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Date: 11/1/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — The Massachusetts School Building Authority announced Oct. 25 that it would be increasing the reimbursement grant for the East Longmeadow High School project from $63 million to $82 million. This change would significantly reduce the portion of the $177.5 million project for which the town is responsible from $114.2 million to $95.12 million.
“It’s much closer to a 50-50 split [between East Longmeadow and the MSBA],” Superintendent Gordon Smith said. “Here we are under $100 million.”
The Nov. 7 ballot will present two questions to voters. The first will ask whether they will approve a debt exclusion of the full $177.5 million high school project. The full amount requires approval because the MSBA grant is a reimbursement that will be paid to the town at stages throughout the project. Only the estimated $95.12 million will be bonded at the end of the project. The second ballot question asks if voters will approve a debt exclusion for the natatorium, the building which would house the pool, which is not eligible for MSBA funding.
Smith noted that the MSBA had also increased the grant amounts for two other projects in the state. Because the state Legislature had to act to increase the amount of funding available to the MSBA, it was clear both bodies understood the impact that inflation has had on large-scale construction projects.
The impact on the tax rate would be reduced by the change. Instead of taxpayers owing up to an additional $3.06 per $1,000 of property value for the life of the 30-year loan, the increase would be up to $2.56 per $1,000.
The decision by the MSBA, which also approved the project’s scope and budget agreement at its Oct. 25 meeting, does not affect the cost of the $16.79 million pool, which would add 45 cents per $1,000 to property tax bills for the life of the loan.
If the project is approved, taxpayers may see a slight impact beginning in 2025 as short-term borrowing would take place during the construction of the school and, potentially the natatorium. The impact will be fully realized in 2027.
When calculating the tax impacts, School Building Committee Chair Stephen Chrusciel said, “We have assumed very conservative interest rates and assumed home values will not rise in the next 30 years. That’s the worst-case scenario.”
Town Manager Tom Christensen remarked, “We can’t tell you what’s going to happen with your taxes [in the future] We can only tell you the impact if you vote for a new high school.”
A tax impact calculator is now available on the town website by clicking on East Longmeadow High School building project. It can also be found at tinyurl.com/4xen6vtn.
Capital projects
A major argument against approving the debt exclusion is that the town will be significantly closer to the $25 per $1,000 of property value tax ceiling, leaving little room to tackle other capital needs, such as roadwork and a new fire station.
Christensen does not agree with that idea. “We can do it, there’s room,” he said. “We just have to decide to do it.” The town is full of professionals who are working to make the municipality function, he said.
Smith added that the department heads are constantly looking for grants “because they know capital projects are expensive.”
Christensen said approving the debt exclusion would mean projects that would be required to keep the existing school in a livable condition would come off the capital planning budget, freeing up funding for other projects.
Smith said the other five schools in East Longmeadow would not suffer due to funding the high school project. He said the school department has made investments in the other schools while spending money to keep the high school afloat. He highlighted a new floor in the gymnasium at Mountain View School, two projects funded by the MSBA’s accelerated repair program at Meadowbrook School and new pavement and exterior doors at Mapleshade School. The doors were phased in over a few years because it was easier to work into the capital budget, he said.
If the vote is approved, investments will still need to be made in the high school between now and when the new school is ready. Smith said that those investments will largely be portable and can be moved into the new school.
Many town projects can be addressed through the capital budget, but Christensen said a large-scale project like the school is “up to the town.”
Transparency
Some residents have pushed back against the process of deciding whether a new school was needed and how it was designed.
“We hired professionals, and we tasked them with giving their best recommendation and they did,” Chrusciel said. When speaking to people one-on-one, Chrusciel said it makes a difference in their willingness to understand the information. He said, “In the forum or, even worse, online, “people are dug in” to their position on the project.
Chrusciel, Christensen and Smith all pushed back on claims there has been a lack of transparency.
“You can only be as transparent as possible,” Chrusciel said regarding the skepticism and mistrust from portions of the public. “As we’ve gotten closer to the vote, things have come to a head.”
In addition to the seven public forums, appearances at two consecutive National Night Out events and making a survey available online, Smith said the meetings conducted by the High School Building Committee were open to the public. He and Christensen recalled that residents in the Norden Street neighborhood directly behind the high school attended a meeting at the beginning of the process during which they asked if it were possible to close off the school campus entrance from Norden Street. “And we said, ‘Yeah,’” Christensen said. The plans were developed with that input in mind because residents had requested it, and it was not needed to make the campus layout work.
“There are plenty of people who took advantage of their opportunity to participate,” Chrusciel commented.
Chrusciel also said criticism that the school department “let the building go to hell because it assumed there would be a new building” was inaccurate. Despite the district having applied for the MSBA’s core program several years in a row and being in a condition that warranted attention, “time just wasn’t on our side,” because other projects took precedence with the authority.
Chrusciel said, “East Longmeadow is coming to a crossroads where it will decide, ‘Is East Longmeadow a town that values education for the next 50 years or not?’”