For the second straight year, voters in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District have rejected a high school renovation project. The ballot items drove roughly 60 percent of the area’s voters to the polls.Residents of Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge were asked to approve a $51 million renovation of the nearly 50-year-old Monument Mountain Regional High School.
For the project to move forward, each town had to independently approve excluding the cost from the levy limit under Proposition 2 1/2. With 2,800 ballots cast, that measure failed by more than 600 votes in Great Barrington, where most of the tax impact would be felt. Resident Patrick Fennell voted no.
“Nobody is against renovating and nobody is against education, we don’t like to be pinned that way,” Fennell said. “But the truth of the matter is there’s a better way to do and they’re not doing it.”
Voters in Stockbridge and West Stockbridge approved the project and the levy override. Select Boards in all three towns had given the project their blessing.
The proposal was a scaled-back version of the $56 million renovation rejected by voters last year. The district also extended the payment plan from 20 to 25 years to limit the initial impact on taxpayers. Great Barrington taxpayers faced an additional $92 per $100,000 of assessed property value, down about $20 from the previous proposal. Again, Fennell:
“As a contractor I run into a lot of customers and most of them are nervous about their taxes,” Fennell said. “When you’re going up anywhere from $300 to $500, plus you got the sewer project coming up and don’t forget the school budget never goes down. Our budget goes up on average two to three percent every year. So it’s a big issue.”
Even with the changes, the district did not have to reapply with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. But Superintendent Peter Dillon says if the project were scaled-back any further, the district would forfeit $23 million already approved and have to submit a new application.
“I think last year they [MSBA] got 200 applications and they approved 13 of them so that’s exactly 6.5 percent,” Dillon said. “So it’s a highly competitive process with lots of schools in need and we’re very fortunate that they saw us as one that they want to support.”
With 90 windows, 49 exterior doors and outdated flooring, roofs, heating and plumbing, the repair-only option totaled nearly $39 million, with only $5 million coming from the MSBA. The $51 million renovation was meant to fix those issues while enhancing security and adding a science wing. While he doesn’t want to speak for the entire school committee, vice chair Rich Bradway says it will be prudent to meet with project leaders and community members and go back to the drawing board.
“We obviously want to try to do this in such a way, that’s obviously not going to have as big an impact on taxpayers, but at the same time we don’t want to do this so that we’re repairing things in perpetuity,” Bradway said. “We need to be aware and conscious of the fact that there are kids in the school now trying to get an education.”
Also at issue is whether a major renovation is needed in an area with declining enrollment. State projections have enrollment leveling off at 570 students at Monument Mountain in 2024, down from about 650 in the 1990s. Also, approximately 135 students choice into the high school from other districts, which generates annual revenue of $675,000. Overall, choice-in students bring more than $1 million into the district across the elementary, middle and high schools, but those families do not pay district taxes.
