Stockbridge — Monday is sure to be a red-letter day for taxpayers living in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District.
A public-outreach session focused on the Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) Building Project will be offered by the MMRHS Building Committee, presenting the community with a view of what could be the future for the area’s youngest residents. The November 25 session begins at 6 p.m. in the high school’s cafeteria and online.
On November 21, the Stockbridge Finance Committee heard a presentation on the project from Superintendent of Schools Peter Dillon, MMRHS Committee Chair Jason St. Peter, and MMRHS Committee Member Stephen Boyd, along with BHRSD School Committee Chair Stephen Bannon, project management company Skanska Program Executive John Benzinger, and DiNisco Design President/Principal Donna DiNisco via Zoom.
With the meeting’s purpose defined as informational, Finance Committee members failed to respond with a resounding “yes,” but, instead, requested the opportunity to delve more deeply into the nuances of the proposal that, according to Boyd, will require a “buy-in” from participating towns—including Stockbridge—a little under a year from now, “a decision that will have a long-term impact on our community.”
“We’re here because we want your help and your support and your partnership as we go forward,” Boyd said.
Click here to access the presentation slides.
Why mess with Monument Mountain Regional High School?
The school opened in 1968, with its educational vision cast in the late 1950s into the 1960s, said St. Peter, a Stockbridge resident. “Like most of the schools built in that time period, it’s come to the end, from both an educational standpoint as well as physically,” he said. “The building’s been really well taken care of. That’s why we’re still in it now.”
Fifteen years ago, the school committee recognized the longevity issues facing the high school, St. Peter said. However, previous attempts to upgrade the facility have failed. For the past decade, the district has been in line for a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) that provides expertise and financial support to the majority of school districts in the Commonwealth, he said.
Once a plan of action has been determined, MSBA is slated to partner with the district, adding more than $50 million to the school’s remedy.
“This is our last, probably realistic chance,” St. Peter said, adding Berkshire Hills was one of a small minority of districts competing to partake in the MSBA grant. “If we don’t get it now, we probably never will.”
The nuts and bolts of options facing the school district
According to DiNisco, and as required by the MSBA, three options were considered to upgrade the high school, with two options offering repairs or renovations to the existing facility and a third choice that would involve a facility constructed from the ground up.
“Most importantly, the educational program must be achieved through any solution,” DiNisco said of the high school’s strong academics, technical programs, sports facilities, and arts and theater instruction.
Within each option, further choices are possible that can affect the bottom line, such as the type of heating used (electric or fossil fuel) or the addition of solar panels.
DiNisco outlined the proposals being considered. Option one is a code upgrade and involves repairs only, replacing the mechanical systems within the building and bringing the facility up to current code regulations such as fire and ADA requirements. However, this option isn’t within MSBA’s parameters, and if chosen, the district would lose the agency’s grant, funds amounting to more than $50 million. This option is also very disruptive to students as the construction schedule moves forward and current spaces—classrooms and labs—would remain untouched.
The first option retains the 119,000-square-foot facility size and is estimated to cost $114 million for the total project.
The second option looks at renovating existing facilities and building a one-story addition in front of the high school at a total size of 146,000 square feet. It incorporates all the pluses from the first option, adding in energy/sustainability features as well as improving other spaces and programs. At a total project cost of about $157 million to $169 million (depending on construction management systems and power source), this option offers MSBA reimbursement and other state incentives that bring the local share cost down to $98 million to $109 million. The option also has a long period of construction.
Of particular concern to all entities involved in the project is the selected decision’s potential effect on students; that is, for how long and to what extent they would be displaced and disrupted. At a projected construction schedule of 48 months, the second option would mean that for one or two entering grades, those students would spend their entire four years of high school studying in a construction zone.
The third option is to build a brand-new school in front of the existing school, the least disruptive choice for students who can be housed in existing facilities during construction. It also has the most flexibility for design and can include “ideal spaces and programs.”
In February, DiNisco’s team began looking at potential sites for the new school within the current Monument Mountain school tract, resulting in two options for the new construction proposal: a three-story building on the hill or a two-story structure in the site’s parking lot. Both options are sized at 140,000 square feet, have a 24-month construction period and an additional six months of site work. After accounting for MSBA and other reimbursements, the hill construction option has a projected local share cost of about $89 million to $110 million, and the parking lot construction option has a projected local share cost of about $91 million to $112 million.
Finance Committee members asked whether temporary buildings would be needed and how many students the new proposed building would be constructed to house.
Boyd said that all options would keep the students in the current high school building, but temporary classrooms may be needed at $3 million to $4 million in additional costs. Dillon said the proposed space would accommodate 485 students.
Should the committees and residents forego these options, the cost to maintain the existing 60-year-old high school building is estimated to be around $59 million, given required upgrades, DiNisco said. However, those upgrades may trigger additional code compliance requirements that would add to the facility’s maintenance costs, such as requiring fire sprinklers throughout the building and other site improvements.
Stockbridge is not giving a ‘thumbs up’
For members of the town’s Finance Committee, questions about the proposal remained following the guests’ presentation. They weren’t sold yet on the idea.
“We’re talking about a significant amount of money, and Stockbridge spends approximately a quarter of its annual budget on education,” Stockbridge Finance Committee Chair Jay Bikofsky said. Out of the district’s 1,100 students, about 110 students are from Stockbridge, and 40 of those students are at Monument Mountain High School. “When we go to the Town Meeting to present this, we need to be sure that we have covered all options, not only construction options, but there are other alternatives and options here,” he said.
Bikofsky voiced concern over the town’s aging taxpayers who are under financial pressure by increasingly high taxes and said, “it’s not going to be an easy sell.” “We’re talking also about a diminution in enrollment; enrollment is projected to go down over the years,” he added.
Bikofsky mentioned other non-construction options including revisiting mergers with other districts and replacing the high school campus with structures already on the books such as Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School “to save money.” “We really have to present the full story to our public,” Bikofsky said. “It really is incumbent upon us, and we will do the right job, and we will have the right response if we do that. Let’s do it thoroughly so we don’t have to go back and forth in another five years.”
St. Peter replied that there isn’t enough space in the other educational buildings to house the high schoolers, and Bikofsky questioned whether this is the right time to make the investment in the regional high school. “I think this is a beginning conversation at this point,” Bikofsky said.
Can the Bard College at Simon’s Rock campus be considered since it is now for sale?
In short, “no,” Dillon said in response to The Berkshire Edge following the meeting. Bard College announced the sale of its Great Barrington campus earlier this week.
Dillon said the group has already spoken with Simon’s Rock officials but felt the property was not viable “from an educational and financial perspective.” “It’s a decentralized campus, and it’s trading one old building for a set of old buildings,” Dillon said. “It would also preclude the involvement of MSBA [grant funds] and their significant reimbursement.”
Even with its theater and other amenities, Simon’s Rock isn’t a good fit. At a capacity of 350 persons, Dillon said the college’s theater is smaller than the high school’s faculty and student body. “The biggest issue is the decentralized campus and limited accessibility, walking from building to building,” he said. “We looked at this. From one building to one building—it’s four minutes [and] to another it’s 11 minutes, to another it’s eight minutes.”
Additionally, Simon’s Rock is set up as a residential campus, not a day campus, Dillon said. “There’s a lot there that’s wonderful, but I don’t think it’s a great match for a public day high school in Massachusetts,” he said.
Next steps
The MMRHS Building Committee is slated to meet December 4 to select its preferred solution followed by a December 17 session to approve its MSBA grant submission, with that document due December 19.
