Watertown cannot afford to totally renovate or rebuild Watertown Middle School, City Manager George Proakis told the City Council this week.
At the Sept. 9 Council meeting, Proakis outlined the results of the feasibility study of renovating/rebuilding the middle school. The City budgeted $84.7 million for the middle school project, but the cost estimates for a project that would create a modern school that could accommodate 630 students came in well over $100 million.
“I wanted to come here and share with you tonight that after spending a significant time and looking at this from every imaginable perspective, building a $112 million Middle School is not something I feel comfortable recommending that the Council do,” Proakis said.
The $84.7 million includes $14.7 million from the Middle School Stabilization Fund, and $70 million in borrowing, which Proakis said was the most that Watertown could borrow at this time given the other ongoing projects including the high school. He added that he does not see Watertown being able to afford a $112 million school without the tax dollars that would come from more development in town, such as new lab buildings. Those projects have been slowed in recent years. The current new growth is about $2.5 million a year, about a 4 percent increase, which is enough for the City to cover the increased costs, Proakis said, but not to add new programs.
Proakis added that the feasibility study was a valuable effort, but he does not see a way of paying for a project of that magnitude without going to residents to approve a debt exclusion that would increase taxes during the life of the borrowing.
“We do not have the budget to do this and achieve other financial goals of the City, and do it in a way that is at the level of fiscal responsibility that this community has gotten used to,” he said. “That gap is just too big to fill, and if we try to squeeze a middle school project into that $84.7 million budget, we’re going to come with something that nobody’s going to be particularly happy with.”
City Council President Mark Sideris said the decision fits with Watertown’s practice of doing projects within the budget made possible without going to voters for a Proposition 2 1/2 override.
“This is disappointing news, but it is reality and we have a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of this community to wisely take care of the revenue that we have at this time or in the future,” he said.
Superintendent Dede Galdston said that she too is disappointed, but she wants to make sure Watertown invests the money wisely.
“I think that through the process of feasibility study, I think we learned a lot about what it means to have a successful middle school building, and the figure that was determined really represented not just a building but an educational vision that would meet the needs of our students here in Watertown,” she said. “And if we’re not able to do that right now, then we need to make sure that at some point in time that we are able to do that for the children, but settling for something that isn’t what I would call educationally appropriate within in the potentially $84 million figure, was not going to be right for our children, because we wouldn’t be talking about it again for another 50 to 60 years. So better to wait and get the right moment to be able to do what’s best for the children.”
Watertown’s financial luck has run out, said City Council Vice President Vincent Piccirilli, but he noted that the middle school was a more recent addition to the City’s Capital Plan.
“We’ve had a string of really great luck over the years doing feasibility studies, and it turns out that we could do it, and we could make the numbers work. And we proceeded, and we built three elementary schools, and the new high school, and other projects throughout the town,” Piccirilli said. “Sometimes your streak of luck breaks, and that’s OK, but I think it’s important to understand two things. If you go back to the 2017 Building for the Future Plan we never intended to tear down or do a major renovation to the Middle School. And we’ve spent $10 million on projects (at the Middle School) during the summers. We rebuilt all the bathrooms, we rebuilt the locker room for the gym, and we also put in a new fire suppression system throughout the whole building.”
Councilor Emily Izzo asked whether Watertown would have a chance of getting money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for a middle school project, as it did for the high school. Proakis said, while there isn’t a hard and fast rule, he said it is unlikely in the near future.
While a full renovation is not affordable, Proakis said the school still needs work to keep it going.
“I intend to attend the meeting of the School Building Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 17, and talk about this,” he said. “But what I would like to do is ask the Committee to see about shifting to a new strategy to review the most pressing, cost effective options to do whatever maintains our middle school for the foreseeable future.”
One reason the City looked at renovating or rebuilding WMS right now was the availability of the modular classrooms that are currently being used as the temporary Watertown High School during the construction of the new WHS on Columbia Street. The modulars could still be used during the planned maintenance, Proakis said, and they will be available as soon as June 26.
Some of the projects at the Middle School on the capital plan include upgrades to the HVAC system, the elevator, the parking lot, the nurses office, repointing the bricks, and replacing classroom shades. The estimated cost for the work would be $10 million, Proakis said, and the money could come out of the $14.7 million in the City’s Middle School Stabilization Fund.
Councilor Tony Palomba noted that earlier this year the City Council decided to prioritize the Middle School over several other major capital projects, including the Senior Center, a new East End Fire Station, implementing the Watertown Square Plan, and finding a staging area for Department of Public Works projects.
“I would be interested in knowing what else we can do on those projects that were mentioned. I’m particularly interested in the Senior Center,” Palomba said. “I think I’ve made that point before. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about how quickly a feasibility study could be done on the Senior Center.”
Proakis said the Middle School Stabilization is earmarked for improvements to the school, though the Council could vote to move it to another account. He added that the other projects should be discussed.
“Regarding the Senior Center and other projects — which included the fire station, and Watertown Square and a few other things,” he said. “What we would like to do is we’re starting to kickoff the process for the capital plan and as we work through the capital plan and pull that $70 million back out, we can kind of look at where and how to repurpose that $70 million and how we can place it in the schedule.”
Proakis said he believes a Senior Center project could be built within the $70 million borrowing limit.
“I can say with reasonable confidence that I think we can go through this feasibility study and find a Senior Center proposal that’s less than $70 million,” he said. “Probably quite a bit less than $70 million. A lot of communities have built them for less than half of that. So it really all depends, of course, on site and on program and what we need and where it goes, which brings me to the feasibility study. I do want to get started as soon as possible.”
Proakis said he plans to find an architecture firm that specializes in senior centers.