Town receives MSBA approval on $68 million for high school construction

Date: 4/19/2011

April 20, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — The new high school project moved one step close to breaking ground recently, as the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) board announced its approval of a total grant of $68 million toward construction.

The grant represents an 80 percent MSBA reimbursement of the estimated $93 million construction cost for the 257,525 square foot school, which is designed to serve 1,270 students.

"The board approval keeps us right on track to start construction next fall," School Superintendent Russell Johnston said. "We are very pleased to have passed this milestone and to be moving forward without delay."

Johnston said the project's next hurdle would come in the form of public budget hearings examining appropriations necessary to begin the construction phase of the project.

Mayor Edward Gibson said he might have the funding proposal completed and ready to present to the Town Council at its April 19 meeting. He added this proposal would break down the various components of the school project, reflecting the impact each piece would have on taxpayers.

"The first component is the high school itself," Gibson said. "The first alternative [component] is for [construction of] the maintenance building, the next alternative is for the pool, the third additional alternative is to redo the track [at Clark Field] and the fourth additional alternative is to redo the tennis courts."

Gibson said, as originally projected, impact on taxpayers for the high school project and its alternative components was "between $160 and $190 a year," but, given the current construction climate, "it looks like it might be a bit less."

He anticipated the initial public hearing on the project's construction costs could come as early as the Town Council's first meeting in May.

The new West Springfield High School was designed using components from the Hudson High School, one of the design plans in the MSBA's Model School Program.

In the MSBA release announcing the grant, State Treasurer Steven Grossman said he was "pleased that West Springfield's needs [were] a good fit for this program and that [the town] can take advantage of the potential savings while providing the students of West Springfield High School with a modern learning environment that fully supports the district's education plan."