FAQ

Monument Mountain was built in 1968 and while the building has been well maintained it is now obsolete. Today’s high school no longer meets space demands, technology requirements, and advanced security standards. Monument’s learning spaces do not meet the District’s educational program, modern educational and facility needs. There’s little natural light, and poor energy efficiency throughout the building. Air quality, fire protection, accessibility or safety no longer meet today’s standards. The science labs are undersized. The library has no windows and no collaborative work or study spaces. Ten classrooms are interior and have no windows.

Compared to other schools in the state and within our own district, Monument is an outdated, inefficient and inadequate facility.

Monument’s Vocational, or Career Vocational Technical Education (CVTE) spaces, which are increasingly in demand, are not up to 2024 needs and standards. The automotive garage space, according to Donna DiNisco of DiNisco Design, the project architect, is “one half the size it needs to be.” There’s no room for auto students to sit down and receive instruction as in a normal classroom.

Horticulture students must walk down a hillside to a set of greenhouses located at the base of campus, which is not accessible to students with disabilities. With 43-minute-long classes the transition impacts instructional time. The horticulture classroom is housed in the small barn of an old retrofitted fox farm. Students crowd around a single counter space in the greenhouse to do hands-on work. 

While BHRSD has maintained the building well – see Question #10 — big changes are needed to reflect evolving technology and community needs. Jason St. Peter, a 1989 Monument graduate and chair of the School Building Committee for the high school building project, explained of his alma mater: “As with all of its contemporaries built in the 60s and 70s, it [Monument] has come to the end of its life cycle, both physically and educationally, and is in need of a significant overhaul or replacement.” 

Several other Berkshire County high schools built in the same era, such as Taconic, Wahconah, and Mount Greylock, have been completely rebuilt or significantly renovated over the last decade. Our district replaced its elementary and middle schools twenty years ago.

Fifteen years ago, the district first started considering options for renovating or replacing MMRHS, and submitted proposals to the Massachusetts School Building Administration (MSBA) for support. In 2014, two subsequent proposals were rejected by Great Barrington voters. In the years since, the high school has continued to age and building costs have continued to rise.

BHRSD has been very fortunate to be re-accepted into MSBA’s highly competitive program, which means we are eligible for reimbursement of tens of millions in project costs. In 2025 voters will have a third opportunity to support a project partially funded by the MSBA.

This idea has been considered, studied at length, and rejected. 

Starting in 2020, an 8-Town Board of community volunteers, including representatives of all eight towns of BHRSD and Southern Berkshire Regional School Districts. took up a three-year study of the feasibility of merging the two districts’ high schools. They held 180 public meetings. In October 2023,each of the eight towns voted on the board’s proposal to merge Mount Everett and Monument Mountain High Schools. All three of Berkshire Hills’ towns voted in favor of the plan, as did Alford, but four of the five SBRSD towns rejected it.

The idea of merging high schools was settled by that outcome. 

BHRSD has too many students to outsource to neighboring high schools. No one of the small high schools in Lee, Lenox or SBRSD could accommodate nearly three hundred resident 9-12 students, so BHRSD’s high school students would most likely be divided between the three schools. This would be politically, logistically and educationally challenging, if not practically impossible.

In addition, our towns have a deep history of pride in, and connection to, Monument Mountain High School. It is a central source of community identity in South Berkshire County.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) is a quasi-independent state authority that supports communities across the Commonwealth in creating educationally appropriate, cost effective, sustainable, and energy efficient schools. It provides taxpayers significant reimbursements for school construction projects. The MSBA derives its revenue from the state sales tax. 

BHRSD is now following MSBA’s prescribed schedule, process and design requirements in order to benefit from up to 48% reimbursement for eligible project costs, translating to tens of millions in state aid. 

BHRSD was accepted into the MSBA’s program more than ten years ago, but the town of Great Barrington voted against the proposed project in 2013 and 2014. In 2022 MMRHS was once again accepted, based on its urgent need. 

Every year, the MSBA accepts a small handful of school districts into the program that subsidizes the cost of renovating or building a new school. 

Based on the last six years of data, MSBA received about 60-65 Statements Of Interest and accepted 10-12, translating to a 15-20% acceptance rate. In 2022 the MSBA selected MMRHS as one of only 10 schools out of 54, based on its urgent need. 

MSBA’s core program has become more competitive in recent years as 1960s-era school facilities age out, construction costs sharply rise, and the MSBA’s state sales tax revenue has decreased. In 2022 sales tax revenue was 1.65% lower than the previous year, representing a loss of roughly $400M of MSBA grant funding.

This decrease in MSBA revenue is significantly impacting the number of invited districts. It is creating a ripple effect for future applications, making the program more and more selective each year.

The MSBA’s grants are distributed based on need and urgency (e.g., building condition, program deficiencies, enrollment, evidence of overcrowding, and general environment). Moving forward in the MSBA’s process requires collaboration between the district and the MSBA on the project from start to finish.

MMRHS was accepted into the core program and invited to conduct a feasibility study for the following main reasons:

• Age of building impacting the quality of learning and instruction
• Boilers are at the end of their life-span and inadequately serving the school 
• Exterior walls are original to the building and in need of serious repair 
• Windows are single-pane, original to the building, and not energy-efficient
• HVAC system does not adequately or efficiently heat or cool the building 
• Lighting system is primarily fluorescent and not up to modern standards
• Horticulture program is housed in a farm-type wooden structure that is not ADA compliant and in need of significant repair and weatherproofing 
• Library and many classrooms lack natural light and fresh air ventilation
• Inadequately-sized learning spaces, particularly in labs and CVTE spaces 
• Safety concerns related to the number of entrances

The Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) Project, encompasses all aspects of the planning and construction of the High School, including the selection of the Owner’s Project Manager (OPM), designer, and contractor, as well as oversight of the Project. The district has been selected by the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s (MSBA) to participate in their program to design and construct a new or renovated High School. Acceptance to the MSBA program does not guarantee state funding. The MSBA approval process must be successfully completed for the MSBA to provide significant financial assistance to the Project.

In June 2023, the district approved funds for the MMRHS Feasibility Study. The Feasibility Study will arrive at an educationally appropriate and cost effective solution for either a renovated or new Monument Mountain High School.  The district must approve funding with a district vote in the Fall of 2025.

In March 2022, the BHRSD’s Statement of Interest (SOI) was accepted by the MSBA. In June 2023, BHRSD approved funds for the MMRHS Feasibility Study, which had to follow a prescribed process for arriving at the most educationally appropriate and cost-effective solution for either a renovated or new school. 

BHRSD then formed a School Building Committee of district leaders and stakeholders. In January, 2024 the School Building Committee hired Skanska USA Building, Inc. as the Project Manager. MSBA’s Designer Selection Panel chose DiNisco Design to design the project. Design work began then and in Spring 2024. The School Building Committee offered several opportunities for the community to give their input on design options, with service on a volunteer educational visioning committee or attendance at open community forums. 

In July, 2024 a Preliminary Design Program (PDP) informed by this input was submitted to MSBA. 

The PDP included the following deliverables: 

• Educational Program, written by BHRSD leadership with guidance from the design team
• Space Summary, which compares the school’s current spaces to the MSBA’s standards
• Existing Conditions Report
• Design parameters
• Development and evaluation of design alternatives

Several plans are under consideration and include options to renovate/build an addition or to construct a new school. The preferred solution will be selected in November 2024 and voted on by the three district towns in Fall 2025. Please refer to the schedule page for further details. 

At its December 4th meeting the SBC (School Building Committee) selected a preferred design solution from among the options of: renovation, addition, and/or replacement. The SBC voted to move forward with new construction.

If the MSBA authorizes the project to move forward at its February Board Meeting, the project team and SBC will begin the Schematic Design Phase. This is where site details, building design, and renderings become detailed enough to produce a project scope and budget estimate which will include hard numbers on the total cost of the project. At that time the team will also determine the portions that would be paid for with MSBA grant money versus local tax dollars.  These estimates are expected in late August 2025.

The project can only move forward with approval from BHRSD’s voters. We anticipate a vote in Fall 2025 to ask our communities to approve the project scope and budget.

Please refer to the schedule page for further details. 

Coming soon 

The proposed project is a new construction building outside of the footprint of the existing school. During construction, the existing high school will be 100% operational. When the new building is complete in 2029, the program will move into the new building and demolition of the old school will then begin. The cost of the demolition is factored into the total project budget as presented by the Building Committee, and there will be no additional costs associated with demolition.

Passing on his opportunity would leave taxpayers to bear the ever-increasing costs and challenges of keeping the school functioning.

The process to be accepted into the MSBA pipeline could take another decade or more and require another feasibility study, which would not be reimbursable by the MSBA. 

The bottom line is that turning down millions in state aid would mean that we will not get nearly as much in return for our tax dollars. 

The School Building Committee has hosted 4 Community Information Sessions and 3 Community Visioning Sessions to date. Please stay tuned for upcoming forums to be scheduled. Recordings and meeting materials from previous community presentations can be found here.

An early—and essential—step in the MSBA process is getting input from our communities about what a new monument mountain regional high school should deliver to our students and our towns. This step starts with a visioning process.

In spring 2024, we hosted three visioning sessions with students, families, staff, school and town administrators, and volunteers from our communities to brainstorm what’s important to us: our educational priorities.

These sessions yielded dozens of points of input that can be organized in three key priorities:

• educational priorities that deliver a next-generation education to our students with project based learning, rigorous career technical and academic offerings,

• team-based programs for grades and across disciplines, 

• and integrated special education. 

All of which challenge every facet of the whole student to meet our educational goals. Program priorities that not only deliver this education, but provide a space that is safe and welcoming, flexible enough to accommodate future needs, and accessible for all of our communities to use outside of school hours.

Read the full Educational Program here.

Monument Mountain Regional High School currently offers three Chapter 74 Vocational Technical Education Programs (Automotive, Horticulture, and Early Childhood Development), three Innovation Pathways (Healthcare, Advance Manufacturing & Engineering, and Business Finance), and three general CVTE programs (Computer Science, MMTV, and Wood Technology). The District is continuing to explore the possibility of moving general programming into Chapter 74 status or adding additional programming to meet the needs of our community.

The final cost to taxpayers is not known yet and will depend on many factors. Updated preliminary costs were presented at the November 2024 community information session. These costs were based on a second round of estimates as part of the Preferred Schematic Report (PSR) deliverable to the MSBA. In the Schematic Design phase, the preferred option will be further refined, with a final estimate expected in August 2025.

At its December 4th, 2024, meeting, the School Building Committee (SBC) selected a preferred design solution from among the options of renovation, addition, and/or replacement. The SBC voted to move forward with new construction (option 3E), with an approximate total project cost of $165 Million, tens of millions of which will be reimbursed by the MSBA.

Only at the close of the schematic design phase (August 2025), with MSBA approval, will the project costs be finalized. At that time, the MSBA’s contribution will also be confirmed, as will the tax impact for the three district towns. At that stage, BHRSD will be asked to appropriate the entire project budget amount and MSBA will provide their agreed-upon contribution, based on the eligible reimbursement.

Coming soon 

DiNisco Design, in collaboration with William Rawn Associates.

Learn more about our designers.

The new MMRHS will be all electric and Net-Zero Energy capable. The team is currently looking into geothermal (ground source heat pumps) opportunities for heating and cooling. The project is pursuing LEED Silver certification.