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HOLDEN, Mass. — Holden's Mountview Middle School construction project will move forward with a new building on the existing site, after the Mountview School Building Committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to present this option to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
After weighing the costs and advantages between the three options of an addition/renovation or a new building on either a proposed location on Malden Street or the existing site, the committee was in agreement on what it believed to be the best choice for Holden and the education of its students.
Cost-estimates provided by Daedalus Project Incorporated had construction costs for the addition/renovation at $43,051,512, costs for new construction at the existing site at $46,048,120, and new construction on a new site at $44,389,285.
David White put forward the motion to select the 128,000-square-foot new school, which would be constructed on Shrewsbury Street behind the existing building.
Among the factors for his selection included the potentially high-cost of off-site improvements at the Malden Street location.
"I think that the Malden Street site, although it's an available piece of land and could be attractive for that reason, when you uncover everything and expose all the deficiencies, it will be the most expensive project without a doubt," he said.
Non-reimbursable costs for site work was estimated at $678,357 for the renovation/addition, $842,926 for a new building on the exiting site, and potentially $1,630,997 with an additional $434,245 for off-site work with the Malden Street option.
Furthermore, while he said the renovation/addition would be slightly less expensive than the new building by an order of magnitude of $3 million, he added that, "we'll be saving $50,000 a year just on operating costs by having a new building."
Another key factor in the committee's decision was the effect on students.
"I don't think anybody here can put a dollar amount on that," said White of the construction that would take three and a half years while school was in session, affecting six classes of children.
Mountview Principal Erik Githmark agreed, saying his biggest concern with the renovation and addition would have been the effect on education.
Architect Mike Pagano of Lamoureaux Pagano Associates said he believed the MSBA would support this option without hesitation, and said the risk of proceeding without approval is negligible.
Holden voters will decide if the project will move forward at Town Meeting next Spring.
Comments (5)
Thank you to all of the committee members for their dedication and hard work on continuing to make great progress on this important project. Keep up the good work!
-Erik Scheinfeldt
The same "we can't afford it right now" argument has been used in an effort to stop every school building project that has ever come before Holden voters. Thank you to the committee members who have put in so much time and effort. High school students suffered through many years of the "renovation/addition" project. Students now benefit from a beautiful new high school but those who lost out during the years of construction will never get that time back. The Mountview plan appears to be the correct one for the town and the sooner it gets started the better off the town's middle school students will be.
Great idea except that we cannot afford it right now.
Not that that consideration seems to matter anymore in Holden, or in America, for that matter.
Name Withheld, I appreciate your concerns around how and if this gets paid for. This project will only go forward IF people vote to proceed. The beautiful and at times frustrating thing about local government is that nothing gets done without voter approval and that means you as well. The beautiful thing is when you support a project and it gets voter approval it is great. The frustrating thing is when you support a project and the voters don't agree.
I would encourage everyone to go out and vote their conscience on this and every project. In this case I hope that even the detractors will recognize that this IS the best solution whether or not they support spending the money. The committee has done its due diligence on this project and has brought forward the right solution which brings the best value to the people of Holden.
This is a great decision and I'm glad the committee has gone this direction. Putting our children through a 3 + year construction project just to save a few dollars would be a mistake.
We need to note that the cost figures in this article are labeled "construction costs". They are not the full project costs. The full project costs are much higher and were disclosed last week. Don't get confused and think the numbers are jumping all over the place week to week. They aren't. The numbers here are just a portion of the full project, and they are consistent with the costs we heard last week for the construction portion.
Congratulations to the Committee on making a a great decision for the Town.