Town officials consider building new middle school
Published on October 15th, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - The town's Board of Selectmen authorized Supt. Dr. Les Olson this Tuesday to submit preliminary paperwork to a state agency that expresses interest in constructing a new middle school.
In a unanimous vote, the Selectmen consented to submitting a statement-of-interest (SOI) for the middle school to the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA), which is charged with overseeing any state funded school construction project.
Tuesday night's vote does not bind Stoneham to building a new facility, nor does it guarantee that the town will receive reimbursements for a new building.
"The entire process had been turned around," Olson explained. "This is simply the first step. We're not committing to anything and neither is the state by sending this."
According to copies of the draft SOI, school officials will lobby the MSBA to consider a middle school replacement because the current building lacks adequate and appropriate space for current educational needs and programs.
The SOI also contends that the building should be upgraded due to a lack of energy efficient heating systems.
"The school department has a great concern with the middle school facility. This 54-year-old structure is in dire need of repair or replacement," said School Committee member Marie Christie on Tuesday night.
In 2007, the MSBA lifted a four-year moratorium on offering state funding for new school construction projects, but stipulated that a limited pool of money would be doled out to the most needy schools.
The state entity, formerly organized under the Mass. Department of Education (DOE), is expected to provide less funding than in the past for educational buildings.
Previously cities and towns were reimbursed as much as 64 percent of school construction costs. However, the MSBA is expected to drop that rate down to 50 percent on average, although as much as 80 percent of a project could be funded under state guidelines.
Under the previous DOE building program, Stoneham received partial reimbursement for the Colonial Park, Robin Hood, Central, and South Elementary Schools.
In July of 2007, a total of 161 districts submitted initial SOIs to the state entity seeking reimbursements for over 420 separate repair and school replacement proposals. The MSBA has put 83 of those projects on the fast-track for receiving funding, although those proposals aren't guaranteed to gain approval.
The MSBA is now accepting another round of SOI's, which are due by November 15.
MSBA officials have already visited every school across the state and classified the condition of the building based upon a four point scale.
The Stoneham Middle School is currently listed as a three, the third worst designation.
However, according to Olson, he believes that the state did make an error during that initial assessment, as it considered the Middle Schools roof and boiler replacement programs to be equivalent to an overall renovation.
"The report online says the building was renovated in 2005, which is not true," said Olson. "Clearly, the entire building was not renovated, which seems to be the indication."
According to Olson, unlike the previous DOE school building assistance program, the MSBA has established stringent requirements for municipalities to meet before they can even be considered for state funding.
In particular, state officials will likely revisit the building to verify the town's assessment of the building's heating systems and overall layout.
The MSBA will also demand to see records detailing Stoneham's maintenance of the property, particularly the town's history of making capital repair investments.
Based upon the MSBA regulations, funding will not be granted to any community where a school fell into disrepair because of negligent upkeep.
"Not really, because the town, for all the issues we have had, has maintained the health and safety of the building," responded Olson, when asked whether he was worried that recent cutbacks at the middle school would factor into the MSBA's review.
"I think by and large, the maintenance for major issues have been addressed. It's just that the major systems are 50 years old," added the superintendent, who cited recent roof renovations and a boiler replacement at the middle school.
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