renamed itself “Monument Matters.” Their website, MonumentMatters.org, features a tax calculator for residents to determine their tax increase based on their town’s property assessment.
“If we’re giving just facts, we’re OK,” said Stephen Bannon, who in addition to his role on the Great Barrington Selectboard, is chair of the School Committee, and also on the Steering committee.
But opponents of the renovation are quick to call officials to account. At last Thursday’s meeting, Michelle Loubert reminded the committee not to use any of the District’s websites for advocating a yes vote by providing links, as public funds can’t be used to advance a ballot question, unless groups who oppose the ballot question can also be represented. In the last election, the high school removed a link to the Monument Now website after a complaint was made to the state. Loubert claims there was also a Monument Now link on the Town of West Stockbridge website, also removed.
Loubert says she did not make a complaint, but “inquired” with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, providing them with documentation about the links.
At a Selectboard meeting after last November’s vote, the minutes report Loubert saying that the District “is not recognizing the will of the voters,” by having discussions about “pushing” for the renovation and a re-vote, and “asked the Selectboard to acknowledge the will of the voters.”
Loubert, who participates heavily in town affairs, and ran unsuccessfully for Finance Committee in May, is completing graduate studies in Public Administration at Westfield State College.
At this point, there is no publicly organized group for those who oppose the re-vote. But Smith said she senses a monkey-wrench campaign already in the works by some community members who will flat out oppose the re-vamped project, even before they have all the details. She said she wants project opponents to first have the “courtesy to hear us [the committee] out.”
At this time, Loubert said she was not available to discuss in detail her reasons for opposing the renovation because of her busy schedule at school, although in an e-mail she stated that “it is generally known that I am opposed to the school renovation project for various reasons which I prefer not to go into detail here (through e-mail).”
Smith, a 62-year-old community and education activist in both Great Barrington and Africa, who does not have children of her own, later said that as the school approaches the 50-year mark, it shouldn’t be allowed to deteriorate further, and requires the work to “take it into the next 50.”
The high school lacks security and fire suppression systems, including sprinklers, among many other issues, said Smith.
“We need to take this money,” she said of the state’s assistance. “The Commonwealth said to us, we think you are deficient, therefore we are going to give you half the money to complete it.”
And is there a plan if Great Barrington votes against the new project?
“No,” Bannon said later. “We would have to make a choice between bandaid solutions (to failing infrastructure) or request to get back into the state program, and that’s usually a five to seven year wait,” he said of the School Building Authority’s process for assistance. Bannon said there was no guarantee of getting back in, and that it took a “number of years to get into it this time.”
