Great Barrington — A preliminary 5-year, $11 million capital plan to fix and update things that simply can’t wait at 50-year-old Monument Mountain Regional High School shows asbestos and lead abatement costs estimated at $2.2 million, and the roof at $4.3 million.
Taxpayers in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District will foot whatever that final bill will be, since the opportunity to receive state money disappeared last year after Great Barrington voters last fall nixed a $51 million Monument High renovation proposal in which the state school funding and design apparatus was to pay nearly half the cost, reducing the local bill to $23.2 million.
When the project was axed, the district’s Buildings and Grounds Committee got down to the work of determining which repairs were urgent and which could wait. The committee incorporated Facilities Director Steve Soule’s assessment of the building’s needs and Monument Principal Marianne Young’s input on what few upgrades were educationally vital. (To view spread sheets of anticipated expenses, please refer to the reproductions at the end of this article.)
The cost estimates come from a 2007 feasibility study produced for that renovation, one that would have overhauled the entire school from its bones and systems to new science labs. The project was first voted down by Great Barrington in 2013, and again in 2014. It was a controversy that divided the town, a debate mostly about the schools’ role in escalating property taxes that are already high compared to local average incomes. And because the regional agreement between Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge stipulates that towns pay in a per pupil system, Great Barrington bears 70 percent of the cost due to its size. School budgets are climbing ever higher each year, and the district is working to minimize costs in a variety of ways. A committee is forming, for instance, to clean up the antiquated agreement and make an attempt at changing the way the three-town funding pie is sliced.
Buildings and grounds subcommittee chairman Rich Bradway.
Committee chairman Steve Bannon spoke to the impact this potential $11 million might have on progress with that regional agreement, since it would mean Stockbridge and West Stockbridge taxpayers would have to pay more. “What it’s going to do is probably make things more complicated,” he said. “But we can’t ignore the high school for five years. It’s complicated no matter what we do.”
The 5-year repair and upgrade plan must still be vetted by the school committee and will be discussed during budget talks before it is voted on, Bannon added. The plan includes fixing desperate structural problems like a leaking roof, something that has students running around with buckets and garbage cans every time it rains or during a snowmelt; installing a fire suppression system to the tune of $574,000, replacing the gymnasium floor and lots of light fixtures. It also calls for some new science labs. Costs for 2016 will run to $169,000, mostly for new doors, increased security and a boiler repair.
But through fiscal 2021 the potential abatement costs upward of $450,000 each year run up the repair and replacement bills, culminating with the roof repair, bringing the total cost that final year to $6.6 million.
Buildings and Grounds subcommittee chairman Rich Bradway said money put aside for asbestos and lead abatement is a “worst case scenario” number since “we have no clue how much it will need to be abated at any given time.” He said he thought the school committee would ultimately “whittle” down those estimates. “Once we have a few projects under our belt it will be easier to refine the allocation for abatement in the future.”
Bradway tried to give some context for the extent of the hazardous materials in the high school.
“All of the tile floors which have not been replaced (95 percent) are made of asbestos,” he said. “All of the molding and caulk that hold in the windows have asbestos. All of the fire-retardant in the walls and ceiling is asbestos. The roof has a solid layer of lead paint. It goes on.”
Bradway said that money for abatement is set aside every year for various projects, depending on the scope. Trying to figure out what to repair first, while still contemplating a larger renovation down the road lands the district in an intricate maze. For instance, the roof:
“Renovating the roof now is a very disruptive project,” Bradway said. “It would extend beyond summer. It would effectively open a can of worms to other improvements (HVAC, water lines, fire suppression, etc). Lastly, it would be undone to some degree as part of a larger renovation.”
Bradway added that the committee only chose projects that could be completed within a two- to three-month summer window.
Great Barrington Selectboard members Dan Bailly, left, and Ed Abrahams.
Dan Bailly was the only Selectboard member to oppose the district’s full renovation plan, but said in an email that while he hadn’t seen the details of the capital plan, “there are certain renovations that need to be done (i.e., the roof and heating system). The cost is what it is. Other ‘cosmetic’ renovations would be a larger scale project and should be done only based on need and not wants, or ‘While we’re at it.’ ”
Great Barrington Selectboard member Ed Abrahams has always said he thought the town should take that $24 million from the state to do over the whole school. Now he’s frustrated.
“We pay 100 percent now,” Abrahams said, perturbed that residents who were vocal in their battle against the renovation project had not attended meetings where these costs were tallied, repairs and upgrades determined. “Anyone who thinks this is too much money should have voted for the renovation. Yes, it’s too expensive — I sure wish we had paid for this when the state was paying half.
“I’m sure there are kids running around with buckets today,” he added, noting the rain.
Below are spread sheets, provided by the school district, detailing the anticipated costs for the repair of Monument Mountain Regional High School:
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