Islanders head to the polls next week to vote on the largest capital project the Island’s ever seen. And despite the high cost, The Times believes voters should step up and approve this ambitious $333 million upgrade and renovation plan for a new Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS).
The Times’ Island Writer on health, housing, and education, Sarah Shaw Dawson, has tirelessly covered the climax of the detailed and lengthy process that brings us to this point, including a revealing story last year that exposed disrepair and neglect, and evidence of asbestos and mold inside the school. Dawson’s stories, and a decade of hard work by a team of educators, community leaders, and state officials, offer a convincing body of evidence that this project is necessary.
The ballot question Islanders vote on next week is not actually asking whether we should renovate and upgrade the school or not. That is an unavoidable necessity due to years of deferred maintenance and the natural degrading of the facility over six-plus decades. The question is whether the Island should commit to the entire $333 million project as laid out by school officials who’ve studied what’s needed, and thereby be eligible to receive an up to $75 million reimbursement from the state. That state funding took years to secure, and it would be nothing short of foolish to throw it away or squander years of work by pushing back improvements and not addressing all of the problems prevalent at a place where a majority of young Islanders spend years of their lives. Students, their families, and our educators all deserve better. A complete denial of the project by voters would result in a loss of that state reimbursement, a quandary that Tisbury voters already experienced when they voted down the Tisbury School plan and eventually paid around $30 million more for the project.
What we hope the public understands is that regardless of the vote, the school needs remediation for mold and asbestos and mechanical renovations. And those who have worked on the plan for MVRHS insist that the minimal code upgrades, such as cooling and heating systems that are past service life and need to be replaced, and roof replacement and water damage repair, could cost more than $200 million, which would also be at the Island’s expense.
The MVRHS school building committee has said that even through these code upgrades, many deficiencies, such as general and specialized classrooms below state standards, makeshift classrooms that lack windows, an undersize cafeteria, and outdated science and tech labs, would remain, even after the Island spends more than $200 million.
This is the important moment. The Times and our readers are keenly aware of the crisis in affordability seen all over the country, and the crisis in housing that’s exacerbated here on the Island. We get it that people are wary of the tax increases that come from this project. But the high costs are a product of how bad the conditions are, as well as what’s called the “Island factor,” which means prices for materials are usually around 30 percent higher here than on the mainland. None of these factors is going to change, though. In fact, they’ll likely worsen in the coming years, if the past five years are any indication.
But the larger point is that repairing the school is inevitable. We can’t expect infrastructure built in 1959 to stand up against standards more than 60 years later. The building needs to have security infrastructure, get the fire protection system up to code, and do an electrical overhaul.
Students deserve to work in classrooms that at a minimum meet state standards. And teachers, who care for and shape the minds of young Islanders, deserve to teach in classrooms that don’t have mold.
People are often a product of their environment, and the current environment at the high school isn’t a conducive place to learn, nor to thrive. We have a chance to change that and take the high school from a symbol of deferred maintenance to a shining example of the excellence that is the hallmark of our community. Let’s not miss this chance.
Like so many of us I am a retired senior on a fixed income. I brought up two kids here, and they went to the high school when it++ was still fairly new. Even then, serious maitenance was deferred, delayed or simply not done. I will vote for this new high school and hope against hope that the price of gas (and everything else) will go down and that serious maitenance will be included every year in the MVRHS budget so that future generations will be able to benefit from this investment for many years to come.