WHITMAN – It’s up to the voters now.
The Whitman Middle School project is one of the 15 articles on the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 30 special Town Meeting at 7:30 p.m., in the Whitman Town Hall auditorium. The $135 million project will now cost the town about $76 million, with the the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) voting on Wednesday morning, Oct. 25 to increase its funding for the project by $14 million — to $59,159,717, according to Building Committee member Kathleen Ottina. The vote lowers the amount the town would pay.
Voters must approve it at both the Town Meeting and a special Town Election held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Town Hall.
School district officials have been holding public informational forums and tours of the Whitman Middle School to demonstrate the need for a new building, with the last one held Saturday, Oct. 21. Beginning in the school’s cafetoruim, the tours included an overview of the MSBA process and determination that “we needed a project,” Building Committee Chair Fred Small said on a Sept. 28 tour [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ti9g2SzvtQ]. Project architects, School Committee and district officials, and former Building Commissioner Bob Curran were on hand to discuss the project.
Videos of the tours are posted on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel for those who were unable to attend one of them.
“We wanted to make sure this got out on cable,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “[There’s] a lot of information here. It’s going to be pretty detailed.”
The video is also posted on the district website whrsd.org.
The district has had a statement of interest for a new middle school before the MSBA since 2018.
Szymaniak became superintendent in February 2018 and former WMS Principal George Ferro was named assistant superintendent in March 2018.
“By July [2018], when we walked into Central Office, one of our first goals was to get an SOI (statement of interest) for this building because we thought five years before there should have been an SOI and it didn’t happen,” Szymaniak said. “In 2014, there was a major mold issue in the [WMS] gymnasium, similar to what we had a couple years back.”
But discussions about getting a new roof never got off the ground, Szymaniak said. He and Ferro decided their first priority was for it to happen this time, knowing it would take a while.
“Given the history I’ve had with the MSBA, you never get it the first time,” he said of acceptance into the project pipeline. “We wrote the statement of interest, they brought it to the core program, who did a site visit out here and the comments were: ‘Oh, my goodness, this building needs to be fixed. Who’s your facilities director?’”
But, Szymaniak said the facilities department has to do a lot without a lot.
“Rubber bands and paper clips,” he said.
The district was invited to Boston in December 2019 and were accepted.
“First time,” he said. “First run. I was there with people sitting next to me who had been [to MSBA] five times. … I’m nervous about having to reapply somewhere in the future because MSBA is very selective.”
Curran outlined how the town would have to fund repairs without MSBA help, if that choice is made, and once repairs reach 30 percent of the building’s value, code upgrades for fire safety – the school predates the first fire code in 1975 – as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act (1991) apply for the entire building and would increase the cost.
“This building has been a problem since I started,” he said, noting he had been building commissioner in town for 24 years. “This building was never built to be accessible. I don’t think they thought about that much back then.”
A slide presentation illustrated architectural and systems deficiencies of the building as well as for amenities that can bolster academics in a new school, such as the need for small, flexible learning spaces to help students catch up after the pandemic.
The forums also delved into the various options considered by the Building Committee and the financial implications of them.
Other articles on the Town Meeting warrant include:
- Appropriate the sum of $1,143,271.15 for a new DPW building and determine whether funds shall be raised by a transfer from excess funds originally raised for other capital projects;
- A $21,400 wing snowplow for the DPW;
- Portable radio replacement [$9,138.65] for the fire department, from the original appropriation for Whitman’s share of resurfacing the WHRSD track;
- Matching funds for a fire department brush truck [$14,090.72] and a $5,554.29 fire training grant also from the track appropriation remainder.
- A $36,459 municipal fiber technology grant from the balance of unexpended funds from the original appropriation to reimburse WHRSD for a chairlift installation at Duval School;
- A $142,793.60 appropriation from the Cable Access account to fund PEG cable access services;
- Acceptance of Little comfort Circle as a public way; and
- A Right to Farm bylaw.