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GREAT Barrington – Once you have hired an architect and designer, you have to make a choice.
Berkshire Hills Regional School District officials are calling for volunteers to direct construction projects to renovate and expand or completely rebuild Monument Hills Regional High School.
The proposal comes after the Jan. 30 hiring of DiNisco Design, Inc., which will be the lead design firm, and William Rawn Associates, the latter of which is best known in the Berkshires for its design of Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood. Requests for volunteers.
In an email sent to the school community this week, Superintendent Peter Dillon said the district will form several working groups to make recommendations.
He linked to a survey for people interested in joining the Vision Team and asked people to respond by Wednesday, March 13.
“We will study the response and try to maintain a balance among our three towns before reaching out,” Dillon wrote. He also said Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge Odd residents will have other opportunities to provide input even if they are unable to volunteer.
The 60-person vision group will include 40 district staff and students, as well as 20 others, including parents and other interested residents, he added.
The initiative comes after efforts to rehabilitate a deteriorating and antiquated high school stalled for more than a decade — largely due to concerns about tax hikes.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), the state’s funding agency for public school construction, will help pay for the program. But estimates are only available after the design work is completed.
Dillon said architects will have costs for various designs by summer 2025. He said he hopes to present a plan to voters this fall.
He said it’s assumed MSBA will pay half or more of the cost, depending on a number of factors.
In 2014, Great Barrington voters rejected a $51 million project for the MSBA to fund slightly more than half the cost of renovating the 1968 school.
Taking into account normal inflation, a rough estimate of the cost in 2019 is between $79 million and $100 million.
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