FAQ - Monument Building Project

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Compared to other schools in the state and within our own district, Monument is an outdated, inefficient and inadequate facility.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 cost to taxpayers is not known yet and will depend on many factors. BHRSD will receive preliminary estimates some time this fall. The options being considered will cost in the $170 million range, tens of millions of which will be reimbursed by the MSBA.

The costs presented at the June 17th, 2024 Community Information Session, from the Preliminary Design Program submission, are intended to show relative costs among the three options and are NOT a prediction of the actual final cost. Major variables such as geotechnical, site grading, wetland determination, and final mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems have yet to be designed and costs will vary.

Between now and the district vote in the fall of 2025, BHRSD’s School Building Committee will have the chance to review two more cost estimates based upon refined designs.

Only at the close of the schematic design phase (at the end of summer 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.

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 current metal-paneled roof and structure is more than sixty years old. The roofing system needs significant work and a long term solution.

The school district has decided not to take further action on the Monument roof for the following reasons:

BHRSD consulted with Sherwin Williams, which determined that there are seven layers of paint on the roof. They also figured out why, during the last attempt to paint the roof, the paint only adhered for three months. There’s a chemical reaction between the paint and the old metal that keeps it from adhering.
Prepping the roof for paint that would adhere was estimated to cost upwards of $2 million.
The cost to replace all metal panels was closer to $4 million.
With Monument’s acceptance into the MSBA program, and with a project manager and architects hired for the design of a new or substantially renovated high school, it makes sense to wait until their building proposal is voted on in fall, 2025.
There is also concern that a project the size and scale of a roof replacement may trigger other work connected to the Americans with Disabilities Act, fire suppression and safety requirements.

Major maintenance and renovation projects undertaken at MMHRS in the last 10 years (since the last failed vote):

Addressing safety and security issues
Repair and improvement of portions of the HVAC system
Repair and rewiring of boiler room
Replacement of approximately 50% of the building’s ceiling tiles, corresponding light fixtures and air diffusers
Removal and replacement of all parking lot lights with new LED light fixtures
Addition of magnetic hold opens to all smoke partition doors and fire doors
Interior painting
Replacement of outdated kitchen equipment
Replacement of classroom window screens and control cranks
Replacement of 100 lockers to fit student needs
Significant improvements to interior classrooms
Modification of spaces to meet program needs
Enlargement of medical suite
Upgrades to furniture, fixture and equipment to accommodate flexible teaching, accessibility and custodial needs
Exterior improvements: Tennis courts, track, drainage at stadium field, JV soccer field, early childhood playground structure, driveway and parking lot blacktop repairs, parking lot striping

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.

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

The BHRSD community was invited to attend three visioning sessions, the first on March 20, the second on April 4, and the third on April 25th.

On April 30th there was a community forum, on May 16 there was a Community Information session and tour held at MMRHS, and on June 17th there was a second Community Information session held over zoom.

There will be more opportunities. Please see our calendar for scheduled events.

The MMRHS Building Committee represents all Great Barrington, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, school administration, district committees, as well as the community at large. Skills include educational, financial, architectural, construction, and environmental.

See the full building committee membership.
Have questions about the project that are not answered on this site? Contact the Building Committee

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.