Wagner calls for meeting

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE State Rep. Joseph Wagner has requested a meeting with city officials to go over the city's application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for state funding to renovate the former Chicopee High School.

"The legislative delegation is hopeful that by facilitating a dialogue between the MSBA and the city, the city may receive some guidance before the proposal is officially submitted. Hopefully, the application will have a better opportunity to receive funding," Wagner said.

In April, Mayor Michael Bissonnette and School Superintendent Richard Rege outlined a plan that would transform the former high school into a middle school that would replace Fairview Veterans Middle School. To accomplish that goal the city would need funding through the MSBA.

Bissonnette said at the April meeting the addition of a middle school in the downtown area would decrease transportation costs and allow the city to address school over-crowding.

Wagner said the city must show the MSBA the school is a top priority for the city as a whole. He said a new application for the project must be substantially different than the proposal submitted in 2007.

Although conventional wisdom might indicate the city that received funding for two new high schools wouldn't be at the head of the line for more school funding, Wagner explained that thinking is wrong. The new Chicopee High and Chicopee Comprehensive High Schools were built with state funding under a previous system. The MSBA was created by the Legislature in 2004 to manage the school building assistance system in a different way.

"It's a new program and a new day," Wagner told Reminder Publications.

Wagner said that projects must meet eight criteria to be considered and the MSBA just doesn't consider the merits of the project alone it examines them within the context of the school system's enrollment and curriculum among other factors, he explained.

MSBA is a better way to disburse funds, Wagner said. Communities receive the funding at the beginning of the project rather than as a reimbursement and there is greater competition and greater accountability.

Wagner explained the funding used by the MSBA is provided by the sales tax one cent of the five cents charged for each dollar. Originally the Legislature believed the funding would grow annually three to four percent, but Wagner said it has remained flat.

This restriction of funding has hampered the MSBA, but Wagner added the agency has responded in favoring less expensive renovation projects rather than new buildings, which could be an advantage in the Chicopee High proposal.