As preparations continue for a new high school and public forums about the future of the building are officially underway, one sacrifice down the road will be experienced by the Vineyard’s track team, which will take a hit by the upcoming construction.
In a meeting room at the West Tisbury Library on Thursday night, a few locals made their voices heard, mainly in support of the project. But some expressed concerns that the information presented wasn’t reaching far corners of the community.
The public meeting was the first in a series intended to educate the public about plans for the high school building and spearheaded by the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) Building Committee.
While much of the presentation referenced the steps the committee has taken thus far, such as designing the school through Tappé Architects and navigating Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement funding, there was also a new announcement: the track and field program will take a huge hit during construction of the building.
“We’re going to lose seasons for our track team,” Sam Hart, coordinator of pathways and special projects at MVRHS, said in Thursday’s public forum.
The sport, which begins in the spring, usually sees dozens of signups from students who participate in events such as the high jump, hurdles, and shot put. Since the track itself will be demolished during construction of the high school, the team won’t have anywhere to practice for those years.
But many who attended on Thursday were more concerned with the community benefits for an estimated $334 million project, a portion of which taxpayers will be liable for for the next 30 years. Thus far, the school building committee has mainly highlighted the need for a new building due to mechanical and electrical issues with the current building, along with recurring mold and flooding problems that have posed a health risk to students and teachers.
“I think you need to start off … with what this does for the community,” Kate Warner, an attendee and the former energy planner at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, suggested on Thursday.
Warner and other attendees said there’s a high importance to educating the public about the utility of the building itself, especially since so many Islanders who will help pay for the project don’t have students enrolled in the school. There were also a few calls for more specifics about tax rates, which the school building committee addressed, saying a tax calculator is in the works for their website.
“The whole community uses this building at some point or another,” school building committee member and art teacher at MVRHS Elsbeth Todd said in response.
Todd pointed out that the high school building is used for adult learning courses through Adult and Community Education (ACE) as well as town meetings in the Performing Arts Center.
The cost of the project was a concern of some attendees, but school building committee members noted that high school building projects across the state have skyrocketed in the past few years.
“School construction around the state has increased,” said Sally Rizzo, a school building committee member. “We are at a disadvantage because we’re on an Island. We don’t have a labor force, and we have to bring everyone on.” Rizzo estimated that it’s 30 percent more to build a high school on the Vineyard than anywhere else in the state.
Attendees also asked about transportation and the move from gas-powered to electric buses.
“We don’t know where we’re putting the bus lot,” Hart said in response. “We do know sometime in the near future our buses will be electric.”
There are three meetings scheduled left, each in a different town. Aquinnah residents spoke up about the project at a meeting in November, when the school building committee presented their updated plans for a new school.
How hard would it be to find a flat, level piece of ground where a grass track could be laid out for the track seasons? A few architects, a grader, a surveyor, and a bunch of volunteers, with donated sod, a shed and a lawnmower, and a few portapotties could knock it out in a weekend. Track, and its dedicated participants have a heritage of multi disciplined success at the high school. A dedicated bus, and a note of apology and its done. Just writing off track is lazy. Why isn’t this IN that construction budget?
How much will that cost?
Sad headline. Again, nobody pays attention. Once this option was chosen, this was always going to be the case. This has been known for months and months. And for anyone paying attention to the school, how many years have they been talking about needing a new track? Now you will get one as part of this project. Staging of construction materials has to happen somewhere. This is a multi year project done in stages so the kids don’t have to go into trailers and we the taxpayers don’t throw money out the door with trailers. Tradeoffs need to be made. Don’t do the project and you still need a track. If you want to stage elsewhere, pick the other teams you want to displace for years, Tennis, lacrosse, football, soccer?
Sadly, Patti, it seems the track team is always the one displaced. It has been and continues to be one of the more popular sports for both boys and girls, regardless of ability, as far as I can remember, and it is usually the one displaced, which makes me think it is not valued or that our track team in general is not valued. Why not stage on the other side of Sanderson Road? Perhaps we could actually get the new fields and field house we so desperately need with ADA-compliant bathrooms and locker rooms for visiting teams. It’s ludicrous to think the building committee can come back later and ask for the fields, since there will be no money. The most important thing we need for this high school is GREAT leadership. Money and new buildings cannot build high morale. Sadly, this building is just too expensive, and without leadership, which the high school does not have, we can ill afford to spend on this project, it’s just too expensive.
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