April 2012
Dear Community Members:
As is widely known, this past January the voters in Southwick turned down a request to approve a debt exclusion for a proposed building improvement project. Earlier, the proposal was approved by a two-thirds vote at all three town meetings and the debt exclusion ballot vote was approved in Tolland and in Granville. Since January the Regional School Committee and the Southwick Board of Selectmen have been collaborating about how to respond to the failed vote given the unique opportunity represented by the MSBA grant of $42 million.
While there was certainly variety to the questions and concerns raised, perhaps the dominant message the voters sent was that this proposal was too costly for the residents of Southwick as they carry 83% of the cost of the project. The Select Board and the School Committee have resolved to reduce the cost for Southwick residents and to bring the proposal before the voters one last time. The vote is scheduled for the regular election of May 8, so there is no additional cost to the town regarding this second vote. The MSBA is willing to extend the timeline on our grant to allow for this last chance.
Recently, the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee voted their intent to borrow funds for the revised project and the Southwick Select Board voted to place the issue on the May 8 ballot. The revised project reduces the original tax impact for Southwick residents by 47%. In summary, the proposal has been reduced in cost, a more realistic interest rate has been utilized and the schools and the town will forgo a portion of their capital borrowing to further reduce the tax impact. If Southwick voters approve the project, the MSBA is likely to award increased reimbursement as well.
We will announce the date for an informational meeting in April as well as other outreach efforts and will post project information on our web site. The proposal maximizes the benefit of regionalization, takes advantage of a favorable climate for construction and provides warm, safe, clean educational space for our children for many years to come.
We hope that everyone will make an effort to become informed about the proposal, review the adjustments that have been made and participate in this very important community decision.
Sincerely,
John D. Barry
Superintendent
2012 Second Vote Outreach Presentation.pdf
BUILDING PROJECT PROPOSAL
INFORMATIONAL MEETING SCHEDULE
|
DATE |
TIME |
LOCATION |
|
|
Thursday, April 12, 2012 |
|
7:00 p.m. |
Southwick-Tolland Regional High School Library |
|
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 |
|
6:00 p.m. |
Southwick Rotary Meeting – Roma’s Restaurant |
|
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 |
|
9:00 a.m. |
Superintendent’s Conference Room – Powder Mill Middle School |
|
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 |
|
6:00 p.m. |
Superintendent’s Conference Room – Powder Mill Middle School |
|
Monday, April 30, 2012 |
|
7:00 p.m. |
Southwick Fire Department |
|
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 |
|
9:00 a.m. |
Superintendent’s Conference Room – Powder Mill Middle School |
|
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 |
|
6:00 p.m. |
Superintendent’s Conference Room – Powder Mill Middle School |
Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District
Building Project Update – March 2012
We Heard You: A broad group of individuals and committees has come together to focus on making the project work for Southwick. The new project has a reduced scope, a new local financing model and retains the educational benefits to students.
It’s All About the Kids: We’ve managed the scope and cost as a benefit to the Town without sacrificing educational opportunities for Southwick’s children. This plan will:
It Will Never Be Cheaper to Build: This is an extremely favorable market for construction projects. It’s impossible to tell if conditions will be this favorable again.
• Low interest rates
• Favorable funding and guaranteed reimbursement from the MSBA
• Very low construction costs
It’s Our Turn: 1¢ of every sales tax dollar collected in the Commonwealth goes to this fund. This means that everyone who pays sales tax in this state is helping to fund this project.
Revised Tax Impact Summary
|
ASSESSED VALUE OF HOME |
|
SOUTHWICK TAX IMPACT |
|
|
$150,000 |
|
$123 |
*(230) |
|
$200,000 |
|
$164 |
*(307) |
|
$250,000 |
|
$205 |
*(383) |
|
Median Home |
|
$209 |
*(392) |
|
$300,000 |
|
$246 |
*(406) |
|
$350,000 |
|
$286 |
*(537) |
|
* Original tax impact numbers in parentheses |
|||
What are the benefits of a 7-12 school?
The 7-12 configuration was a unanimous choice of the Building Committee and the School Committee for several reasons. This configuration allows us to share instructional resources in a more cost effective manner as we can share staff in the areas of music, art and foreign languages. Additionally, this configuration allows us to upgrade our library/media center, our science labs and add needed instructional space. In terms of extra-curricular activities, all students in grades 7-12 will be allowed to participate in theater, literary journal, all inter-scholastic sports, yearbook and newspaper to name a sample. Every district we visited indicated that the younger children really enjoy being at their 7-12 school.
Will younger and older children attend school together?
The proposed building configuration reflects what we learned from other 7-12 schools. There is a separate wing for the 7th and 8th graders and they will attend all of their academic classes in this wing. It is a separate learning community for them within the building. They will have their own administrator and their own guidance counselor. At defined times of the day they will use common areas like art, music, physical education in a supervised manner. They will also have their own lunch period.
What about older and younger children traveling on the buses together?
We would like to plan on one bus run for students in grades 7-12. We will use additional bus monitors to supervise buses and existing expectations for behavior on the buses will be strictly enforced. Any student who cannot behave on the bus will lose transportation privileges. Also, most juniors and seniors use their own transportation so this bus run will not be overly crowded and will make better use of transportation resources. In districts we studied, behavior issues between younger and older students were rare.
What about the Granville School?
Our plan is that a renovated 7-12 facility will include the seventh and eighth graders from all three towns. This is a more cost effective way of providing secondary education to our students and will also allow us to better focus on state and local initiatives like college readiness, increasing rigor and growing advanced placement enrollments. Elementary enrollments at the Granville School will be closely watched by the school committee in order to make decisions about the on-going use of GVS as an elementary school, or whether it needs to be re-purposed or closed.
The following information lists cost estimates for the infrastructure updates in each of the three schools. Please understand that these are estimates and that final costs will not be known until after a formal bid process. Please remember that the MSBA will reimburse 60% of these costs.
Cost Distribution - High School.pdf
Cost Distribution - Woodland.pdf