FAQ

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.

The project is currently in the Schematic Design phase. The Project Team and MMRHS Building Committee are continuing to refine the new building design with feedback from the School District, Town Officials, and community stakeholders in preparation for a District vote in November 2025. At the end of June, the Schematic Design (SD) package will be submitted to the MSBA. This package will include floor plans, elevations, major systems and scope of site work as well as two cost estimates a total project budget and construction schedule.

Of special note is that the MSBA announced in March 2025, that it had miscalculated the percentage of their contribution to the high school project, in the District’s favor. This correction brings the MSBA’s reimbursement of eligible project costs from 45.52% to 49.83. The total project cost is estimated at $154,452,000 with about $59,300,000 reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority and $1,585,000 of incentives from MassSave for a local District share of $93,567,000.

Please note that costs are subject to change and the final costs and local share will not be known until the end of August 2025, when the Project Funding Agreement is finalized with the MSBA.

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

In December 2024, after a thoughtful review of the renovation/addition and new construction options, the School Building Committee elected to move forward with Alternative 3E, a new 3-story, 140,500 SF, building to the west of the existing building to support the enrollment of 485 students. The compact design provides an efficient building footprint and meets the educational program requirements while providing the least disruptive construction duration for the school. The SBC submitted the Preferred Solution Report (PSR), and voted pursue Design-Bid-Build construction delivery method.

The PSR included the following deliverables: 

• Existing conditions report
• Final evaluation of alternatives
• Preferred solution report
• Updated cost summary and estimates
• Proposed project design and construction schedule
• Proposed operating budget and 10-year capital plan

After a thoughtful review of the renovation/addition and new construction options, the School Building Committee elected to move forward with Alternative 3E, a new 3-story, 140,500 SF, building to the west of the existing building to support the enrollment of 485 students. The compact design provides an efficient building footprint and meets the educational program requirements while providing the least disruptive construction duration for the school.

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 5 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.

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.

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). 

In February, Dr. Dillon, Superintendent of BHRSD, announced that the new high school building will also allow for the addition of a fourth Chapter 74 program, Electricity. This is an in-demand career path in Berkshire County, and will likely attract students from district towns and beyond to the new school.

The total project cost is estimated at $154,452,000 with about $59,300,000 reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority and $1,585,000 of incentives from MassSave for a local District share of $93,567,000.

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.

Of special note is that the MSBA announced in March 2025, that it had miscalculated the percentage of their contribution to the high school project, in the District’s favor. This correction brings the MSBA’s reimbursement of eligible project costs from 45.52% to 49.83. This update is reflected in the above calculations.

Throughout the project, the School Building Committee (SBC) has been mindful of the financial impact of the project to today’s taxpayers while planning a school that meets the educational program and will serve the district for the next 50-100 years.

The SBC recently secured an additional $6M of state funding through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Partnering with the MSBA will lower the local tax impact by approximately $59M. The SBC has also partnered with MassSave for a $1.5M incentive, and is pursuing the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center EmPower Grant, which would result in up to $5M of additional funding—resulting in a total of $65.5M in grant awards for the project.

In December 2024, after a thoughtful review of the renovation/addition and new construction options, the School Building Committee elected to move forward with Alternative 3E, a new 3-story, building to the west of the existing building.  The compact design provides an efficient building footprint and allows for shorter construction duration, saving the district on temporary phasing and construction escalation. The reuse of the existing parking lot in the site design was another consideration that reduced the overall cost.

The SBC has decided to bid the project as Chapter 149, Design-Bid-Build (DBB), assuring that the General Contractor with the lowest bid price will be awarded the project in a competitive bid environment.

This June, the SBC will have the opportunity to review additional cost-savings measures before finalizing the project scope and budget in August. The MSBA grant amount will be finalized at that point, and the local tax impact will be known. If the project is approved by local voters on November 4, 2025, the Design Development phase will proceed, and cost-savings measures will be evaluated at each design milestone leading up to construction ensuring the project is on budget and there are opportunities to lower the project cost.

DiNisco Design, in collaboration with William Rawn Associates.

Learn more about our designers.

The new school will be an all-electric building featuring many sustainable features including increased open space, water reduction, optimized energy performance (ground source heat pumps), enhanced indoor air quality, daylighting and views, improved acoustic performance, and thermal comfort. In addition, the project will have a construction and demolition waste management plan to reduce construction and demolition waste disposed of in landfills and incineration facilities by recovering, reusing, and recycling materials. The site will include features such as native plantings and natural landscape elements to embrace the natural beauty of the surrounding area as well as educational opportunities. The new school will be designed to achieve green school status with the MSBA, receiving 4% more in reimbursement from the state. The project’s sustainability subcommittee is committed to review and recommend sustainable practices to the school building committee throughout the design process.