PHILLIPSTON — Members of the Phillipston Memorial Elementary School Renovations Committee were invited to update the public and the town’s Selectboard on their efforts to determine just how much work must be done to bring the school into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, other building codes, and to generally update the more than five-decades-old school.
Before the committee’s presentation, however, Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Flynn presented a letter from Narragansett Regional School District Superintendent Chris Casavant detailing cuts that will likely be made if voters from Templeton and Phillipston once again opt to shave approximately $200,000 from the $19.7 million FY20 budget recommended by the district School Committee.
A third district-wide town meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 22, giving voters the chance to approve the $19.7 million educational budget the school committee describes as “bare bones,” or once again opt for the $19.5 million spending package approved at the first two district-wide meetings.
If the lower figure is adopted, Flynn said, Casavant “is talking about transferring kindergarten and first-grade students from Phillipston’s elementary school to Templeton’s elementary school, and getting rid of some positions here, and the high school principal, and some academic supplies to cut their budget by, according to this (letter), about $304,000.”
Finance Committee Co-Chair Tom Specht told the Selectboard and the Renovation Committee (of which he is also a member) he had just come from the NRSD School Committee meeting and that that panel had again voted to recommend the higher figure to the upcoming town meeting.
Renovation Committee Chair Dan Sanden said, “We were going along pretty well, and then suddenly the superintendent seemed to lose interest in backing (PMES). First, we heard he was going to change the whole configuration of the school – he was going to put just preschool and kindergarten kids over here – and it wouldn’t be a grade school any longer. The next thing we heard was that he had suggested that in order to balance the budget he would close the school. So, know we’re asking ourselves ‘what is going to happen? What are we going to use the school for?”
Sanden said that, regardless of what the building is used for, it will need a new roof. That’s a ‘gimme,’” he said. Sanden also said the committee decided to see what other upgrades need to be considered, particularly if the town will need to borrow money for the roof anyway.
“We hired an architectural firm about a year and a half ago,” said committee member Rick Moulton. “They did a very comprehensive study for us. They reconfigured the building, re-did blueprints. One of the big flies in the ointment, to me, is that we cannot spend more than 30 percent of the assessed value of that building over a 36-month period. The building – and land – was assessed at $1.6 million. That put us at, roughly, about $550,000 we were going to be able to spend before the ADA kicked in. Then, God knows what that will cost.”
Moulton said three quotes on a new roof, depending on the estimated life of the new roof, ranged from $170,000 to $470,000.”
“I don’t want to get into school politics, right now,” Moulton continued, “but Dr. Casavant’s intent has never been to close down Phillipston as a school. It will always be a school.”
The committee seemed to agree it will be difficult to put together definitive plans for PMES with some certainty regarding the future use of the school.
Said committee member Bernie Malouin, “We don’t want to go and put a roof on something we’re going to be ripping apart in five years.”
It was agreed that the Renovation Committee will continue to work on a final report, which will include recommendations regarding what projects for updating the school should take priority. It’s hoped the proposals will be ready for presentation to voters at the 2020 annual town meeting.
