Building Committee Chairman Mark Schiek led a forum with the architects and consultants, and school administrators to update and hear from Lanesborough residents and officials on Tuesday.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — While architects and school officials continue to progress with a feasibility study for a new school building project, Lanesborough officials are still questioning the enrollment projections.
The new project is being designed for an estimated 535 students. But, the towns of Lanesborough and Williamstown combined have only 456 students currently. With the population of the entire county expected drop significantly over the next decade, town officials are wondering if the school will be oversized.
"That's fallen 40 students in four years and will probably fall another 40 by the time we start this project," said Town Administrator Paul Sieloff. "It is a real concern if we can't get off that [535] dime."
Building Committee Chairman Mark Schiek, however, said the building is being designed to accommodate the towns of New Ashford and Hancock, which have tuition agreements with the school to send their high school students there.
Lanesborough had previously expressed concerned with the tuition rate and school officials ultimately reached a new deal with the two towns that upped the rate by 5 percent every year for five years. It is currently the third year of that five-year contract. That change led Hancock officials to put a measure on the ballot to send the students elsewhere instead. That was rejected.
Last year, Hancock paid $11,910 per students. According to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mount Greylock spent $18,688 per pupil. Meanwhile, with the new building project, Hancock and New Ashford would not be paying any of the capital costs for the new building.
"I don't want the taxpayers of Lanesborough to carry the burdens of other towns," said Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers, at a community forum on Tuesday.
It is unclear how much would be saved if the two towns opted to build a smaller school. According to Trip Elmore of the firm Dore & Whittier, which is consulting on the project, building schools for less than 500 students becomes difficult because the criteria for the size needed for shared spaces — like auditoriums, gyms, and others — are "thrown out of whack." So, it is not clear how much square footage could be reduced and what types of savings that would create.
The question isn't solely around the projected enrollment but enters into a debate over the use of school choice and tuition.
The School Committee can opt each year to open school choice to any number of students for any certain class levels. The sending district is required to pay up to $5,000 to the receiving district, a figure that has constantly been criticized because of how much it costs to educate a student.
"I know choice is an issue. But, we are a choice school and there are 10 communities that want to send to our school," said Mount Greylock School Committee Chairwoman Carrie Greene. "It is a source of revenue for us."
Essentially, when a class is short on students in one particular year, the School Committee opens up enough school choice seats to fill that class. In turn, that translates to $5,000 per student in revenue the district wouldn't otherwise have. Meanwhile, students in Lanesborough and Williamstown have the right to choice into another district, and Mount Greylock loses $5,000 per student.
School officials say using school choice to fill classrooms is a source of revenue for the district. Town officials have voiced concern that it prevents the school from shrinking, and thus requires more teachers and staff than needed. While the towns of Williamstown and Lanesborough are losing students, town officials are afraid choice and tuition is being used at all levels of education to keep the same amount of school staffing.
Some selectmen and members of the Finance Committee have expressed desires to close both the elementary and high school to school choice and tuition until those rates represent the "true cost" to educate a student, including capital costs and personnel benefits.
Meanwhile, the feasibility study isn't waiting around for the town to come to terms with that debate. The School Building Needs Committee and consultants are continuing with the study at the pace set by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the state agency that will reimburse about half of the cost of the project.
"It is a fast pace. There are a lot of issues with the building and we're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be going to education every year," Greene said.
The project itself isn't new, as the building committee was reformed in 2011 after being interrupted by the collapse of the locker room ceiling. The following year, the school nearly lost its accreditation but because the committee had gotten into the MSBA pipeline, the accrediting agency held off. A number of health concerns have arisen over the years regarding the building, many of which were documented in the school's statement of interest to the MSBA.
Now, the architects Design Partnership and consultants Dore & Whittier are at a point of determining if the towns want to renovate or build new — and how. By August, the firm hopes to have chosen a preferred option and then the schematic design and budget for the chosen project would be put to a district vote in June 2016. The project would break ground in 2017 and open in 2019.
"That is the prescribed MSBA process," said Elmore.
Right now, the architects are documenting and putting a price on everything that would need to be fixed to compare to building project. This includes such things as the environmental conditions and utilities to help rule out options for renovation or new construction. Eventually, four options will be given to the MSBA, followed by a process to narrow it down to one.
School officials promise numerous occasions to voice input, one of which was provided Tuesday night, throughout the process. That promise is welcomed by Lanesborough officials.
"We need better communication. We need more meetings like this," said Finance Committee member Ronald Tinkham.
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Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships
LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock.
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC).
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities. MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities.
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