Dear Masconomet Community,
This week, Topsfield will hold its Town Meeting on Tuesday, May 7th in the Masconomet Auditorium at 7:00 PM followed by Boxford (at Masconomet at 7:00 PM) and Middleton (at Howe-Manning School at 7:00 PM) Town Meetings on Tuesday May 14th. The warrants for all three town meetings will include articles to fund Masconomet’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Operating Budget and Masconomet’s Capital Improvement Plan. Both the Operating Budget and Masconomet’s Capital Plan are critical to the future health of our schools.
The FY25 Operating Budget
The Masconomet Regional School Committee began deliberations on the FY25 Operating Budget in January of 2024 and voted on March 20, 2024 to adopt the budget that will be presented at town meetings. Masconomet’s FY25 Operating Expense Budget (after offsets) is $40,676,236, reflecting a 2.3% increase over FY24 in Operating Expenses, and a 4.1% increase over FY24 in Operating Assessments. The total assessment for the FY25 Budget to the towns is $33,643,846, which is apportioned as follows: $12,527,928 to Boxford (3.7% increase over FY24), $11,239,392 to Middleton (1.7% increase over FY24), and $9,877,326 to Topsfield (6.7% increase over FY24).
In December of 2023, the Masconomet School Committee adopted the Masconomet Strategic Plan, 2023-2028, which prioritizes four areas of focus: Curriculum, Instruction, Culture and Wellbeing, and Community. The FY25 Budget supports the implementation of the Strategic Plan through funding a Director of Teaching and Learning position to coordinate curriculum development, strengthen professional teaching practices, and collect, analyze and communicate District data. The FY25 Budget also furthers the Strategic Plan’s commitment to student wellbeing through funding two school adjustment counselor positions and an Academic Support Center Teacher position. All three of these positions had been previously funded through the ESSER III Federal COVID Relief Grant. Additionally, the FY25 Budget request includes a Capital Assessment of $400,000 for immediate priority facility projects to ensure that Masconomet’s facilities continue to meet the needs of our students and serve as a resource for our member communities. Each town has decided to fund their apportionment of this $400,000 through the use of free cash, so this item will appear as a separate warrant article at each town meeting. The $400,000 will be apportioned as follows: $147,711 to Boxford, $135,586 to Middleton and $116,704 to Topsfield. The projects under this facility request include:
- Campus-wide Surge Protection System
- Campus-wide Wireless Internal Clock System
- HS Art Studio Mac Lab Upgrade
- Kitchen Equipment, including convection ovens and a walk-in cooler
- Maintenance Equipment, including a scissor lift and skid steer angle broom
The School Committee’s FY25 Budget will support our vision to prepare active and engaged learners for a rapidly changing future, continue providing our students with equitable and comprehensive educational programs, and support a capital plan that invests in the sustainable future of the capital asset that Masconomet provides the Tri-Town community.
Debt Authorization
The Town Meeting Warrant in each of our member communities also includes a request to authorize the School Committee to borrow up to $5,000,000 to secure the services of an owner’s project manager and a design firm to begin the process of replacing/upgrading the building’s roof, HVAC system and building management system (BMS). Masconomet’s “new” building opened in 2001, which means that the facility is now 23 years old.
Beginning in 2022, District Administration, under the leadership of Asst. Superintendent Jeff Sands, developed a comprehensive capital plan to identify the needs of our facilities. As a result of this 11-month planning study, which was presented to the School Committee in February of 2023, the HVAC, roof and building management system (BMS) were identified as being in critical need of replacement. The building’s roof was installed 2001 with a 20-year expected life. In 2019, the roof was repaired in order to extend its useful life for 5 years. Our current HVAC systems/equipment range in age from 23 to ~60 years old and are beyond their useful life. Failure of the majority of existing HVAC equipment is not a question of “if” but “when.” Our current BMS, which consists of the controls for our heating and ventilation systems, is a mixture of aged systems, which are obsolete, cannot be upgraded or integrated with new equipment, and only allow monitoring with no equipment control. These systems are critical to the operation of our school. Failure of the approximately 60-year-old boilers in the Middle School, for example, would result in forced school cancelations until repairs/replacements could be implemented, thereby disrupting the education of our students. Estimates for the entire roof, HVAC and BMS project are approximately $30M for a “like-kind” replacement.
In order to begin the lengthy process of design and installation of more modern systems to replace this aging infrastructure, the School Committee will need to engage the services of an owner’s project manager (OPM). This consultant will work on behalf of the School Committee to oversee the project through planning, design and construction. The hiring of an OPM is required under Massachusetts Law for all public construction projects with a budget in excess of $1.5M. After an OPM is hired through a state-mandated selection process, the District will hire an architectural firm to develop plans for the project, including detailed cost estimates. The $5M request represents 20% of the total estimate for the entire project (5% OPM and 15% designer). Masconomet’s budget will not reflect repayment of this debt until FY26. The School Committee is also engaged in seeking volunteers from the community to serve on a Building Committee to act as an advisory board that will provide technical expertise regarding these projects to the full School Committee.
The Masconomet FY25 Operating Budget and Capital Debt Authorization Request are critical to achieving the goals of our Strategic Plan and ensuring we meet our responsibility to maintain our facilities. Please attend your local town meeting and support these warrant articles.
Sincerely,
Michael M. Harvey, Ed.D.
Superintendent
News from the Masconomet Superintendent 