Town prepares for MSBA feasibility study on East Longmeadow High School

Feb. 12, 2020 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

ELHS.
Photo Credit: Town of East Longmeadow

EAST LONGMEADOW – In early December 2019, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) announced that after six years of applying for funding from the MSBA for the East Longmeadow High School (ELHS), the school was granted favorable action to enter into the MSBA’s eligibility period. This year could prove to be the start of a long process and partnership with the MSBA for East Longmeadow. Reminder Publishing took a look at how the MSBA works, the next steps for the district, how community readiness will be factored and how a potential new high school will affect taxpayers.

For years, the East Longmeadow School Committee along with the superintendent have been submitting a statement of interest (SOI) to the MSBA, inquiring about entering into the eligibility period in pursuit of funding for a new High School.

The MSBA’s mission, as listed on their website, states, “Partner with Massachusetts communities to support the design and construction of educationally appropriate, flexible, sustainable, and cost–effective public school facilities.” They have labeled themselves as a “quasi–independent government authority” that was created to reform the process of funding capital improvement projects in Massachusetts’ public schools.

The MSBA was created in 2004 to replace the former school building assistance program that was administered by the then Department of Education, which is now known as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“The MSBA, which has a dedicated revenue stream of one penny of the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, is collaborating with municipalities to equitably invest in finding the right–sized, most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solutions to create safe, sound and sustainable learning environments,” massschoolbuildings.org reads.

To date, the MSBA has made more than $14.1 billion in reimbursements to cities, towns and regional school districts for their respective school construction projects. They note that the way funding works, is that districts receive payments from the MSBA as costs are incurred. The payments that a district receives are generally funded within 15 days of the district submitting a request through the Pro–Pay system that the MSBA has online.

Their website explains that the MSBA has completed final audits of 1,167 projects, and since their inception, they have participated in over 600 projects state–wide. At this time, there are 99 districts, representing 220 projects.

“Through partnering with districts, we have improved learning facilities for over 600,000 students across the Commonwealth,” the MSBA’s website explains.

The East Longmeadow Public School (ELPS) district has worked with the MSBA in the past, most recently as being involved in the accelerated repair program for two projects at Meadow Brook Elementary School, the first project replacing the windows and doors and the second project replacing the roof.

Aside from the accelerated repair program, another available program the MSBA offers is the model school program, and of course they work on new construction or addition/renovation projects. The ELPS submitted their SOI to the Core Program, which is a competitive grant program that is based on need and urgency.

For those who were applying to the Core Program, the 2019 SOI submission period began on Jan. 4, 2019 and closed on April 12, 2019. During their 2019 submission process, according to the MSBA, there were approximately 61 SOIs submitted by 51 districts for consideration in the Core Program. In order to be invited into the eligibility period, the MSBA Board of Directors must take a vote. From there, the district and the MSBA work to determine solutions to the issues that were identified in the SOI.

On Dec. 11, 2019, the MSBA announced the ELHS was selected to enter the 270–day eligibility period. During the eligibility period, which will begin on June 1 of this year, the MSBA is set to work with the district to determine financial and community readiness to enter the MSBA Capital Pipeline.

Superintendent Gordon Smith told Reminder Publishing when the announcement was made that the School Committee was “excited” to be invited into the eligibility period.

“We are really excited to be one of 11 school districts invited into the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Eligibility Period for a potential comprehensive project at East Longmeadow High School. We have been submitting a statement of interest to the MSBA for the last six years. Each year the district would begin the process of submitting a new statement of interest in January for final submission in April,” he explained. “It is an incredibly competitive process, and the MSBA staff have been incredibly helpful with their support and guidance over that time.”

Smith further shared that the next step for the district is to complete a series of preliminary requirements pertaining to local approval, as well as other requirements that the eligibility period has. These requirements include, but are not limited to: completing the initial compliance certification, providing more information to the MSBA on the educational programming in place at ELHS, providing enrollment projections for future years, giving more specific information on the maintenance and capital planning process in town and the eventual formation of a local school building committee.

Once the eligibility period requirements are completed successfully and on time, the district becomes eligible for an invitation into the feasibility study phase of the MSBA Capital Pipeline. This is subject to a vote of the MSBA Board of Directors.

One of the aspects that the district will be applicable to, is the determination of “community readiness.”

Smith explained that it is his understanding that the MSBA will “assess ‘community readiness’ as we move through the 270–day eligibility period and complete the requirements.”

He further noted that the MSBA is “aware of how well the East Longmeadow Public Schools and the Town of East Longmeadow have partnered with them on the two accelerated repair program projects.” Smith then continued to explain that for both accelerated repair projects, there were “many steps throughout” where the district and the town needed to show readiness “such as signing the Initial Compliance Certification Agreement for an accelerated repair program project, appropriating the funding for the schematic design, eventually appropriating the funding for the full project, and entering into a project funding agreement with the MSBA.”

Smith shared that for the former accelerated repair projects, East Longmeadow qualified for 55 percent of reimbursement for all eligible costs. “The reimbursement process starts with the schematic design and feasibility study phase as long as the Town has appropriated the funding,” Smith said. “This would be the same for a Core Program project.”

“In each of the last six years as we submitted a  statement of interest for East Longmeadow High School to the MSBA Core Program, there needed to be a vote of approval to submit the statement of interest from both the school committee and the town council, or the select board in earlier years. The district and the town have shown their readiness with each of these votes,” Smith said. “This will continue to happen as we work through the different steps of the eligibility period for a potential comprehensive project at ELHS.”  

Though the town has a series of hurdles to go through before there is any potential for financial impact, that hasn’t stopped residents from speculating the financial implications on town social media forums. Town Manager Mary McNally told Reminder Publishing that “the school building issue and the costs related thereto are very far into the future.” She then noted that she would rather not “speculate about [the cost] now.”

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