Berkshire County — With the future of their local high school at stake, Berkshire voters in Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge turned out on November 4 to decide whether their communities will construct a new $152.6 million Monument Mountain Regional High School (Monument Mountain) building or shore up the existing facility. Additionally, residents eyed the day’s ballot that included an option in each community to create a town-specific debt exclusion that would allow for the funding of the high school building.
Built in 1966, officials have long decried the facility as being in disrepair and beyond its useful life. But with declining district enrollment, voters are weighing in as to how a functional structure will progress.
If passed, according to School District Communications Coordinator Sheela Clary [Disclaimer: Clary is a columnist for The Berkshire Edge], the Massachusetts School Building Association would cover $61 million of the estimated construction total and the state’s MassSave program would be contributing $1.6 million in energy incentives, leaving taxpayers with the remaining project cost of about $89 million. The alternative would result in making repairs to the existing structure that officials say would tally just over $89 million and would not qualify for any financial help from the Commonwealth.
Polls opened at 11 a.m. on November 4 and will close at 7 p.m.
Folks across the board seemed to show overwhelming support for the referendum.
With a 25-minute delay to cast her ballot at the Great Barrington Fire Station on State Road, Rachel Sherk remained in line because “education is one of the most important things for our youth and children and community.” “I deeply believe in public education,” she said.
Just ahead of Sherk, longtime citizen Jasmine Gage agreed. “We have to take care of the children, period,” she said. “This is absurd, it’s been going on so long that we haven’t built them a school.”
With a granddaughter who attends Miss Hall’s School but has a lot of friends attending Monument Mountain, five-year Great Barrington resident Sharon Stanfield said her family association pushed her to the polls and she will vote in favor of the proposal.
David Crane emerged from the Stockbridge polling station and said the ballot was important to him “because the schools are,” as is the next generation. Inside, a line of voters stretched down the hallway of the town’s Senior Center.
Leslie Shatz, secretary of the Yes Monument! outreach committee supporting the proposition, left Stockbridge Town Hall a little after the local polls opened. She caught up with supporters holding signs just outside of the venue that represented her position on the issue. “The schools are exceptionally important to our community,” Shatz said. “Whether you have children who are already out of school or who never went to the schools, we have an obligation to support the education of our children.”
Noting the urgent need to respond to the current high school building’s inadequacies, West Stockbridge’s Tom Lipiczky compared the costs of repairing the old site and creating a new structure, totals “that are essentially the same.” “It seems a no-brainer to me not to vote for putting aside the proposition, the tax limit, and voting for the new high school,” he said.
A retired builder, Lipiczky called the current costs of construction “outrageous.” “But what’s the alternative,” he asked. “The kids are certainly going to be disadvantaged. It’s going to take years to repair the old building, and, in the meantime, the students are going to be crouching around in a job site.”
West Stockbridge Select Board Chair Andrew Krouss said his community is “impassioned” with the issues presented before them, accounting for the day’s high turnout. “The community is very concerned about everything that’s going on, and during election time, the community comes out,” he said. “Everybody’s active and everybody participates, which you want. You don’t always agree with the other side, and the other side doesn’t always agree with you, but at least there’s a voice there.”
