District seeks ‘creative funding’ for new school

Vermont Standard
1/9/20
Allan Stein
Standard Staff

A school building subcommittee said “creative funding” beyond local sources is needed to support construction of a proposed new middle high school building.

On Monday, Jan. 6, members of the New Build Committee for the Windsor Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) said those funding options will include both state and federal aid sources, in addition to soliciting private donations.

“It gives us a whole new sense of the complexity of the project,” said Ben Ford, the committee’s chair.

Ford said more than $225,000 has been raised so far through private contributions to support the next phase of planning, which will cost $425,000.

On Tuesday, a working group of the committee met with a design architect to review project refinements.

The estimated cost of the new school building is pegged at $68 million. Once an exact figure is known, the project will require voter approval from all seven supervisory union towns before construction can move forward.

Committee members agreed that private funding to a large degree will determine the success of the project.

During Monday night’s meeting, the committee discussed looking into state funding sources despite a state-wide moratorium on school building construction. The committee will also look at construction of an emergency shelter at the new middle high school in an effort to attract federal aid dollars.

In a recent site visit, Vermont Education Secretary Dan French met with supervisory union officials to “review the financial challenges” of new school construction, said WCSU Superintendent Mary Beth Banios.

“We reviewed that our taxpayers are sending $43 million to the education fund every year, but only getting $18 million back. We wanted him to be aware of the situation that exists in our district and we were brainstorming with him about possible ways the state could be of assistance,” Banios said.

Banios said the current school building, built in 1958, has outlived its useful life “and needs to be replaced.”

School officials have said it would be too costly to renovate, and to illustrate the point have been conducting building tours pointing out serious deficiencies hampering education.

Banios said the state is “struggling significantly financially and we are not the only district with facility issues, so I suspect a state level solution is unlikely, but we will continue to push on this,” she said.

“Everybody is in the same position,” said James Haff, a Killington member of the WSCU board.