Crucial school vote pending

A Special Town Meeting on Monday is expected to decide whether to appropriate funding for the project, which calls for renovating 160,000 square feet and constructing additions totaling 90,000 square feet.

The state’s School Building Authority in September committed to funding 56.11 percent, or $42.02 million, of the $74.9 million in project costs it deemed eligible for reimbursement. But the approval depends on the town authorizing funding for the full project cost within 120 days.

In a rarity for school building projects, town leaders are not seeking a debt exclusion, or temporary tax increase, to fund the town’s $37.9 million share of the costs. They say the town can cover the cost within its budget by tapping its existing school building fund, and borrowing for a longer term than it normally does.

“I think this brings to fruition 10 years of planning for our educational future,’’ Gardner S. Trask, III, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said of the project, which received unanimous votes of support from his board and the Finance Committee.

Trask said that a positive vote Monday would also mark “the end of the acrimony regarding the high school and middle school projects.’’

Voters in 2000 rejected a debt exclusion to fund the renovation and expansion of the high school and the middle school, which was then located in the Dunn wing of the high school complex. In 2003, they rejected a debt exclusion to renovate the former Holten-Richmond school into a new home for the middle school. Within weeks, Town Meeting voted to fund the Holten-Richmond project without a tax increase. The new middle school opened in 2005.

School Committee member Eric R. Crane believes the lack of an associated tax increase will prove an important selling point for the current plan, one that makes him cautiously optimistic that Town Meeting will approve it.

“The reality is it’s always the financing piece that people are most concerned about,’’ he said. “I think the fact that we pay for this through part of our regular budget has given people a comfort level about the project.’’

And the project “is obviously very much needed,’’ Crane said. “It’s the product of a lot of years of work . . . and it’s really a good project now in the sense that it works educationally, but does not have a lot of bells and whistles to it.’’

The project has drawn some concerns.

Mark Zuberek, a Town Meeting member and former selectmen, said he questions the assumptions behind the financing plan, in particular that the town will see an annual 4 percent growth in its budget for the next 30 years.

“My question is, is this sustainable?’’ Zuberek said.

He also warned there is no assurance the town will not seek a future debt exclusion, either to pay for a portion of the high school project or to pay for another capital project that it could not otherwise afford due to the money committed to the high school construction.

Selectman Keith Lucy, who played a key role in crafting the financing plan, conceded that 4 percent might seem an aggressive annual growth figure. But he said other parts of the plan - including the assumption of 4 percent interest on the town’s loan payments - are conservative.

“Anyone can take a piece of the plan to pick out and knock down, but the whole plan works together,’’ he said.

Another concern, voiced by several Town Meeting members at a recent public meeting, is whether the plan provides enough parking spaces to avoid having students park on local streets.

Town Manager Wayne P. Marquis said the plan addresses that concern. He said the total number of spaces will remain the same, at 415, but that parking for students will increase from 177 to 247, which exceeds the 200 students who drive to school. He noted that parking at the school is particularly tight now because the Dunn wing is being used as temporary municipal office space while town hall is renovated.

The high school was opened in 1962, and its Dunn wing in 1974. According to officials, the complex suffers from outdated mechanical systems, inadequate spaces for educational programs, and insufficient access for people with disabilities. The Dunn wing, only a portion of which is currently in use by the high school, has a history of problems that date to its opening.

The school’s accreditation has been on “warning’’ status since 2006 because of facility issues cited by the accrediting group, the Commission on Public Secondary Schools.

Under the plan, the original three-story academic wing and auditorium would be renovated, as would the field house. The added space would include a new three-story science wing, a new cafeteria, and a new library. With the exception of the field house, the Dunn wing would be razed after serving as swing space during construction.

The project would cap a 15-year school building program that has also included renovations and expansions to three elementary schools, and the Holten-Richmond project.

“We think it’s cost-effective to take good solid older buildings and modernize and recycle them,’’ Marquis said. “That’s the Danvers way.’’