Athol Selectboard questions price for school study

Athol High School

Athol High School FILE PHOTO BY GREG VINE

By GREG VINE

For the Athol Daily News

Published: 01-24-2025 3:00 PM

ATHOL – The Selectboard had a number of questions for Athol Royalston Regional School District Superintendent Matt Ehrenworth at a Jan. 21 meeting to discuss construction of a new high school.

As he did in Royalston, Ehrenworth discussed the district’s acceptance into the Core Program Module of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), one of the first steps that needs to be taken toward construction of a new high school.

The next step, he explained, is to get both communities to fund a feasibility study, estimated at a cost of $1.6 million, of which up to 76% would be reimbursed by the MSBA. The district has 270 days to fulfill a number of requirements, including establishing a School Building Committee and approving funding for the feasibility study. Funding, he said, wouldn’t be needed until sometime next January.

Pushback from board members was quick.

“I was pretty upset to see that the School Committee was moving forward with this whole application to the MSBA, given that we already have a lot of debt that was invested into the high school,” said board member Rebecca Bialecki. “Do I think we do need a new high school? Yes, I do. Do I think we can afford to do it at this moment? No, I do not. I think that paying $1.6 million total, without the reimbursement, for a study alone is ridiculous in so many ways. But even the $308,000 Athol would be stuck with for the study is truly something I believe we cannot afford as a town right now.”

$308,000 would be Athol’s share of the feasibility study’s cost once reimbursement from the state is received.

“What I can say is, we as a district ended up putting almost a million into the building on the ceiling work that we did. The reason is we can’t have ceiling tiles falling down on the kids. Even if we get a new high school, that would be five, six years from now, potentially. And for the next five years, I didn’t think it would be appropriate for ceiling tiles to be falling on the kids’ heads,” Ehrenworth said. “So, I understand where the town is coming from, but there are going to be costs we have to put into the high school. What’s the next thing that’s going to fall apart that we have to fix more urgently than we expected to?”

Board member Brian Dodge had questions regarding the timing of the feasibility study. With the completion of a new high school five or six years down the road, Dodge asked, “Are we putting the cart before the horse here if the townspeople decide they don’t want to purse that? When does the feasibility kick in and we have to pay that ($1.6 million)?”

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Ehrenworth said Athol and Royalston would have 270 days from May 1 of this year to appropriate the funds, or by January 26, 2026. The superintendent said he’s hopeful that continued outreach would lead to voters at their Annual Town Meetings choosing to fund the study.

“My point is, it should go before the voters before we spend any money on it,” said Dodge. “If it does go forward, is the Royalston Community School going to be vacated? Is that going to be empty?”

Ehrenworth said that would not be the case. He then explained that a building committee put together last year had proposed having kindergarten through the fourth grade at the Royalston Community School and Athol Community Elementary School.

“We were going to turn the middle school back into a three-grade building, which is what it was intended for,” he added. “That would be fifth, sixth and seventh grade. We would move eighth grade to the new high school. Pre-K would be at the high school also.”

That he said, would create the opportunity for high school students to work in child care “and become one of our career pathways.”

“I do not think we can afford it right now,” said board member Kala Fisher. “It is unfortunate that we keep throwing money at this. I know that there is the need. And it is unfortunate that (students) are leaving because of the facility.”

Fisher said she believed studies had been done several years ago regarding ways to extend the life of the existing high school.

“In my opinion, if there was support in the town to move ahead with the feasibility study, and Athol had to commit $1.5 million, even though a reimbursement is coming, that probably – under our capital policy – would require a debt exclusion vote,” said Town Manager Shaun Suhoski. “To do that, it’s the Selectboard, not the Town Meeting, who has to approve the ballot question.”

Eherenworth said he would do his best to provide answers to any more questions the board might have.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.