A few feet inside the glass doors at the front of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS), white-tiled floors and cement-brick walls have held generations of Island learners over the decades. But mostly hidden in boiler rooms and under layers of floorboards, there’s a different story: asbestos, leaking pipes, mold, and out-of-date mechanical systems.
The high school building, located in Oak Bluffs on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, has been the hub of education for most Island students since 1959. Some of their facilities have been renovated since then, but the building has never seen a complete rebuild and repair. Issues have been covered up with carpeting, cement, and short-term fixes.
Just yesterday, custodians pointed to a missing ceiling tile and hanging vent in a storage room, which they say was the result of a small repair after the room flooded. The room has since been cleaned, the leak dealt with, and the functionality changed from storage to a copy room.
“If you’ve been in the building, you understand that it’s in disrepair,” said Sally Rizzo, a Tisbury resident and member of the high school building committee.
A plan by public school officials to renovate the school has been on the table for nearly a decade, but the final push for the project will very likely be heading to town meeting voters in the spring. According to the most recent estimate, the total project will cost about $334.5 million dollars, although officials say that number will fluctuate as construction moves forward. But whatever changes occur, the price tag will likely make this project the most costly in the Island’s history.
In recent months, there has been some pushback from officials in at least one town, due to the financial burden. However, those familiar with the current conditions of the school say waiting to rebuild simply puts off the inevitable.
“We cannot afford to miss this opportunity,” said Sam Hart, the district administrator who is overseeing the building project, noting that significant state funding is on the line.
The Times recently took a tour of the building to get a look at why school officials are pushing for this project and as it moves closer to landing before voters.
In many back rooms, the smell of mold is heavy, damp, and wafting through the rafters. Some career and technical education (CTE) classrooms are modern-looking (such as the culinary program’s), and are far larger than the tables and chairs could fill. But on the flip side, other classrooms for subjects like math and English are so cramped that desks are shoved close to one another. Other CTE programs, such as the trades and horticulture, are far below state standards, according to school officials and custodians.
The asbestos, while not visible to the naked eye, is reportedly present in the older part of the school, under a protective cover with flooring on top. But there are two potential problems with not removing it completely: If a floor tile cracks, the asbestos could eventually creep up; if there’s a leak or flooding, the water damage could expose it. Both of these situations have occurred within the past five years, which officials say is a safety concern.
“The pipes are so old that they expand and constrict at the joints,” Sara Dingledy, former principal of the high school, said in a public meeting over the summer. “Ones that did leak recently leaked where there was asbestos under the floor.”
In boiler rooms, pipes (some of which go back to 1959) have visible cracks coated with sealant. In the electrical room, six-foot-tall Wi-Fi systems have colorful wires streaming out of various ports. Air conditioning units are in a few classrooms and the library, but there is no central air. The layout is cobbled together, proof of multiple renovations and times when school officials had to put a Band-Aid on existing problems.
According to reports, most classroom sizes are below the state-regulated standards for learning, and the presence of mold in the building has given those familiar with the health risks pause.
“As the population changes and the needs of the students change, there needs to be a different way to set up a building that is consistent and contiguous for learning and sharing space,” Rizzo said. “Education is evolving and students are learning very differently than they did, say, in [1994], when the last renovation was done.”
The new plan
In multiple meetings over recent months, these shortcomings were discussed as officials are gearing up for the next steps of the project. As of now, the chosen design — created by Tappé Architects, a Boston-based firm — will be an addition and renovation.
Over the past several months, the school committee picked the addition-renovation out of about 20 possible designs because of a few factors: The gym and performing arts center, which were part of the 1994 renovation, will remain intact; the students would be moved to one-half of the building while other half is built, rescinding the need for an external or mobile classroom of any kind; and officials say it’s more sustainable — less carbon will be used in the building process overall.
According to members of the high school building committee, which includes town and school officials, one intention in the new plan is for hallways to be more uniform. School leaders hope to streamline the layout so that new students can focus on their studies rather than navigating the maze of winding halls.
There are uphill and downhill slants throughout hallways across the expanse of the school currently. As a result, accessibility has been a major challenge. Right now, there are 160,000 square feet spread over the sole floor. To combat some of the accessibility concerns, the new plan comes in at just under 200,000 square feet, and will be two stories tall, with elevators for easier access.
“One thing we really want this project to do: We want to be a part of the sustainability efforts that are already happening on the Island,” said Chris Sharkey, from Tappé Architects, the group assigned to design the new MVRHS building, in a recent meeting.
Sharkey explained their plans to shift energy consumption and build an all-electric school — one that would lead a charge on the Island for a more sustainable building option, and would ensure that the boiler rooms and lack of central air would never be an issue again.
Regionality and funding
School officials celebrated their approval by the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s (MSBA) reimbursement program in 2022 after seven failed attempts to gain entry.
The significance of the overall approval by MSBA is both in standard requirements — it has helped similar building projects across the state meet certain guidelines, such as classroom square footage that varies from subject to subject — and in the reimbursement of some funds to build the school itself.
The MSBA is a quasi-independent government authority created specifically to help fund capital improvement projects. Acceptance by the program often relieves millions of dollars from local taxpayer responsibility.
Now that funding for the entire building project is expected to be on town warrants this coming spring, the concern that some voters believe the project could be too expensive has worried school officials who have worked to push this through. They say the issues will have to be addressed at some point in time, and argue that the project will still need to proceed, but they won’t have an estimated 38 percent reimbursement from the MSBA if any towns vote it down.
“[The MSBA] wanted to know that if they invite us into this process, that all six towns could come together on a funding agreement that would be accepted by the Island and have this project go through,” Superintendent of Schools Richie Smith said. “We just so happen to have multiple districts — and therefore multiple towns — that need to be part of this and support this project, per the regional agreement.”
Tisbury Select Board officials have previously spoken out against the building project, citing the cost of the Tisbury School renovation and the issue of affordability for a multi-hundred-million dollar project on the taxpayer. In other words, they’ll be paying for two large school projects at the same time.
The formula used for capital projects is based on town population and the number of students from each town who are attending the school. It was approved by all six towns in 2021. In both calculations, the down-Island towns, which includes Tisbury, rank the highest, and as a result, those towns will pay a higher share toward the project.
According to Roy Cutrer, a Tisbury Select Board member, the vote is up to the residents themselves. He said he’s personally in support of the project.
“I believe that sometimes we have to think as an Island, and not as a town,” Cutrer said.
Lessons from recent renovations
The Tisbury School renovation, which was eventually denied MSBA approval and ended up costing millions more than originally intended, has served as a learning experience for those familiar with the process.
“When we sought MSBA support for the Tisbury School, we understated the problems in the building, and sort of left it for people to assume that a 1929 building had a lot of problems,” said Amy Houghton, former member of the Tisbury School committee and current chair of the All-Island School Committee.
Houghton said the Tisbury School was at a critical point: The mold was causing health issues with students, chipping paint may have contained lead, and families regularly raised concerns. But the project lost MSBA reimbursement funding because of delays and lack of a full analysis of the problems the school faced, and the cost to the taxpayer was substantial as a result.
According to Houghton, the high school staff and students have seen similar issues, like mold and health concerns, arise. She added that she hopes the problems in the school won’t be downplayed again.
“You could probably find a few teachers who say they’ve left the [high] school because of how unhealthy it is in there,” Houghton said. “[Builders are] repairing and replacing floors in the same classrooms over and over again, because of leaks. I think it’s really critical for people to understand that the building is really not in good shape.”
The point many school and town officials returned to after discussion about the school building, in interviews and meetings, was often the overall health of the students and teachers: Mold, lack of central air, and asbestos all pose threats to students’ and teachers’ wellbeing.
“I think we’re cutting ourselves short in terms of the young people on this Island,” Rizzo said. “I mean, we have an opportunity to make a generational impact and have a positive impact on the future of this Island by having better-educated, better-informed, and higher-quality programs.”
Note of caution:
The existing HS is in disrepair because when they did the big expansion in the mid 90’s they never increased their custodial staff or their physical plant maintenance budget. The result was an early failure on the building. The same thing will happen with the $300mm project we are about to embark on.
Who in Gods name did the electrical BUT more importantly, who was the “inspector “?
As an electrician, retired, none of the work photos show is NEC Code compliant.
MVRH should be ashamed and heads should roll!!
Why do municipalities wait until their buildings are in such terrible shape. Why don’t they keep them up?
Municipal buildings often fall into terrible shape not because officials don’t care, but because of how local government works. Budgets are always tight, and essential services like police, fire, schools, and roads take priority. Routine maintenance is easy to push off because the problems build slowly and the benefits of upkeep are invisible — no one praises a roof that doesn’t leak. Politically, it is far easier to delay repairs and spend on visible projects residents can immediately see and appreciate, like new parks or fresh pavement.
Election cycles make the problem worse. Leaders serve short terms and want projects that pay off quickly. Preventive maintenance is long-term, so it rarely wins votes. On top of that, big repairs often require borrowing, bond issues, or grants, all of which are complicated, controversial, and slow. Meanwhile, the public often resists spending money on “government buildings,” viewing them as bureaucratic overhead rather than community assets.
The result is predictable: maintenance gets deferred, buildings slowly decline, and costs multiply. By the time officials finally act, the problems are too big to ignore and far more expensive to fix.
Hard to believe that an All Electric School is on the table without a feasibility study…
200,000 sq feet to be heated and Cooled …All Electric…. questionable..
Heat pumps are used to heat and air condition buildings. That is the currently available most efficient heating system. Using the ground (vs air ) is even more efficient but comes with additional installation costs.
How is it possible that there is asbestos still in the high school?
When I was there in the late 1970s, the students went to the Tisbury elementary school evenings while a crew safely removed the asbestos and cleaned the entire building.
Which means that they did NOT do their job but were paid for the job being completed.
On the table for a decade, beyond disgrace. Can we do tours of ancademic and fundraisers where the summer money is flying around ? The drama of high end clothing lines, chest pumping of pride on heritage to generate revenue that leaves before it is counted… Same old song and dance. Hey let’s fund a trip to Europe for kids who never had a job ? Love those practice fields too, 6 years ?
School Boards who rely on taxpayer funding never do things correctly because there is no incentive. Someone will Pay. The taxpayer has to step up. This the way government and quasi governmental agencies function. Now MV residents will have to pony up big bucks to pay for a new school which will have cost overruns anyway. Tragic and sad.
Are our children being exposed to mold and asbestos while attending the school? If so, that will represent a colossal failure at so many levels. I was unable to ascertain from the article if these contaminants are sequestered in areas the students do not venture into or if they are wafting into the building. Eager for clarification.
I nose slide the hand rail during second period once. Nice to see the young adults get to use the courtyard.
It’s not “summer people” with money that will fix this: it’s called a PUBLIC school, funded by all you who are taxpayers. What it points to is: sloth, dispassion, utter indifference on the part of every year-rounder on that spit of land called Martha’s Vineyard. You all failed…miserably.
The main building was built in the 1950’s, then an addition in the ’80s, and another addition in the 1990’s. The latest addition is over 30 years old. I just can’t understand why they are doing another addition/renovation. You will now have 4 different parts of the school built at different times. You can try to maintain all you want but the systems that were built in the ’50s won’t interact with the systems of the 2025s. Build a new building already. It will be short money over the lifespan of the building vs what will happen with this ad/reno. One last thing, it was brought to our attention 10 years ago that the fields, and most importantly the track, need replacing ASAP, why is that not on the table now? The track team will soon be without a home, it has been reported that no more resurfacing can be done. You want to add a 2% tax on something, and not a housing bank, this would be your best outcome, invest in our children and community. This facility is used by everyone at one point or another.
Tear it all down and build back better?
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