GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – The Berkshire Hills Regional School District is once again exploring the possibility of renovating or rebuilding the Monument Mountain Regional High School, with the help of the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
After a previous proposal to renovate the aging school building was voted down in 2014, this could be the last chance the district has to secure state funding for the project.
“It’s sort of a miracle that the MSBA let us back in,” said Peter Dillon, the district’s superintendent. “I think if this goes wrong and the communities don’t support it, our likelihood of us getting back on the list is very, very small. So we’ve got this one chance to move forward, and hopefully they’ll be excited about it.”
Assistance from the MSBA
Each year, the MSBA selects several school districts from across the state to assist them in improving their facilities. Berkshire Hills has applied to the program several times, and this year they were accepted for the first time since 2013.
The MSBA lays out specific steps for districts to follow to receive funding. Dillon estimated they could cover as much as 50 percent of the costs for this new project.
“If we end up doing a big building that costs quite a lot, to have them pay for half of it is a huge deal,” said Dillon.
The process officially starts on August 1, after which the district has 270 days to come up with a design.
An Aging Building
The current high school building is more than fifty years old, and is in need of several upgrades to its infrastructure.
“There’s a flat roof, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a flat roof in New England,” said Dillon. “The HVAC, the heating, all of that is outdated. There’s single panel glass throughout the building.”
The building is also ill-equipped to meet the demands of a modern school. Dillon said it doesn’t have the electrical capacity to handle all the computers needed today.
The district recently updated its educational plan, which calls for flexible classroom spaces and an expansion of the vocational program. Such improvements would be difficult to achieve in the existing building.
“Our approach to learning and understanding is different,” said Dillon. “And a lot of it revolves around kids and young people working in informal groups, so there needs to be flexible spaces to do that.”
The Voters Say No
In 2014, the district, with the help of the MSBA, came up with a proposal to renovate Monument Mountain and build an addition for a new science wing. The project would have cost about $51 million, with the state paying for 46% of the costs.
The proposal was approved by Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, but the district’s biggest town, Great Barrington, voted against it, killing the project.
“A lot of it was around tax fatigue,” said Dillon of the failed vote. “This was coming off a lot of bridge projects, a relatively new fire house, things like that. And any community and any individual taxpayer can only manage so much debt at one time.”
A Second Chance
In the years since the failed vote, the district has changed how the three member towns pay for capital projects.
“Great Barrington will pay a little less than they have in the past,” said Dillon. “And Stockbridge will pay a little more, and West Stockbridge ends up paying about the same.”
The first cost, which needs to be approved by the towns this time, is $1.5 million for a feasibility study. The study would produce one of three recommendations: a new building, a renovation and addition, or just a renovation.
The MSBA paid for the study back in 2013, but this time, it’s up to the towns to cover the costs.
“In the long term, it’s much better for us to cover the cost of this on our own than what the alternative would have been,” said Dillon. “If the MSBA hadn’t accepted us to move forward, then we might have tried to do something on our own as a community with no reimbursement.”
Earlier this month, the Great Barrington and West Stockbridge select boards agreed to put a measure for the funding of the study on their respective town meeting warrants. Dillon will visit the Stockbridge select board to ask them to do the same next week.
“The Great Barrington select board’s five members, they supported it unanimously, and, in my mind, were very enthusiastic,” said Dillon. “So I think as we explain to people, as we get the word out, that people will realize that this is a really big deal.”
The Road Ahead
It will ultimately fall to the member towns to approve of the final proposal recommended after the feasibility study, no sooner than in the fall of next year.
However, a potential merger with the Southern Berkshire Regional School District could complicate the process.
The two districts have been formally exploring the possibility of merging over the past two years. Earlier in March, a consultant hired by the Regional School District Planning Board recommended the districts go through with the merger.
“I’m excited about the consultant’s recommendation,” said Dillon. “And I think we can do something really neat with a combined high school, and I hope that moves forward.”
A vote on the potential merger is still months away, but the possibility will have to be taken into account in any plans for an upgraded Monument Mountain.
“If we’re going to study three options, we might as well study six,” said Dillon. “It’s the same, a new building, renovation and addition, or renovation, but just with slightly different parameters. So what does a high school with 550 kids look like versus a high school with 750?”