PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Building Needs Commission will hold a special meeting on Monday to decide if Pittsfield should seek funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to repair its oldest high school, PHS. 

It was stipulated that if funding for the city's 20 percent match needs to be identified right now, the SOI is not currently feasible. During the commission's meeting on Tuesday, members were not comfortable moving forward without seeing the document and knowing if the money needs to be identified upfront. 

Mayor Peter Marchetti still had a "bunch" of questions and concerns.  

"I look at where we are today: We have a middle school restructuring project underway. We have a Crosby/Conte project underway with still no estimate of what that dollar might be, so let's just say it's a $100 million school, that's $20 million on the city taxpayers to do," he cautioned. 

"Now we're going to turn around and do PHS, very little research. The number that I've seen is $73.5 [million.] By the time we get the construction and five years from now, let's put that at $100 [million.] That's another $20 million on the taxpayers to be able to do, and we have been advised by our city auditor that we're at our following capacity from an operating budget standpoint." 

The commission plans to see and vote on an SOI on April 13 at 5 p.m. at Taconic High School.
Interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips identified Pittsfield High School renovations for MSBA's core program, which has a statement of interest filing period open until April 17. According to MSBA's website, the core program is intended for new construction, addition, and/or renovation projects. 

To her understanding, there would be no negative implications if the Pittsfield Public Schools were accepted into the funding program and pulled out because of lack of funds, she said, "But we do recognize that the financing of the project would have to be carefully considered."