If approved by voters this fall, the additional $26 million in borrowing would, combined with the initial $55 million, push property taxes up by roughly 15 1/2 per cent for the 30-year life of the bonds.
The ballooning costs of construction materials and labor over the past two years have hit the Tisbury School project hard. What had been an estimated $53 million renovation and addition little over a year ago is now pegged — through actual bids from contractors — at nearly $82 million, a 54 per cent rise.
“Influences in the world affect what we do, even on Martha’s Vineyard,” said Michael Owen of Daedalus/CHA, owner’s project manager for the Tisbury School building committee, at an online meeting with the select board Wednesday.
The board agreed to call a special town meeting Sept. 20, to ask voters for a Proposition 2 1/2 override authorizing another $26 million in borrowing on top of the $55 million approved at last year’s annual town meeting.
Select board members discussed setting Oct. 4 for a town election on the debt exclusion, but agreed to wait until their next meeting when town clerk Hillary Conklin can be present.
Inflation, supply chain problems, workforce shortages and complications in logistics all have contributed to blow up the original budget, architect Chris Blessen said, even after his firm Tappé Architects reworked the plan earlier this year to shave $10 million by reducing the administrative addition, choosing some less expensive finishing materials and dropping landscaping, masonry and windows from the project until supplemental funding can be found.
The new, $81,843,284 budget unveiled this week restores the windows and masonry work, but does not include fencing, playground equipment or photovoltaic equipment for the solar-ready roof.
Construction costs and materials represent the lion’s share of the new budget, at $71,221,289.
"We do know factually that steel was the highest increase," Tisbury planning board chair Ben Robinson said.
Architecture and design are next at $4,521,920, followed by a $2.73 million contingency line. Mr. Owen’s company is budgeted for $1,680,230 and $825,000 is earmarked for furnishings and equipment such as telephones, computers and other technology.
The complete budget is posted at tisbury-school-project.com as part of a 20-page report released this week by Daedalus/CHA, which also includes detailed explanations of the circumstances behind the sharp cost increases.
If approved by voters this fall, the additional $26 million in borrowing would, combined with the initial $55 million, push property taxes up by roughly 15 1/2 per cent for the 30-year life of the bonds, Tisbury finance director Jon Snyder said.
That would equal more than $1,000 a year on the town’s median property value of $744,000, Mr. Snyder said.
But the hike would be appreciably steeper if not for Tisbury’s AA+ bond rating, recently reaffirmed by Standard and Poor’s for the eighth or ninth year in a row, town administrator Jay Grande said.
The credit-rating giant also applied Tisbury’s AA+ rating to the school bonds voters authorized last year, Mr. Grande said.
“Honestly, that is great news,” Mr. Grande said. “That means our bond will be well received among the buyers next week, and it means we will get very competitive interest rates.”
Should voters turn the borrowing request down, there’s no clear alternative for Tisbury School, which graduated its first class in 1930 and has been plagued with lead, asbestos and building envelope problems in recent years.
“We have a very sick building. Regardless of what we do, it needs abatement, and it doesn’t meet our overall needs from a programming perspective,” school building committee chair Michael Watts said at Wednesday’s meeting, adding that significant amounts have already been spent on the project.
“If we don’t get the money, we have 10 to 15 million just sunk, gone, and we haven’t solved the problem of our sick building,” Mr. Watts said.
Select board chair Roy Cutrer and recently elected member John Cahill both winced at the enormity of the new total, while board member Larry Gomez was not present at Wednesday’s meeting.
“It’s such a significant number,” Mr. Cahill said. “That’s not chump change for a lot of people in this town, and they’re going to have to carry it for a long time.”
But Mr. Cutrer said moving forward with the borrowing request is in the town’s best interest.
“If I look at the alternative of not having the new Tisbury School and what that means to the community, [and] when I look at what we’ve already spent trying to reach that goal of having a new school for the town of Tisbury … not moving forward is wasting money and wasting millions,” Mr. Cutrer said.
The Tisbury select board meets next on Wednesday, August 3. Board meetings usually are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and agendas are posted on the town website at least 48 hours earlier.
Comments
Why didn't the town approve a
Dan EvansWhy didn't the town approve a new school 4-5 years ago when it was on the table then? There was a significant amount of state finding attached at that point as well if I recall. Now they've lost that, and costs have risen dramatically. I know voters couldn't have predicted that they would rise to this degree back then, but why kick this project down the road the way they did?
This is a huge failure on the
Abby Normal The RockThis is a huge failure on the part of town leadership, or lack there of. A decade ago, the building could have been refurbished and a modular addition added. That was presented to the school committee and was not given any consideration. That was $33 million at the time. It met all education needs. At that time the school committee wanted a shiny new toy in a new area that you could not walk to and would have required all students to ride a bus. The building itself could have been slowly upgraded as well. One year, the roof, the next year HVAC, the next Windows. All paid for the Ma School Building Authority. Again, the school committee wanted none of it.
As a citizen of VH, I am disgusted at this. 56 percent more! Tar and feathering is too good for these folks.
The school is s thin skinned steel structure. It was made to be refurbished. At what point does reality settle in? We are building a school that is about 80 percent larger for what will be a declining school population.
Can you say White Elephant?
You get the leadership you
Norman Normal Oak BluffsYou get the leadership you vote in. And what declining school population? We've heard the Tiz school naysayers say that for years to delay dealing with your school issues, and now you find yourselves where you are.
The school committee has
August BuschThe school committee has champagne taste. Young families won't be able to afford the tax rate on an $800k starter home so this will become seasonal dormitory housing once the school population dries up. Be sure to include this future use in the design. Let the community get something long term from this red herring.
It seems that this town has a
RR VHIt seems that this town has a serious issue with budgeting. One must balance the budget and not continue to raise taxes on homeowners that already have a higher tax rate than most of the other towns on the island. Construction costs have risen but this % is bad planning and poor management. Why does this town have a huge fleet of all sorts of shiny new vehicles? Why are we celebrating the Land Bank taking houses down and properties off off the tax rolls? With costs on the island going up and everyone stressing about the real issues of people being able to live here, there needs to be top notch fiduciary responsibility shown by the town leaders and planners. For years this has been the "lets spend it and tax the residents, including taxing non residents at a higher rate". Its time for everyone involved in the construction planning to sharpen their pencils and take a good look at the school project and its time for voters to demand that department's tighten their belts and make sensible decisions.
"there needs to be top notch
Islander Too Tisbury"there needs to be top notch fiduciary responsibility shown by the town leaders and planners. "
As shown by the local team that built the original Tisbury School. Within the stated budget. Didn't build gym until they had enough money for it. Now the gym is first element to be torn down. Not good enough!
(No place for Town Meeting.) Crazy.
A group of teachers had completely unrealistic ideas for a brand-new school over the Town Well.
Those who questioned this idea were accused of not caring about children's education. Really?
Now we see that fiscal responsibility and realism IS crucial to children's well-being. And that of their parents.
Meanwhile the existing school was neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair.
Accountability?
Time to pare down the design
Tis res VHTime to pare down the design to try and salvage this disaster
"With little fanfare, the
Frank Brunelle Tisbury"With little fanfare, the chairman of the Tisbury selectmen signed a letter to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) on Tuesday, officially withdrawing from the school building process.
The letter marks the formal end of the $46.6 million new school project that failed in the ballot box at the annual town election last month. The town will forfeit some $14 million in state reimbursement money and return to square one on the new school project."
At a price tag of $32 million after state reimbursement the new price is just about $50 million more than it was 4 years ago according to the Gazette article of May 8, 2018. The increase alone is more than it cost to build the hospital. This is an outrageous failure on the part of our leaders and should be rejected.
Eliminate this school and
Mike Allen WTEliminate this school and build a regional school for all 6 towns. How wasteful it is having 5 schools.
How about no. Edgartown does
Mark EdgartownHow about no. Edgartown does just fine with our budget, no need to drag our town into this mess.
Totally agree.
mike SomewhereTotally agree. Regionalization is the only way to keep spiraling taxes and costs in balance. This would also unitize the cost. The schools are public schools and should be majoritively funded by State tax revenues, which I assume comes out of in part from the taxes we pay.
Way back in the day when transportation was not as good I can see the need for individual towns to have individual school systems. That is not the case now.
Smart towns like Edgartown will fight this because they already run their schools well. A regional school system funded by Mass DOE tax share revenues is really the reality here folks. Embrace it - you will see how much better it can be.
I live in Tisbury. I've been
Schools Out TisburyI live in Tisbury. I've been long suffering from it's (cheap) leadership for decades. Our problems didn't arise overnight. Rather they've been the result of decades of neglect. Why would other island towns want to even think about regionalizing with us? We've made our own mess and now expect neighboring towns to bail us out? Laughable.
Makes sense to me.
IMHO TisburyMakes sense to me.
No to a regional K-8 school.
William K EdgartownNo to a regional K-8 school. When the Regional High School has to be rebuilt (soon) Edgartown should take a serious look at having it's own high school.
Check with those who remember
Chris keniston PalmettoCheck with those who remember the ugly fights of the 50's getting the regional. Tisbury was the biggest blocker. This yes is a travesty. West tisbury school round design was dumb as well forced on us at the time. I had three kids in there
While many of the costs have
Christine SengeWhile many of the costs have been affected by the supply chain, worker shortage issues, etc., these factors are not a factor in the exorbitant architect’s fee.
The architect's fee probably
RR VHThe architect's fee probably is the least of it, although, if it is a % of construction deal the architects will be making a significant amount more. Costs have risen in the construction industry but not by 53%. I wonder how the original cost estimates were done and by whom, what contingency they had for unexpected conditions. Certainly the building was available for probes, etc. to determine most of the conditions that would affect construction. It sounds as if the initial budgeting and planning process was faulty at some point but this project is where it is now so it is time for a strict plan review by the architects, engineers and town - with some serious value engineering and confirmation of scope. They really have not even started this project so I would anticipate needing more funds by the time this is completed if there is not an appropriate contingency being carried. The town needs to look carefully at the terms of the bond issue for this too - what that does long term and what the payback truly is.
I live in VH with young
Jessica Vineyard HavenI live in VH with young children who are supposed to go to the school soon. I love that they could easily walk or bike when a little older. I like that the school reminds me of the one I attended growing up, and I love that every teacher I have met who works there seems to love it, despite the obvious building issues. To those who think we should have one school I completely disagree. Kids would spend so long on busses and it eliminates the neighborly friends and feel you get from a closer school.
It is hard to live here, we struggle and the town has made more and more hoops to rent our house or a room. We are the only town with a permit (that costs $$$) and the highest taxes possible on rentals. Now our taxes are going up because of the school, and this seems to be never ending. I don’t believe the town has any data that school enrollment will go down in the near future, but at this rate people are going to start leaving. If we knew what we know now I would have bought in any other town.
Alas we didn’t, and are quite stuck. Another $1,000 a year is not trivial to many of us. I hope the vote passes so we haven’t wasted another 10 million but I also fear it will not fly. Tisbury has become the island disgrace.
The leadership of Tisbury was
Louis Hall Tisbury Year Round ResidentThe leadership of Tisbury was negligent and showed how little they care for Tisbury students. It was a sad day for our town and particularly our children when the school lost by 20 votes. It should've been a recount. When the select-people wrote the article in the paper saying they were against the new school they invited this monetary carnage, they took advantage of their own power and that decision will cost us dearly for decades to come. They shamefully led the townspeople to believe that it was a great idea to throw out a $20 Million grant and folks bought into it. All of those arguing against our school because of their fixed incomes can also be thrown into the mix of being blamed for this shameful situation. You all looked the gift horse in the mouth and it backfired significantly. What we would've paid vs what we will pay now is staggering. No one blinked an eye at the nearly $8 Million emergency building across the street, which is obviously important, but cheap out on our children's school that would've been approximately 2x the price (when applying the SMBA grant funds) and services the young people that we want to keep on this island. I can only hope that island residents don't make the same mistake when the towns go to vote for the MVHRS building and that they elect their town leaders wisely.
I completely agree with the above statement that we should regionalize our schools. Our Elementary schools need more space and the best way to handle it would be a regionalized middle school that is built on the MVRHS property. We would have the power then to vertically align curriculum so that when our middle school students enter into the high school they are all on the same footing and prepared for the rigorous high school life.
"Our Elementary schools need
Islander Too"Our Elementary schools need more space and the best way to handle it would be a regionalize middle school that is built on the MVRHS property. We would have the power then to vertically align curriculum so that when our middle school students enter into the high school they are all on the same footing and prepared for the rigorous high school life. "
I agree.
This entire situation makes
John Aldeborgh EdgartownThis entire situation makes no sense. Tisbury is one of the wealthiest towns in the state, real estate taxes are high, there are a significant percentages of the population that are either summer people or empty nesters (that pay taxes but don’t use the school system). Given these facts how is it possible we’re in this situation and/or need to spend $83M on an school that doesn’t even include high school.
My family has lived (mixture of seasonal and year round) on the island since the 1930’s. I get it, we’re an island and that there is a “Vineyard Tax” as a result but with all the smart progressive people involved, this is the best we can do? If I lived in Tisbury I’d vote no to this budget request, in part because next year they’ll likely be asking for another $25M. Change in leadership is needed before confidence is restored. It’s difficult to believe this new budget won’t see change orders and overages. A not unsurprising 10% overage would be an additional $8.2M, big money for a small town.
This nonsense about Island
Jamie Oak Bluffs/WellesleyThis nonsense about Island towns having high real estate taxes has to stop. Island towns have some of the lowest tax rates of the 354 towns and cities in the Commonwealth. That's a fact. A high whine rate is more accurate.
82 million would be enough to
David Damroth Chilmark82 million would be enough to buy a nice piece of land and build a REGIONAL school.
Just a thought for those
OB ResJust a thought for those saying a regional elementary school is the answer what if Vineyard Haven Students(and teachers) where relocated to other schools and VH covered the costs.
Relaxation doesn’t work. All
Louis hall TisburyRelaxation doesn’t work. All of the elementary schools are already bursting at seems with students. Too many grade levels in small schools is the issue. With todays necessity for one on one, small group learning, electives etc etc schools require more room to service students according to state standards. Spreading students out to other schools experiencing the same issues wont solve the problem. That also would create an issue for bussing. Regionalization makes sense. Spreading out wouldn’t work.
No one is to blame for the
Ken Edg.No one is to blame for the state the economy is in. Just do the best you can is all that can be expected. Not a good environment to build anything right now.
This is all Seriously
Janet TisburyThis is all Seriously disappointing. April 18 2018 right before the towns vote for the new school project, a letter went into the times with many falsehoods. Signed by 14 members of our community, some who served on different boards. They told a false tale of cheaper less expensive ways to renovate and add onto our school, instead of building new. Well back then, all of four years ago , it was going to cost us approx 33 million for a NEW school now it’s approx 82 million for addition and renovations. I’m a little miffed perhaps apologies are in order from the “14”
They are good people but sadly they misled our town with unsubstantiated facts and now look where we are !!
One must not forget we had an opportunity to go back after the NO vote and take a few months to try and decrease the 33 million dollar bill. our select board at the time told the MSBA sorry we don’t want your money. The end. So disappointing
A heartfelt thanks to the
Rational Person Oak BluffsA heartfelt thanks to the failure of VH leadership. Only a decade or two ago OB was a hot mess and now look at us. New downtown streetscape, popular North Bluff beach and fishing pier and leadership which is mostly on the same page. Thanks VH for taking the reign of the worst run town on the island!
Add new comment