Why Now?

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Compared to other schools in the state and within our own district, Monument is an outdated, inefficient and inadequate facility.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