Public input begins on high school project

Attendees also asked whether a middle school could be added to the campus.

4
The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.

Community listening sessions are underway for Vineyarders to share their thoughts on a project that could remake one of the Island’s most important buildings.

The project to redesign the 64-year-old Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS), which also hosts the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center, could involve a renovation or complete rebuild. All Vineyard towns will help fund the effort.

The Vineyard Haven library hosted the first of seven outreach sessions on Tuesday morning, where members of Tappé Architects and CHA Consultants — two companies working on the project — fielded the hopes and concerns of Island residents and officials. Project members are holding the sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday at Vineyard libraries and the high school, in what they said is a key part of the visioning phase.

The school’s “Building Tomorrow Together” webpage states that several schematic designs are expected to be ready by November or December, prior to next spring’s town meeting season.

Almost all attendees at the Tuesday morning meeting were current or former public officials, and the project is looking to hear more from the general public. Questions and concerns raised during the community listening sessions will be brought back to the MVRHS building committee.

Multiple officials showed up to advocate for eco- and health-conscious design. “First of all, the building should be net-zero, very efficient,” said Louisa Clough, attending on behalf of the Tisbury climate committee. Solar panels were also on the wishlist. “The building should be at least solar-ready. And if putting a solar array on the roof doesn’t make sense … you could put solar arrays on the playing fields, the edges of fields,” Clough said.

Ben Robinson, a Tisbury planning board member and Martha’s Vineyard commissioner, raised concerns about building materials. Robinson specifically cautioned against using synthetic rubbers and vinyl, citing health concerns.

“This is probably my highest concern,” he said. “We see increases in autism, increases in cancer, increases in autoimmune diseases — these are real things that are being driven by the materials that we are surrounding ourselves with.”

Using better materials, Robinson said, would be pricier. “[We have to] really challenge ourselves to accept the responsibility and the cost, and accept that doing it safely is going to be a little more expensive than doing it cheaply,” he said.

He also argued for getting the most out of the school’s existing structures. “The other thing in the building world and the design world now is acceptance that we have to do more with what exists, right?” he asked. “We can’t just tear things down and build up new stuff, because the material impact of that is contributing to wrecking our planet.”

Resident Frederick Rundlet came to the meeting to advocate for adding a middle school to the high school campus. “You would immediately free up 25 percent of the space in the elementary schools,” he said.

Rundlet added that he has long heard support for the idea, with one caveat. “I’ve been here for 76 years. In my talking with students at the various elementary schools, especially in talking with teachers, nobody’s saying no. Everybody’s saying yes. But then there’s the word that gets stuck with everybody. And that’s called regionalization,” he said.

“We’re about to spend a bunch more money, and I’m just saying, respectfully, I think there should be a serious discussion about it,” he added.

Multiple officials also wondered how the building could increase its usefulness for the community at large. Attendees asked whether the school could be used as a shelter in the event of an emergency.

Robinson noted that the high school is near the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services campus, as well as the Martha’s Vineyard YMCA. Installing a microgrid for the school and nearby buildings, he said, would offer energy resiliency in the event of a power outage.

Clough also asked whether the school district’s electric buses could be used to power the building during an outage.

School committee member Mike Watts asked project members whether the high school’s spaces could better accommodate programs for locals. “And whether that’s kitchen space because of the culinary arts program, or Performing Arts Center, [I’m] thinking about the building in its holistic sense,” Watts said.

He added that the high school is seeing more and more requests from groups to use its spaces. “The requests [for usage] are increasing every year, and they’re bigger … particularly in the summer, but even in the off-season, because we’re kind of the only big show in town.”

The student experience also came up at the meeting. Robinson was concerned about how long it currently takes students to travel from class to class.

“Timing between classes is really tight,” he said. “The students don’t utilize lockers, because they just don’t have the time to go to the locker and back.”

“There are classrooms that have no windows,” he added of the current school.

Discussing towns funding the project, Robinson also noted Tisbury-specific concerns. The down-Island town is currently wrapping up a $82 million renovation on the Tisbury School.

“A Tisbury issue is that we have now taken on all this debt … The tradeoff of adding, now, more debt is, ‘What are we getting out of that?’” he said.

“I think the question is really going to be ‘How much debt can Tisbury take on?’ … ‘How does that match up with what the high school project is going to cost?’” he asked.

Project members also acknowledged the importance of communicating with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission regional planning agency before upcoming annual town meetings. “I think getting the commission’s buy-in before any town meeting would be huge,” said Mike Owen of CHA Consulting.

Chris Blessen, principal at Tappé Architects, also acknowledged a need to reach out to specific communities, such as the senior and Portuguese-speaking populations.

At the end of the first of the seven community meetings, project members had some concerns about community engagement, stating that they would like to have significant community input before town meetings.

“I think the last thing we want to do is force [that] the only time that someone would feel like they’re being heard is on the town meeting floor, which is an intimidating moment,” Blessen said.

“And [that’s] also late in the game,” added Tony Peak, former Tisbury planning board member.

Watts noted that some residents may only speak up when a price tag is attached to the project. “People may or may not engage until there’s a number on the table, and then they’re really engaged,” he said.

On July 16 at 5 pm, the Oak Bluffs library will host an hourlong community listening session. On July 17, sessions will be held at 3 pm at the West Tisbury library, 5 pm at the Edgartown library, and 7 pm at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

Project members also passed around a survey for Vineyarders to comment on the project. Access it at bit.ly/MVRHS_Survey.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Unfortunately, your reporter missed my primary point regarding why serious consideration should be given for having a middle or junior high school on the same campus as the high school during this current review process. All educators, teachers and students (7&8) that I know have stated that this concept is the best path forward for students to maximize their respective educational potential. We should commit to do what is best for our students and teachers to ensure a future of value and benefit. (And we must expand more vocational study programs for those that will be caring for us in the future….) In my opinion, ….a better investment for our Island home.

  2. I feel that Ben Robinson should keep his mouth closed about how much money Tisbury tax payers have to pay. It’s because of him and his group of “crusaders” that we lost the NSBA funding for a new less expensive school. In the same breath he’s talking about Tisbury taxpayers, he’s also recommending more environmentally friendly products at a greater cost than traditional materials.

  3. “he’s also recommending more environmentally friendly products at a greater cost than traditional materials.”
    The good stuff costs more, in the short term.
    How long are you going to live?

Comments are closed.