Former School Committee Member Denounces Pierce Plan
Dear School Committee and Select Board,
I am a former School Committee member and strongly support public education in Brookline.
How are you justifying the exorbitant price tag for the proposed Pierce School, and its negative effects on income diversity in Brookline, when compared to spending on other school projects around the Commonwealth?
I examined current projects on the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) web site, and Pierce is the most expensive project — by $52M — that isn’t a high school.
Of the top 25 most expensive projects, only three are not high schools. These three elementary / middle schools cost between $132M and $152M. So how does Brookline justify building a K-8 that would cost 28-37% more than the most expensive – and larger in scope – comparable projects in Massachusetts?
Henry K. Oliver in Lawrence: 1,000 elementary and middle school students. New school plus preservation of an historic structure. $132 million.
West Elementary in Andover:1,055 students. $152 million.
Coakley Middle in Norwood: 1,070 students. $150 million.
So not only is the Pierce project some 30% more expensive than the most expensive elementary school building projects, it is designed for 20% fewer students.
Also, if you calculate the effective MSBA reimbursement rates for the 25 costliest projects, the range is 22%-65%. The reimbursement for Pierce is only 18%.
Thus, Brookline is asking its residents to extend their own resources for this project far beyond that being asked for by any other community in the Commonwealth, because the design of Pierce is an order of magnitude more expensive than any comparable project.
This excessively lavish spending is a self-induced injury for Brookline. It increases the tax burden on seniors and others with limited income, and will force people out of their homes for reasonable cost-of-living elsewhere.
Vacated homes are then “affordable” only to high-income families with multiple school-age children, thereby further increasing the median income in Brookline, eroding income diversity, and adding even more burden to the public schools. That just feeds the cycle for more tax increases all over again.
A commitment to prevent uncontrolled spending needs to be implemented at the beginning of project design, not at the end. Sadly, building committees often believe Brookline will always approve and fund anything having to do with education, and a resounding “No” vote may be the only way to get fiscal responsibility back into design and construction in Brookline.
Respectfully,
Dr. Fred Wang
Former Brookline School Committee member