Islanders across the towns are set to vote on the most expensive building project they’ve ever seen next week. A decade of work culminated in a plan for the regional high school building that addresses what school officials say are necessary upgrades and renovations, and is projected to cost more than $300 million.
It is evident through months of interviews over the course of this year while the project was introduced to the public that the expense weighs heavy on the minds of Islanders, who will shoulder a lot of the cost. But the facilities at the school aren’t up to par, and as a decision nears, teachers and students told The Times that they’re increasingly impacted by the conditions of the high school, including reports of adverse health effects.
Island voters head to the polls Tuesday, June 2, in their respective towns, to approve or deny the school committee to authorize the borrowing of $333,490,457 to pay for the costs of designing, constructing, equipping, and furnishing the new school. What hangs in the balance for that vote is an up–to–$75 million reimbursement from the state that took a decade to secure. And if the vote doesn’t go through, some improvements still need to be made, and those would lack a lot of necessary upgrades, and still cost around $200 million.
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) building was constructed in 1959. While some sections of the building, such as the gym and Performing Arts Center (PAC), were renovated in the 1990s, many hallways, classrooms, and career and technical education programs are operating in the same structures as they were decades ago, just with a few new coats of bright blue or purple paint.
The Times conducted a walk-through of the building at the start of this school year and reported on the conditions, which included mold, asbestos, and leaking pipes. Since that report in September, the building is largely unchanged, and recent interviews with teachers who operate there daily have illustrated a concerning picture around health.
“We’re constantly trying to find a balance,” English teacher Galen Brown told The Times as the sound of a fan in front of her classroom drowned out conversation between students. “I’m concerned about the school that my children will be going to. I have a soon-to-be kindergartner, and one right behind her, and I hope that they’re going to get to have a school building that’s made for the 21st century. I went to this high school, and it’s definitely seen its time.”
Inside the school on Tuesday afternoon, a week prior to the vote, the air was humid and heavy. Most classrooms were equipped with a large fan on a chair, which many teachers said they brought in from home. William Brown’s history classroom had heat pumping in, something he said happened often, so he piled books on top of the vents and opened all the windows.
Teachers and students both said their attention and health were often affected by the conditions in the school, and quick-fix solutions, like Brown’s stacks of books, are not enough anymore.
“There’s only so many buckets in the world,” Spencer D’Agostino, the information technology teacher, said of the frequent ceiling leaks.
D’Agostino said the infrastructure of the school is being maintained as much as possible by custodial staff, but the building is simply past its working life. “When you go to fix your deck, the dude that fixes your deck isn’t like, ‘What did you do to the deck? Why is it so broken?’ Because it’s time. Time does things.”
He estimated that the boilers in the high school, and the main heating and cooling mechanism, are likely from the year the structure was built. He questioned with a chuckle, “Whose house even has a boiler?”
Two state education groups came to a similar understanding after assessing the high school. In an evaluation by the New England Association of Colleges and Schools (NEACS), which accredits schools in the region and is a nationally recognized marker of program and facilities functionality, a representative reported that MVRHS has good programs but a below-standard space. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), in its eventual approval of the MVRHS building project for a consequential financial reimbursement of more than $70 million, came to the same conclusion.
“NEACS is saying that the building condition has gotten to such a point where it’s directly impacting education — we’re already there,” D’Agostino said. He added that the school’s academic accreditation is not at risk because of the state of the school building.
Teachers and school committee members have also often pointed out that the high school building is a shared resource. There are often events at the PAC, like plays, concerts, and annual town meetings, plus nightly adult education courses in classrooms.
Despite below-standard building conditions, and as the heat steadily surges in classrooms, studies at MVRHS continue. Graduation is just around the corner for seniors, and underclassmen are lamenting the extra days they’ll have to spend at school due to the winter storms that kept them home this year.
But the temperatures are so unavoidable that conversation about the conditions is commonplace in the halls, and even within lesson plans. One science teacher, Anna Cotton, decided to incorporate air quality and other environmental issues into a physics lesson recently.
When one component of a building is deficient, the entire system can crumble, Cotton taught her students. An example she used to drive this lesson home was the boiler room at the high school, which is visibly moldy, old, and functioning below capacity for the 160,000-square-foot school. She added that the air quality is affected by it.
“There’s been a lot of concerns about mold and asbestos. I think mold has been an issue for a long time, especially with the roof leaking,” Cotton said. She explained to The Times that her rooms are larger and have more cross-ventilation than other departments, but the health and safety factor is still a concern.
Along with her students, Cotton said she’s “really concerned, consistently, with air quality.”
Students in Cotton’s class learned about the efficiency of air circulation through a tour of the boiler room. “You can see it’s a pretty antiquated system, as far as moving heat around,” Cotton recalled. This causes an unequal distribution of heat, and energy inefficiencies, a phenomenon that students and teachers experience in real time every day.
But according to staff, no other department has seen that as clearly as the math wing. Melissa Braillard, a math teacher, said one year, when she came back for the summer, her “entire classroom — walls, chairs, desks, everything — was covered in black mold.”
In addition, multiple teachers mentioned to The Times that a colleague left the school because of health issues, although for the sake of their privacy, they requested anonymity for the former educator. Braillard said she often experiences migraines, but can’t pinpoint the cause of them.
For years, people working and learning in the school have experienced unknown symptoms — health concerns that many said they couldn’t assign to the mold in the building, but that have given them reason to be wary. Headaches, stuffy noses, and even compounded symptoms from increased time spent in the building were all cited to The Times during Tuesday’s visit.
Even the students who will see only the construction of a new building if the project is approved, and will not be able to use the upgraded facilities, were adamant that the mold and asbestos must be remedied.
Bristol Roten, a sophomore, said when she was participating in the school plays and spending more time in the building, she was more frequently sick. “The more time I spent [at rehearsals], the more I was sick,” she said.
“When I come into school, I find it harder to not stay uncongested or stuffy. I’ve gotten sick, I think, three times in the past year, and I’ve never gotten that sick before,” Roten told The Times as she waved a light blue fan in front of her face to cool down.
Roten and her friend sophomore Lacey Leonard said they frequently worry about the mold and asbestos in the school. “In my home room, there’s a giant hole in the floor,” Roten said. “There’s a lot of broken tiles all over school.”
There are students, Leonard told The Times, who “can’t focus because of how sick they’re getting, or they can’t focus because of the type of air they’re breathing in.”
“Closing [students] in a room with no windows and locked doors is not how you teach kids,” Roten added.
The project proposal to fix some of these conditions is now in the hands of voters, after a decade of planning by the MVRHS School Building Committee. Members of this committee say that there are very few options if voters don’t pass the project, which would add 34,000 square feet to the layout, include upgraded facilities and mechanical systems, and be a completely sustainable, all-electric build.
The alternative is a minimal code upgrade with mold and asbestos remediation that would cost an estimated $200 million alone, and wouldn’t include some other necessary fixes, such as to below-state-standard classroom sizes.
But if conditions are the immediate concern, the long-term balancing act is the high cost of the project. In the current plan for a renovated school, property owners would see a substantial rise in their taxes over the next 30 years.
In a time of increased affordability issues, including rising gas prices, food, and housing, some Islanders have expressed concerns about the high cost of the project, which for most people increases their tax bill by a few hundred dollars annually. In some towns, like Tisbury, the additional cost will be much higher.
The high cost of the project is due to multiple factors, such as housing and food provisions for workers, the issue of high school buildings costing more across the state, and what contractors call the “Island factor,” which is an estimated 30 percent higher price for materials here versus on the mainland.
The Times went out on the town to find out what voters are feeling regarding the $333.5 million renovation plan — of which they’ll be responsible for more than $250 million, plus an estimated $180 million in interest over 30 years. While passersby on the streets of Island towns expressed they’re on board for educational initiatives, many said the high price tag gave them pause, but added they still support the project.
“I noticed how much more it’s costing our taxes right after we got a reduction for being year-round residents,” Susan Austin, a West Tisbury resident, said as she strolled with her family in downtown Oak Bluffs. “But I have a grandson graduating, I have a son who works there, I have a grandson coming into high school another year; so I think we probably need it.”
Austin said the cost seems “bizarre.” She brought up other building projects that aren’t high schools that have cost much less. “The Island’s changing,” she concluded. “There’s so many people with big, big money coming in, so I think that you have to provide the services for locals, for the kids growing up.”
The Times also interviewed a seasonal resident who spends about four months on the Vineyard — one of the Island homeowners who will be shouldering the primary burden of the project, since more than half of property here is seasonally owned. Under wide oak trees on Main Street in Edgartown, Anthony Giordano said he hopes the project is thoughtfully designed with cost and efficiency in mind. But he’s unable to vote on the project since he’s a registered voter elsewhere. “Taxation without representation,” he said.
“I don’t have children in the school district, but obviously, I pay taxes,” Giordano said. “School systems are very important for the community … I just think about the fight over the turf fields, so how is this going to work out?”
The central point made by most people who spoke with The Times is that the regional high school, with its many parts and history, is missing one component — a safe learning environment. As Cotton taught in her physics lesson, the entire operation can be adversely affected by one issue.
Plus, as teachers and committee members pointed out, about $71 million to $75 million in MSBA reimbursement is on the line. It took educators a decade and seven attempts to get approval and funding from the state, an asset they’re not confident they could get again.
“If this doesn’t pass, the building doesn’t change. There’s currently no ‘plan B,’ and anything we do in the future is going to cost us more, because we won’t get the MSBA rebate,” information technology support teacher Rick Mello said.
Voting locations for the high school building project on June 2, with polls open from 11 am to 7 pm:
West Tisbury: West Tisbury Public Safety Building, 452 State Road
Chilmark: Chilmark Community Center, 520 South Road
Edgartown: Edgartown Town Hall, 70 Main St.
Tisbury: Emergency Services Facility, 215 Spring St.
Aquinnah: Aquinnah Town Hall, 955 State Road
Oak Bluffs: Oak Bluffs library, 56R School St.
Additional voting information:
- Vote-by-mail is not available for this election.
- Absentee ballots are available for eligible voters who will not be present on Election Day.
- The deadline to submit an absentee ballot application was May 26 at 5 pm.
- In-person absentee voting is available through Monday, June 1 at 12 pm.
- Community Info Session in West Tisbury: Thursday, May 28, 4:30 to 5:30 pm at the West Tisbury library
- MVRHS Building Tour: Saturday, May 30, 3 to 4 pm
How did it get so dilapidated? What will prevent a new school from the same lack of care of decades? The MSBA states if the school met the academic standards at the time it was built, you can refurbish only without expanding. Also, each year, a school can get up to $1 million for a project, example, HVAC replacement. Why were small projects not done over the last 20+ years. Seems people complain about the condition of the building, yet, it was allowed to deteriorate. Of course people say if we don’t do it and get State help, we will end up doing it ourselves. If it was a refurbish only, the cost would be much lower. Of course, common sense is not so common.