Leaking Clarksburg School Roof Becomes Priority
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The school roof has become a priority after the recent snow and rain has caused some significant leaks.
Principal Sandra Cote attended Monday's Select Board meeting after sending a video of a particularly bad leak to Chair Robert Norcross.
"We've had two other classrooms today that had sprung leaks that we hadn't typically had," she said. "We do have one that it seems to be getting worse, and I know we had a horrible rainstorm and the ice has backed up on the roof."
Cote said the custodian had been on the roof breaking up the ice, and it seemed the water may have been coming through an exhaust pipe.
"I guess the concern becomes where did that come in — was it just the roof or something else," she said.
Officials have for years been asking the governor's office to release $500,000 in a capital bond bill for the roof's repair.
Norcross has been in conversation with the governor's Western Mass office and Director of Rural Affairs Anne Gobi about the money for some time now and sent Gobi a video of the leak.
The state's been reluctant to release the funds after the town rejected a school building program that would have renovated the prekindergarten to Grade 8 school back in 2017. The Massachusetts School Building Authority had determined the building wasn't up to contemporary educational standards.
Town meeting had authorized a $1 million borrowing of which half went to the school to address immediate needs, and volunteers and grants had also made some improvements.
Board member Colton Andrews said it was embarrassing to see buckets in the classrooms and that it was time to take "drastic action," which could mean exploring renovations or building a new school.
"This roof has obviously been a contentious issue for quite some time," he said. "I think these problems are going to compound drastically. ... I think the school is the town's biggest asset. It's the No. 1 reason families move to Clarksburg."
Member Daniel Haskins agreed that something needed to be done but thought they may be looking at a Band-Aid at this point.
"I think a new school would be difficult to do," he said.
The town had been looking a renovation and addition at a cost of $19 million of which taxpayers would be responsible for $7.7 million. It failed twice to meet the two-thirds vote required to move forward after it was determined it would take 40 years to pay off the project at $350,000 a year.
Building costs have increased dramatically in the last few years and Norcross pointed out that a $1 on the tax rate only raises about $160,000.
In other business, the board interviewed two more candidates for town administrator — Kenneth Ward and Bryana Malloy.
Ronald Boucher, former Select Board member, was interviewed last week.
Ward, of Becket, is a graduate of Norwich University and holds a juris doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School of Law.
His background is management and administration, mainly working in the information technology sector in health care, including for Berkshire Health Systems and the former Berkshire Healthcare. He has more recently been working for the town of Williamstown. He also served on some civic boards in various places he's lived.
While he has no immediate experience in municipal government, he noted he has been supporting the various departments in Williamstown, helped formulate and manage multimillion budgets as director of IT at Berkshire Health Systems for a dozen years, and successfully written grants.
"Since tech is so pervasive now I've been working with all departments and supporting Willinet ... I've had my hands in just about every department," he said. "My philosophy is it's never a bad thing to ask for help ... some people are reluctant to do that."
Malloy, of Clarksburg, is currently manager of industry relations and Berkshire market maker at MassHire.
She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and expects to graduate with a master of business administration from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the spring. Malloy said the town administrator post "just feels like an opportunity for to me grow," adding that "if I'm comfortable, I could work here for the next 40 years."
She also does not have experience in municipal government but stressed her willingness to learn and her skills in writing and managing grants.
Malloy said she oversaw four or five different grants in managing workforce programs at Lever and now administers a $2 million three-year planning grant for Masshire. She also developed the budget for this grant and a second modified budget.
"I have quite a bit of experience with grants," she said. "That's where I see my career growing the most ... I think of Clarksburg when I see some of these grants."
The board also discussed problems with the town administrator not being able to access the portal for the American Rescue Plan Act funds. The town is working with a federal office to resolve the issue. There are still funds in the account that have to be allocated by the end of the year.
