The City Council’s Ways and Means Committee recommended borrowing $2 million on Tuesday, May 26, to pay Everett’s share of the Massachusetts School Building Authority feasibility study for a new high school, after an hour of questions about what the money buys and whether the city can afford more debt.
The chief procurement officer explained that the MSBA process is “very prescribed”: the designer must study the current site, an addition or renovation, and new sites, then produce schematic designs and cost estimates for each. Councilor Katy Rogers asked whether that includes Pope John and the old Everett High School. “Everything,” the procurement officer said. “Citywide.” The old high school is also being studied separately for a middle school conversion. Councilor Peter Pietrantonio asked whether an earlier feasibility study counts. Even if one exists, “you automatically start at the first module,” the officer said. The study started last October when the city hired its owner’s project manager and will run 12 to 18 months, ending with “at least three options” for the community, the council, the school committee and the MSBA.
“What scares me, borrowing,” Pietrantonio said. “We just borrowed $44,000,000 for the school. I mean, borrowing is scary.” The chief administrative and financial officer said the $2 million will be bonded over the next fiscal year and rolled into whatever project is chosen, which makes part of it reimbursable by the state. Council President Stephanie Smith asked the question residents ask: “What happens to the 2,000,000 if we do not go forward with a new high school? Because we did feasibility studies in the past and nothing happened of it.” The answer: “At no point during any of the school building committee, or in our conversations with the mayor, we discussed the possibility of not moving forward. This is a problem that needs to be resolved, and we intend to resolve it.” Smith then asked how the OPM is being paid today. “Yes and no,” the procurement officer said. “There should have been a vote in the last few months before the new administration came in. And so that’s the rectification that we’re trying to make today.” Pietrantonio asked for updates “every three months” so no neighborhood is surprised by a proposed site. The committee recommended it unanimously.
Chelsea Street Park, again
On April 27 the committee took up the $1,326,928 Chelsea Street Park loan for a second time and again declined to recommend it. Pietrantonio moved to wait for “the final approval of the master plan that the city is developing,” Rogers seconded, and Smith sent it to the council with a request that the planning board bring the finished plan. On May 11 the committee recommended, without discussion, borrowing $4 million to modernize the Everett Public Schools network infrastructure.
