Newton's Taj Mahal
WHAT DOES one call a high school that's going to cost more than $197 million, when similar school projects are coming in at half that price? In Newton we call it the Taj Mahal, in reference to the extravagant Indian mausoleum. The Indian Taj Mahal is a beautiful World Heritage site; the Newton Taj Mahal is an embarrassment we can't afford and the state shouldn't support.
Newton is a great place to live. Just 8 miles from downtown Boston, its leafy streets, stately homes, and reputation for educational excellence attract some of the area's best, brightest, and wealthiest. The educational system has been living on this reputation for years, but a sizeable portion of Newton doesn't fit this profile.
Mayor David Cohen, backed by well-organized and financed education activists, has decided that what Newton needs to retain its reputation and keep up property values is a "world-class" high school designed by a world-famous architect and a Design Review Committee told to ignore costs when reviewing his plans.
Not surprisingly, what started out as a $39 million renovation morphed into a new high school for $104.5 million that is now at $197.5 million. We won't have the "guaranteed maximum price" until June, yet we've already started construction.
When State Treasurer Tim Cahill offered to have state engineers and architects help us find ways to cut costs, Cohen told him that was a great idea. Out of the other side of his mouth he badgered the contractor to start pouring concrete so that it would be too late to change anything. In your face, Tim Cahill!
All this would be comical if it weren't for the fact that we don't have the money to pay for the new school, even with the state's $46.5 million reimbursement. That's why Cohen proposed a $23.9 million override, nearly equal to the combined value of all the other override requests expected in the state this year. With public opposition mounting, he's now offered to split it in half and have one override this year and a second next year.
Either way, such an override would cost the average Newton homeowner $7,000 in additional taxes over the next five years. That's a permanent tax increase, on top of Newton's already high tax rate, and all of it will be growing at 2 percent per year. The Newton Taxpayers Association and dozens of independent citizens have formed Newton For Fiscal Responsibility to defeat the override and/or debt exclusion votes.
So here we stand, a poster child for arrogance, excess, and poor planning. We don't have the money to pay for the monstrosity without an override, many citizens won't pass an override that gives more money to the guys who got us into this mess, the mayor refuses to change the design, the Board of Aldermen won't put a halt to the project, Cahill seems reluctant to get tough with Cohen, and Newton has become little more than a punch line for radio talk show hosts.
We earned it. But there's a way out.
Local architect Mark Sangiolo looked at the original renovation plan, saw its weaknesses, and came up with an elegant approach that not only renovates the existing building and brings natural light to nearly all the interior classrooms, but adds a 47,000-square foot science wing.
This approach gives 80,000 more square feet than the planned new building. With the extra space the entire school department can be housed there, freeing up an old school just when Newton desperately needs more elementary school space. This renovation plan costs $100 million less than the new school.
The mayor still refuses to budge.
We need Cahill and Governor Deval Patrick to get involved. With state finances as tight as they are, can our elected leaders sit idly by while Newton builds a trophy school that can only be paid for by laying off teachers?
One Taj Mahal - in India - is enough.
Jeff Seideman is president of the Newton Taxpayers Association. 