EAST LONGMEADOW – East Longmeadow may have a long road ahead before the MSBA approves funding for a new High School, as MSBA CEO Jim MacDonald noted at a tour of the high school and subsequent meeting with the School Committee and local legislators on March 29 – the town of Westfield has applied for funding 12 times, Wakefield has applied 10, and neither towns funding has been approved.

State Sen. Eric Lesser, state Rep.s Brian Ashe and Angelo Puppolo hosted Treasurer Deb Goldberg and members of the Mass. School Building Authority’s (MSBA) staff at the East Longmeadow High School for a tour of the school. Following the tour, the group sat down in a meeting to discuss the process of selection.

“The most important thing that I want to say is that [the MSBA] is not political in any way, shape or form,” Goldberg stated. “I think that’s very critical to understand.”

She continued, “That was why MSBA evolved from School Building Authority, which had a more political overtone to it.”

MacDonald explained his background with the MSBA, stating that not only is he the CEO, but he is the organization’s first Deputy Treasurer. In addition, on a personal note, MacDonald shared he has been the chairman of his Board of Selectmen in Dedham for 25 years.

“I understand from where we are sitting about what it is in the process and what you have to go through, same thing we have gone through,” MacDonald stated.

He continued to share that last year out of over 80 CORE program Statement of Interest’s (SOI) that were submitted, only 12 SOI’s were invited into the program.

“I will tell you so far this year we are struggling again because the need from the communities is outstanding, because they need to sort of do this work on their schools in order to extend the life,” MacDonald said. “It’s sort of like when you’re fixing your roads, there’s different areas that you would go to to extend the life and then at some point you just have to fix it.”

MacDonald explained that the process after the MSBA receives all SOI’s goes like so: they review every project, find out who is a repeat customer and note if any circumstances have changed within their SOI from the last year.  At this point, MacDonald shared that Westfield has applied 12 times and Wakefield 10 and stated, “Believe me, I understand the frustration when people apply multiple times and they don’t get selected.”

Goldberg interjected and explained that the schools that are selected for the program aren’t “their decisions,” they are decisions that are governed by a statute that was written by the legislature.

“What I’m saying to you is, we totally get it. There isn’t anyone here at this table from MSBA or from my office that doesn’t get it. We are handcuffed in a way and we’re trying to be creative in how we can access more resources,” Goldberg said, adding, “My first year I was able to do 26 projects. I’m down to 12. For a mom, for somebody who cares deeply about kids, who sees the interrelationships between our skill–based economy and education of kids, this is very frustrating for me.”

She explained that East Longmeadow has done a great job adapting and that the town is not being penalized for that. Goldberg continued to state that the MSBA wants to work with the town, but they also want the town to understand that each year the SOI is looked at as a new year.

“I will tell you, the greatest day will be, and if I’m not treasurer at that time I will come back, is when I listen to the speeches that say, “oh my god, we went through this for so many years, but here we are cutting the ribbon,” and those days do come, but I could use some financial help for some others in order to make that happen for everyone who deserves it, and there isn’t a kid in this state that doesn’t deserve it,” she said.

Goldberg noted that the MSBA is not going to respond to political pressure as the group formerly did that when it operated as the School Building Authority and the “consequences were terrible.”

MacDonald added, “We understand the parents and the community wanting the best for their kids, and it’s okay if they want to send us a letter and we’ll read it and maybe respond, but I would direct anybody that has any questions about the MSBA to go to our webpage.”

MacDonald encouraged the Committee to “continue to do what you’re doing.” He then encouraged the Committee to maintain the current building and that it would not harm the district’s standing with the MSBA.

As the meeting closed, Lesser thanked the parents, School Committee, Town Council and others for all coming together on this matter. To watch the meeting for yourself, head over to ELCAT’s broadcast at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfmBDt8V6z8