by Clarence Fanto - The Berkshire Eagle
LENOX — The school district has passed its first hurdle in its bid for state funds to help finance its high school building project.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority voted on Friday to invite the Lenox school district into an eligibility period to consider state funding support for its potential expansion and renovation project.
The district is one of 22 schools statewide to receive invitations from the MSBA.
Previously, the town’s School Building Committee had been considering a go-it-alone plan for the estimated $30 million new high school science classroom building, as well as air-conditioning for the middle and high school and renovation of high school locker rooms.
To gain a potential financial helping hand from the state, Lenox voters would have to approve at least a “down payment” to design the project at the May annual town meeting.
School Building Committee Chairman Robert Vaughan had outlined a 270-day series of steps the Lenox school district must take in order to get final eligibility for state funding during a meeting on Thursday night.
Those steps include an educational program requirement description, an enrollment projection for Lenox residents, not including school choice students, and other documents.
After the MSBA meeting Friday afternoon, the school district received a letter from the authority indicating that its 270-day timeline does not start until May 1, 2025, to be completed by Jan. 16, 2026. The earliest date that the authority would approve the project scope and state funding support would be July 1, 2027.
"We will need to have discussions to see how this timeline will affect us," Vaughan stated in a message to The Eagle Friday night.
Vaughan also pointed out that Friday’s invitation to take part in the eligibility period is not an invitation to a feasibility study and does not guarantee an invitation to enter the state’s capital funding pipeline.
“But we’re happy to have made it to this phase,” he emphasized. Vaughan and Schools Superintent William Collins voiced hope for a face-to-face meeting with MSBA officials early next month to discuss the eligibility procedures.
Before that, a public Zoom meeting between Lenox school officials and the MSBA is slated for 2 p.m. Wednesday.
“It is our intent to work quickly during the eligibility period in order to perhaps be ready for a town meeting vote in May,” Vaughan said.
He told The Eagle that if all goes well, the MSBA could provide at least 20 to 25 percent of the project’s cost.
At Monday’s televised Lenox School Committee meeting, Collins described the state authority’s willingness to consider the Lenox project as a pleasant surprise.
“It was contrary to every indication that we had,” he said after being advised that the favorable vote was upcoming on Friday. “It was very exciting and unexpected.”
Collins acknowledged that he had thought there was no way Lenox would get a first-phase eligibility green light from the state agency, which typically backs older schools.
“I’ve said multiple times we were looking at a decade before we get picked, based on what was happening at other schools,” the superintendent said.
The proposed design by Caolo & Bieniek Architects of Chicopee includes eight science classrooms in a new 15,000-square foot addition attached to the upstairs west side of the existing high school.
Capital projects for the public school district are funded by the town, subject to taxpayer approval, with potential support from the state.
The original high school building on East Street was completed in 1966, with additions such as the Duffin Theatre auditorium and the library opened in 1998.