By Janet Stoica

Where have all the Webster voters gone?  That is, the voters who want to see the state pay over half of the town’s high school building repairs. 

  For six years, the town has submitted paperwork to the Massachusetts School Building Association (MSBA) and has been resoundingly rejected. This year, however, the MSBA has finally approved over a 50% reimbursement rate for Webster to repair and replace failing infrastructure at Bartlett High School. However, at the May ballot box and town meeting, Webster voters have rejected this prized Webster share by narrow margins. 

  After the rejections and facing the reality of Webster shouldering 100% of repair costs, Webster’s selectmen and School Committee have voted to bring the MSBA reimbursement issue to the voters once again in June at a Special Town Meeting and Ballot Box vote. 

  Webster voters are strongly encouraged to review the following information provided by Webster’s School Superintendent, Ruthann Goguen, before attending the June 21 Special Town Meeting and Ballot Vote on June 28:

• It is not every day that the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) accepts school communities/districts into their program and then offers them millions of dollars to support a community’s responsibility to address the costs associated with schools facing issues because things have reached the end of their functioning life expectancy.

• 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. (Directly from their website). So these funds came from Webster residents and it would be great to see them being put to good use for our community.

• The MSBA has committed to give the community of Webster $51-$53 million dollars toward the renovation of Bartlett ONLY if the community supports the $101,417,044 proposed renovation of Bartlett High School at the BOTH the Special Town Meeting on June 21st at 6:30 p.m. (at Bartlett) and Ballot Vote 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Town Hall.)  If this project is supported the community’s portion of this project would be an estimated $49 million dollars over 30 years. 

• Bartlett High School was built in 1979 and no longer meets code or state standards for educational spaces. Building components that have significant deficiencies, simply because of their age. It is important to note, MSBA gave the district extra points for maintenance, but things such as the roof, windows, HVAC and boiler system are so old they can no longer be repaired they need to be replaced. There are also issues with classrooms not meeting state standard sizes and building wide ADA issues. 

• For all of these reasons, Webster was accepted into the MSBA program in 2018.  It is important to note it took 6 attempts to get into this highly competitive program. We have worked with the MSBA since 2018 through the Eligibility Phase, Preliminary Design Phase, Schematic Design Phase and now we are at the Funding Phase.  This funding is only guaranteed until June 30th.  Should the community not support both upcoming votes, the Webster School District loses the MSBA grant.  

• It is important to note that if this project is not supported at both the upcoming votes, June 21st Special Town Meeting and Ballot Vote June 28th, the MSBA grant goes away. 

• The capital improvements and bringing the school up to the code only option is estimated to be $66 million dollars that the town would be 100% responsible for. 

• If the community supports this proposed project at both upcoming votes, they receive the MSBA grant, and a renovated, code compliant school that was designed with 21st century teaching and learning in mind.  We believe this renovation will reduce school choice money as we pay for students who choose to attend a different high school.  

• In short, the community has the opportunity to access the MSBA grant of $51-$53 million to assist with the major system replacements and update the learning environments through a renovation of Bartlett High School. This would cost the community approximately $49 million over 30 years. 

• If the community does not vote to support the proposed project, the issues with the building are not going away.  It is estimated to be $66 million to bring the building up to code and these costs would be borne entirely by taxpayers. The $66 million cost is based upon a one-time current borrowing; in the event that the code only option is spread out over several different borrowings, the estimated cost to the town drastically increases beyond the $66 million. 

• Support of the project is a community wide commitment to the future generation of students in the Town of Webster, and the ability for these students to utilize current technology and learning systems throughout their high school years.

• Other communities, including several other local communities, have started the process that Webster began eight years ago. Non-support of the project at the upcoming votes will place Webster behind these communities in any future grant request to the MSBA.

More information on this proposed project can be found https://www.webster-schools.org/domain/1891

Contact Janet:  [email protected]