School chief: Buildings in good shape
ayMR/STiRLMy » The School Committee, meeting via Zoom Tuesday night, discussed the district’s 10-year capital plan in light of a recent request from Ayer to send a letter of inquiry to the state agency that provides funding assistance to school building projects it approves.
When the Ayer Shirley School District launched a major high school renovation and addition project several years ago, for example, the state School Building Authority cut a hefty chunk for the $68 million project. The authority does not reimburse schools for building or upgrading athletic facilities, such as the high school fields.
Basically a bid to secure a place in the queue, Ayer’s request for state assistance calls for replacing roofs, boilers and windows at Page Hilltop Elementary School.
The district’s other elementary school, Lura A. White, is in Shirley. Both buildings are over 50 years old, raising concerns among residents about the need for costly repairs or new buildings in the near future.
A citizen’s group in Ayer, for example, has been working for some time on future plans for a new elementary school and the Select Board at a recent meeting noted that the town should start bankrolling money for it.
There’s been no similar push in Shirley, but the looming specter of building a new elementary school caused controversy when the high school athletic fields project came up. Shirley’s Finance Committee did not support the $7.2 million project proposal, citing, in part, the burden on town taxpayers who might also be asked to pay for a new elementary school within the next 10 years or so.
Although the fields project — now resurgent with a lower, $5.2 million price tag — passed muster at both town meetings and approval in a districtwide vote, it was shelved after Shirley rejected a debt exclusion override to
pay its share of the cost. The same ballot question passed in Ayer. At the School Committee’s request, Shirley voters will be asked again at the upcoming town election May 4.
Superintendent Mary Malone said it would cost an estimated $30,000 to have a professional assessment of the condition of the district’s four school buildings: LAW, Page Hilltop, the high school and the Ayer Shirley Middle School, which is a relatively new building.
The assessment would include mechanical systems such as electricity and plumbing, as well as the structures. She did not recommend spending that money, she said, given that the district paid a hefty sum, not long ago, to have the buildings assessed by the firm Flansburgh & Associates.
The good news is that the buildings were deemed to be in good shape, she said, adding that two new boilers were currently being installed at Page Hilltop and both boilers are functional at LAW. The middle school heating system is fine, too, as is the roof. As for the high school, it’s new, so those items are still under warranty she said.
HVAC systems are functioning properly in all four school buildings, with brand new exhaust fans recently installed at Page Hilltop and Lura White, she said.
Facilities Director Robert Briggs said he’s satisfied with the assessment. “Nothing scares me about any of (the buildings) at this point,” he said. He has a to-do list, but it’s manageable, he added. And the Flansburgh report was more good news. “It showed we’re in good shape, structurally.”
As for why Ayer might want to include a new elementary school in its future plans, committee members who are residents of that town felt it was not “just about the building.”
Malone agreed that might be the case. “I haven’t spoken with anyone in Ayer (about it) but I know there’s a lot of interest,” in submitting the state request, to “start the process” for Page Hilltop, she said. “I’ve heard it’s about the town’s overall infrastructure plan.”
Noting that Ayer doesn’t have “a lot of real estate to work with,” she said planners may be eyeing Page Hilltop’s sprawling footprint as a tool to work with as they map out a landscape for Ayer’s future.
The regional agreement puts each member town in charge of its own elementary school, so the cost of building a new school would be shouldered solely by Ayer, not shared by the district. However, the School Committee does have to sign on when a state request is submitted.
In other business, School Committee Secretary Jonathan Deforge presented a citizen’s petition that had been presented to him earlier and that he had in turn passed along to Ayer and Shirley selectmen.
The petition, initiated by committee member Jim Quinty, was confined to Shirley, where it garnered enough certified signatures for placement on both towns’ annual town meeting warrants, according to rules set out in the regional agreement.
The petition calls for amending a section of the agreement related to incurring debt.
As it stands now, both member towns weigh in – via a districtwide vote – when a major capital project that requires borrowing comes up, such as the high school.
It does not, however, require town meeting votes. Nor does it state in the agreement that each member town must vote, individually, in favor before incurring the debt. And it gives the School Committee authority to act on its own.
The committee, however, for the high school renovation and for the fields project, chose to add its own caveat, tying its borrowing power to passage of debt exclusions in both towns.
But that promise is not codified in the agreement. The amendment seeks to change that scenario, giving the towns more say.
‘Nothing scares me about any of (the buildings) at this point,’ Facilities Director Robert Briggs said. He has a to-do list, but it’s manageable, he added.