My name is David Adler and I am a member of the Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee. I would like to discuss the reasons why I supported sending the revised renovation project of Monument Mountain Regional High School to the voters.
Last November’s vote resulted in the passage of the project by a majority of voters in all three towns, and two of the three towns passing the override of Proposition 2 1/2. As a School Committee member, I represent the interests of all three towns and feel that those numbers represent a significant portion of the district in favor of the original project. Significant enough to listen to the community’s concerns and attempt to address them with a second vote.
I voted to send the revised plan back to the towns because I believe that the Building Committee made important changes to the original plan. These changes were the maximum that were allowed by the Massachusetts School Building Association. The changes that were made will not effect the positive educational improvements within the plan itself, but will hopefully make the revised plan more affordable for all the taxpayers within our district.
If the voters decide on November 4 that this plan is not acceptable, then we will be left with no other choice but to react to existing structure repairs with no educational improvements and revisit the process for getting back onto the State’s reimbursement program with no guarantees of securing a reimbursement let alone securing one at the same or better rate. This will result in more of the burden of the cost shifting to the towns and with unpredictable tax ramifications. In addition, there will be no positive educational impacts in simply fixing what is broken.
I made an informed decision to send the revised renovation project to the voters. I hope that all voters will spend some time getting the facts, either by going to the MonumentMatters.org website, friending MonumentMatters on Facebook, or going to a public Community Conversation. Please take the time to make an educated decision.
David V. Adler
Stockbridge
