Superintendent grateful for support of schools

Date: 5/16/2012

May 16, 2012

By Debbie Gardner

debbieg@thereminder.com

SOUTHWICK — A mere 84 votes put the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District (STGRSD) on track to make much-needed repairs to its school buildings.

By a vote of 1,380 to 1,296, Southwick residents approved a Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusion override during the May 8 town elections, allowing the proposed school renovations to take advantage of a previously promised $42 million project reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

The grant now represents more than 60 percent of the projected cost of the school repairs and upgrades.

The total cost of the project — which includes an expansion of the high school to incorporate the middle school and modest renovations to both Powder Mill and Woodland Elementary schools — is slated to be approximately $59 million, based on a revised plan that was presented in a series of town meetings on April 12 and 24 and May 2. The projected cost to Southwick, which is slated to shoulder 47 percent of the project's expense, is expected to be $23.2 million. For the average homeowner, the impact on his or her 2012 taxes is expected to be $209.

Information provided by Town Clerk Michelle Hill indicates 44.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots on this article.

"We're obviously pleased with the result of the ballot," STGRSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jay Barry, said. "It's been a long effort. This brings some closure to that phase of the project and now we can move on."

Barry said the School Department was "very grateful" to several groups, including the Board of Selectmen, the town government and especially, concerned citizens, for ensuring the debt exclusion passed this time around.

"The parents and community members who formed the advocacy group for this project did an outstanding job and made a very big difference," he said. "They made a very big contribution to the final approval."

Barry said the next step in the project is to take the rough schematic designs — all that was required by the MSBA to apply for grant funding — and turn them in to actual construction documents that can be used for the bidding process to hire a contractor.

James Vincent, a member of the STGRSD Building Committee, said that the committee plans to meet shortly with Project Manager Jonathan Winikur of Strategic Building Solutions, and architects from JCJ Architecture Firm to move this design process forward.

He said the committee expects to "break ground with the two additions to the high school in 2013."