Mount Greylock Develops Plan to Spend Williams' Building Endowment
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Tuesday decided to seek an architect to guide the district on how best to spend a $5 million capital endowment from Williams College.
The college announced the gift in February. The money was intended to be used for items outside the scope of the district's $64.8 million addition/renovation project because any private funds spent on the building project would have come out of the district's reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
Over the spring and summer, the School Committee developed a list of priorities for the money, including renovations to the parking lot, theater-quality lighting and sound for the auditorium and code-compliant upgrades to the outdoor athletic facilities — all modifications that are not reimbursable from MSBA.
This fall, the committee weighed whether its first expenditure from the endowment should be to hire a consultant to help prioritize and develop a budget and schedule for the projects.
"The proposal is basically to engage in a feasibility study," said committee member Carolyn Greene, who also serves on the School Building Committee. "That's what we did with the building project — determine the rough order of magnitude, schedule, timing, that sort of thing.
"There are a lot of things we need to consider in terms of code and what absolutely needs to be done in the near future, medium future and out in the distance. Once we hire an architect to do the feasibility study, we'd then decide what project or projects we'd do."
Greene and Assistant Superintendent Kim Grady also reported that they had gotten clarification on whether the architect hired for a feasibility study needed to be secured through the commonwealth's procurement process. In the past, it had been argued that since the $5 million is not taxpayer money, the School Committee could skip that test, but its counsel has confirmed that since the public body is deciding how to spend the money it needs to treat the process as if it was spending public money.
"Moving forward, we are going through the municipal procurement process," Greene said.
The committee learned Tuesday that at least one of the projects on its list of priorities is going to be a short-term need: renovating the stands at John T. Allen Field, home of Mount Greylock's football, soccer and lacrosse programs.
Greene told her colleagues that in order to complete the renovation and three-story addition to the school, the district has to address Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues on the whole property, including the playing fields.
"What [owners project manager Trip Elmore and architect Dan Colli] would like is to apply for a variance," Greene said. "We would say that in 18 to 24 months after substantial completion of the building project, we'll address the code issues. That gets us to 2019-2020. It buys us some time but gives the town assurances that we'll address the issues."
The committee voted unanimously to support the architect's plan for requesting a variance and to initiate the procurement process for a feasibility study on how to utilize the $5 million Williams gift.
School Building Committee Chairman Mark Schiek told the School Committee on Tuesday that soil stabilization work to prepare for the three-story academic wing will be completed this week and that the foundation for the addition should be laid by Jan. 1.
"At that point, things will slow down on the site," Schiek said. "Steel will come in and start going up in the spring."
Meanwhile, the district's fiscal year 2018 budget started to take shape on Tuesday night as Principal Mary MacDonald presented the School Committee with her top budget priorities for the 2017-18 school year.
"This year, the most significant priority is reinstatement of two full-time teachers: one in math and one in wellness," MacDonald said. "We'll be looking for candidates with flexible certifications — a math teacher who could teach computer science, for example. In wellness, we'll be looking for not just wellness in terms of physical education, but we also have a need for a health teacher. And we're looking at the wellness piece for bringing the size of health classes down so they can be more impactful.
"We also have students with particular needs for adaptive P.E. We want to make sure we're serving that population as well. We have a shoestring P.E. department. We're not really meeting the needs of the school."
MacDonald told the committee she developed her budget priorities after reviewing standardized test data and consulting with the School Council, PTO, the faculty and the colleges and universities who have accepted Mount Greylock students in the past.
Committee member Chris Dodig asked MacDonald to expand on her thoughts about priorities, asking her to, "tell us what three, four and maybe five are."
MacDonald singled out science equipment and new textbooks, pointing out that while the school likely will employ digital texts in the future, actual books still play a role.
"What we're looking at are hybrids," she said. "We want students to read books as well."
MacDonald said that school's new director of academic technology is convening a committee to look at how to use technology in the future, including, perhaps developing a one-to-one computing model.
"As we shift to putting devices in students' hands, that needs to a be comprehensive plan," MacDonald said.
School Committee member Wendy Penner suggested that a member of the panel serve on the technology committee, and Dodig volunteered to fill that spot.
Tuesday's meeting began with Grady as chair as the committee went through its annual post-election reorganization.
Lanesborough resident Sheila Hebert was elected to replace Williamstown's Greene as chair of the seven-person committee despite some hesitancy by committee members about interrupting the continuity of leadership as the district searches for a new superintendent.
"I think we all know Carrie has done a great job," Dodig said after nominating Hebert. "There's no debate about that. She has held the post the last four years, and I think it's important for a number of reasons, including our past practice, to allow the chair to come back to Lanesborough. Town perception is important.
"We have term limits on presidents and governors. It's a good check and balance. Sheila will be a different kind of leader, and she does have experience on school committees. For that reason, and certainly not based on performance, I nominate Sheila."
Greene said she was willing to continue serving as chair but also would step aside if the committee felt like making a switch. After she joined a unanimous vote supporting Hebert as chairwoman, Greene was unanimously elected as vice chairwoman.
That puts both Greene and Hebert — along with the chairs of the Lanesborough and Williamstown Elementary School Committees — on the Administrative Review Subcommittee that meets Friday afternoon to discuss the search for a new Tri-District superintendent.
The highlight of Tuesday's meeting was the announcement of senior Jesse Cohen as this year's recipient of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Certificate of Academic Excellence.
MacDonald noted that while Cohen's academic achievement is demonstrated from his top 5 percent class ranking while pursuing 11 Advanced Placement courses out of the 28 classes he has taken, his achievements go beyond the classroom.
"He plays the double bass and has been in the orchestra consistently," MacDonald said. "He is a student leader on the Peer Team, and one of the primary interests he has expressed is working for unity and bringing together students from various towns. … He's also a member of the extraordinarily successful boys cross country team.
"One of the things I've discovered about Jesse during the selection process for this award is his general commitment to serving others."
Cohen said the school has impacted his life more than he has impacted the school.
"The cross country team is especially a place where not only Williamstown and Lanesborough are brought together but also older students provided an example of the type of l try to emulate," he said.
"I set high goals academically, but there's a culture of that at Mount Greylock. Students support each other. It's a close-knit community. Part of that is being a smaller school, and part of that is the way the culture has evolved."
Tags: academic award, gift, MGRHS, MGRHS school project, Williams College,
