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NRHS renovation

    NAUSET SCHOOLS

    High School Project Votes May Wait Until Spring

    Nauset district is waiting to hear back-to-school guidelines

    By

    EASTHAM — The four towns of the Nauset Regional School District may not have to vote on the high school building project until next spring.

    Last week, the regional school committee asked the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) to move its deadline for approval of the project, already extended to Nov. 1, to May 31, 2021. For the $132 million effort to advance, town meetings in Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, and Wellfleet must agree, and voters in those communities must approve debt exclusions for borrowing at a subsequent election.

    Those actions had been planned for April (for Wellfleet) and May (for the other towns) of this year, but the pandemic disrupted that scheme. Only Orleans is holding a town meeting this spring, with Eastham scheduled to meet Sept. 21 and Wellfleet Oct. 5. Brewster has yet to schedule its annual town meeting.

    The state requires that the town meeting votes and ballot decisions all take place within a limited period. With the current situation, “there was no way to request money for the project and fall into that timeline,” Nauset Regional High School Building Committee Chair Greg Levasseur told the regional school committee on June 11.

    On a tour of the high school last Dec., our reporter documented heat, light, and access problems needing attention. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Pending towns’ approval, the MSBA will cover about $37 million of the project’s costs, with the remainder borne by the member towns based on enrollment, over the borrowing period. The Authority is expected to vote on the extension request on June 25.

    Levasseur said he conferred with Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe and Wellfleet’s former moderator and town administrator, attorney Harry Terkanian, about the crazy quilt of town meeting and election dates. Both are members of the building committee.

    “A half hour into the conversation, we realized there were so many ifs and buts,” he said. At the time, Wellfleet was between administrators (Maria Broadbent was tapped by the select board last week). “It was way too complicated,” Levasseur said, to count on taking the votes in the fall. What the committee has requested now, he said, “is open-ended enough to give everyone time to step back and get before the voters.”

    The building committee “has been using the down time to work on refining the messaging and information for the public when we restart public outreach, in written and video form,” said Levasseur. “The architect is still working on a second 3-D model.”

    While the delay has its frustrations, there appear to be benefits as well. “Borrowing costs are way down,” Levasseur said. “A couple of projects have gone out to bid recently at 1.7 to 2.2 percent. There are multiple bidders at those low rates.” That contrasts with the 3.25-percent interest rate anticipated earlier for the Nauset project.

    “We just have to wait and get voters’ attention again, have a long discussion about the project, and move on,” said Levasseur.

    Moving on is much in the minds of the system’s administrators as the last day of school, June 19, approaches. But moving on to what?

    “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what the plan is for next school year, I’d be a rich man,” Supt. Tom Conrad told the regional school committee on June 11. Conrad said he is waiting for guidance from the state commissioner of education. “By the middle of next week, we anticipate having an understanding what that directive will be, and what he believes are the options we can consider,” Conrad said.

    Earlier, high school Principal Chris Ellsasser addressed the question. “We are committed to being ready for whatever comes our way — whether full face-to-face instruction, blended, or 100 percent out of the building — to have course and schedule designs that can change that up with a week’s notice,” he said. Ellsasser went on to say that the faculty is looking at adopting a learning management system to allow all teachers to design classes with online and face-to-face components. “Then you’re ready to teach no matter what the conditions,” he said.

    “It was a good year despite some of the bumps,” middle school Principal Julie Kobold said. “There was definitely a lot of learning.” As the school monitored its students, “we found more and more kids struggling. We found that there were significant emotional issues within families that we were surprised by,” she said.

    Kobold described how problems got more difficult over time. “You might send an email saying a student is two weeks behind, how can we help,” she said. Following that, she said, “parents might then share more personal details. More students and even their families began to drop out at the end, especially last week. Families were e-mailing saying, ‘We’re done.’ ”

    “This summer will be unlike any we’ve ever had,” Conrad said. “The administration is prepared to work through the summer to get everything ready. We are strongly considering at the elementary level and possibly the middle school some type of summer program in August, beginning to look at how to help students with gaps in learning.”

    Nauset has always had a summer program for students receiving special education services, and that will continue. The new four-week summer program under discussion, Conrad said, would address concerns about students who maybe were “not as active in their learning as we would have liked.”

    RENOVATION

    Nauset Asks for High School Project Extension

    The district has filed for a 120-day extension for project voting

    By

    EASTHAM — The Nauset Building Committee has requested an extension from the state of the deadline for getting four towns’ approval for the proposed renovation of Nauset Regional High School.

    The Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) voted to endorse the project on Feb. 14. State regulations give the district towns (Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet) 120 days from that endorsement to secure approval for the expenditures at town meetings and elections. The 120-day window expires on June 11.

    The building committee held a virtual meeting on April 8 and the regional school committee did the same thing the following day to discuss the project.

    Gov. Charlie Baker has signed legislation giving towns the ability to reschedule town meetings up to or beyond June 30, the last day of the fiscal year. Town elections can be rescheduled for as late as June 30.

    The district towns have begun some tentative rescheduling of town meetings and elections because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Town Town meeting Town election
    Brewster TBD June 23
    Orleans June 15 June 23
    Eastham June 15 June 23
    Wellfleet June 1 TBD

    Some towns have rescheduled town meeting and elections, while two dates are still up in the air.

    The regional school committee has also postponed its vote on the bonding method and request for funds for the project. Once the committee takes that vote, district towns have 60 days to hold town meetings and elections to vote on the matter.

    “The school committee votes to request the funding,” regional school committee chair Chris Easley said. “That sets a 60-day time frame for towns to respond. With no town meetings being established in any of the towns, just preliminary discussions, we do not want to force the hand of the towns. We want them to make the decision, then we’ll determine the best way to proceed with our request for funding.”

    Project Manager Richard Marx said that the MSBA can authorize a 120-day extension from the June 11 deadline, which would push it back to Oct. 9. The MSBA was scheduled to hold a board meeting on April 15.

    Proposed NRHS site plan
    The site plan for the proposed renovation of Nauset Regional High School. (Courtesy Nauset Building Committee)

    Both Marx and Easley said it may be necessary to ask for another 120-day extension after the October deadline, based on the current predictions about the pandemic.

    “They want to be able to commit funds to other schools,” Marx said. “They don’t want to tie up funds.”

    Greg Levasseur, chair of the building committee, said right now they’re not trying to push out too much information to residents and are waiting for town meeting and election dates become firm.

    “Part of the reason we’re kind of slowing down is that this is not really the time to be bombarding folks about the project,” Levasseur said. “We want them to deal with the crisis and their families and their personal lives. When we do have a schedule for the four towns we can regroup and move forward.”

    “I think as towns we have a conundrum right now,” said Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe. “I think it would be unreasonable for the MSBA to not allow us a further extension, given that it is the emergency order of the governor that we cannot have town meeting until he’s lifted his ban.”

    Beebe said the select board and finance committee in Eastham had unanimously endorsed the project. Levasseur said the Brewster Select Board had also endorsed it, but the town’s finance committee had not met to vote on it yet.

    currents

    This Week in Eastham

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Town Hall is closed to the public. Meetings are being conducted remotely. Check the town’s website, www.eastham-ma.gov, for information on meeting schedule changes and how to view and take part remotely.

    Tuesday, April 21

    • Charter Review Committee, 5:30 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Beach Cleanup on Hold

    The recreation dept. and chamber of commerce’s beach cleanup set for April 22 has been postponed to a date yet to be announced.

    Let the Sun Shine In

    Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe brightened the mood at the April 6 select board meeting with news that a company wants to build a 10-acre solar array close to the municipal sand pit. “It would give us new revenue of almost $700,000 a year,” she said. The town may have to issue a request for proposals, and the installation would need town meeting approval.

    Beer and Wine OK’d for the Landing

    The select board granted a seasonal beer and wine license to the new owners of the Landing, a convenience store near Campground Beach. The vote on April 6 was 4 to 1, with member Martin McDonald opposed.

    “Historically, the Landing is kind of a gathering place for young people in the area,” he said. “I’m a little upset with the combination of two things,” he said, “the young people in the area and the ice cream bar.”

    “Martin, I’m with you,” member Jamie Rivers said. “But this was already an establishment that had this type of set-up without issues, so I’m open to giving the new owners the same opportunity the previous owners had, so long as they stick to the same guidelines.”

    Boards Vote on Warrant Articles

    The select board and finance committee have very few areas of disagreement on warrant articles for the annual town meeting, now likely to be held in June.

    The board and the committee are backing the Nauset Regional High School building project, the former unanimously. The draft finance committee letter does not include a vote. In an email reply, committee chairman Jerry Cerasale wrote, “We did not vote on article 8, the NRHS building project. We had a sense of the committee and waited to see what the draft paragraph might say and any future developments. So we’ll likely vote on April 28.”

    In recommending a vote for the project, the committee’s draft letter notes that the school “does not meet current code and needs renovation.” If the member towns turn down the proposed project, a rejection that the letter states would be “fiscally imprudent,” they will lose the $36 million promised by the state toward the $132 million total cost. The committee added that if major repair were needed, the state would require that the entire existing building be brought up to code at a cost of about $97 million, borne by the towns alone. That’s $2 million more than what the four towns would pay for their share of the rebuilding project.

    The committee has asked for an analysis of the incremental costs of the school choice program, which would allow a cost-benefit analysis and discussion during the four years of building construction. “If the towns decide to curtail the program,” the letter notes, the committee “believes that the district should consolidate school buildings, close the middle school and house middle school students in the brand-new school facility.”

    The two groups unanimously recommended the creation and funding of an education, housing, and human services needs special purpose stabilization fund to support working families through subsidies for preschool and childcare services, school lunch, and an after-school elementary program. The new fund would also hold money to be tapped by the town’s affordable housing trust for workforce housing development.

    “We are in competition with all our neighboring towns to attract younger individuals and families that can both work and live in our town,” the finance committee draft letter states.

    Although the board is unanimously for a ban on commercial sale of single-use plastic water bottles by Sept. 21, 2021, the committee split 3 to 3 on the petitioned article. “Those opposed to Article 23,” the draft letter states, “believe that the Article should state that approval of neighboring towns be a condition precedent before Article 23 is endorsed.”

    At its April 6 meeting, the select board didn’t disagree with that analysis. “Since it’s a petitioned article, we can’t change anything now,” Chair Aimee Eckman said. “If it passes and we’re the only town, we can always come back at town meeting and push that effective date out until the other towns pass it.”

    The two bodies parted company decisively on a proposed general bylaw to commit the town to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from human activity to zero “at the earliest technically and economically feasible time.” The select board voted 4 to 1 in favor; the finance committee 0-6 against. “I feel like this is in line with our strategic plan,” board member Jamie Rivers said.

    The finance committee letter did not address its position. “It’s true that it does no harm,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe said of the article, “but it doesn’t say anything very specific either. They did not know what to do with this particular animal.”

    “It’s vague,” said board member Martin McDonald, who cast the lone vote against. He also voted no when the rest of the board backed a petitioned article requiring the town to push the governor and legislature to provide better security for spent nuclear fuel at the closed Pilgrim power station in Plymouth. The finance committee opposed the petition 1 to 5. —Ed Maroney

    REGIONAL SCHOOLS

    Committee Ponders Future as Long Shutdown Looms

    Safety of students and community trump concerns about MCAS

    By

    BREWSTER — The Nauset Regional School Committee was considering the possibility of a district-wide shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic when it met on March 12. Since then, the schools have closed and will most likely not reopen until at least the end of spring vacation on April 27.

    At that meeting, committee members Ed Brookshire and Amy Handel asked Supt. Tom Conrad whether school days would need to be made up or if MCAS testing would be affected by a closure.

    Conrad did not speak to making up school days and said he’s not worried about the MCAS. Instead, he said he was focused on the safety of the students and community. “We have to do what we have to do,” he said. “We see it as a community issue, not just a school issue.”

    The committee also discussed how the pandemic might affect the high school renovation project. Bond adviser Lynn Foster-Welsh of UniBank Fiscal Advisory Services pointed out that the crisis has caused interest rates to drop. “Where the market may be when we’re ready to finance — I wish I could tell you,” she said.

    The committee is planning to decide how to finance the renovation project before district town meetings are held. The most likely choices are a 20-, 25-, or 30-year bond. Foster-Welsh said that after the committee decides, it has to notify each town’s select board within seven days. Each town then has 60 days from the date of the committee vote to hold a town meeting vote on the matter.

    Chair Chris Easley brought up the possibility of town meetings being postponed, which now seems inevitable. A delay in towns’ votes could further complicate things.

    Plans for making public forums on the renovation project “virtual” are underway. Two forums have been cancelled: one planned for March 25 in Wellfleet COA and another for March 31 in Eastham.

    Conrad presented numbers for the school choice program for next year and the committee approved the opening of 32 seats in grade 6 and 13 seats in grade 7, for a total of 45 seats in the middle school; also 30 seats in grade 9 and 14 seats in grade 10, for a total of 44 seats at the high school.

    The decision comes after some Brewster residents questioned the fairness of having nearly a quarter of the population of students at the high school come from choice towns that do not contribute directly toward the project.

    But Conrad said, “I feel comfortable with these numbers.” He added that the district expects more students from Grade 8 to attend the Cape Cod Regional Technical School in 2020-21 with its new building set to open.

    The committee also approved the FY21 operating budget of $24,690,214 — a $602,226 increase from last year. The total assessment to the towns would be $11,861,180 (48.04 percent) to Brewster, $4,818,616 (19.52 percent) to Orleans, $4,798,023 (19.43 percent to Eastham) and $3,212,395 (13 percent) to Wellfleet.

    RENOVATION

    Size and Cost of Nauset High School Renovation Plan Is Debated

    School choice population is point of contention at Brewster forum

    By

    BREWSTER — There are two contrasting views of the $131,825,665 Nauset Regional High School renovation and addition project.

    One supports the multiyear effort to design a 905-student school with significant financial support from the Mass. School Building Authority. School choice students from other districts are a big part of this vision.

    Others argue that Nauset has gone too far in filling classrooms through school choice. They call for a smaller school focused on the four district towns (Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, and Wellfleet) that will pay for it.

    Both views were voiced at a Feb. 27 forum at the Brewster Ladies’ Library. Brewster has the largest share of students in the district and would be responsible for nearly half ($45.6 million) the cost of the renovation.

    After describing the path that led to the current proposal, which is eligible for a maximum state grant of $36.6 million that would reduce the bill to district taxpayers to $95.1 million, building committee chair Greg Levasseur warned that building a smaller school would require “starting all over again. The $36.6 million goes away. A smaller school for 600 to 700 kids would cost $126 million. That amount would have to be borne completely by the four towns.”

    Because of the state grant, Levasseur argued, the $131 million design actually saves the district money.

    Greg Levasseur
    Nauset Regional High School Building Committee Chair Greg Levasseur reviewed the costs of the renovation project at a forum in Brewster on Feb. 27. (Photo Ed Maroney)

    Another panelist, Dave Danish, said he was speaking for “the concerned taxpayers of the Nauset Regional High School renovation program.” That group, he said, “doesn’t question the fact that the school is tired and in need of renovation or replacement.” What it does question is building a larger school when enrollment is declining and basing its size on a steady stream of students from outside the district.

    “Of the 921 students attending, only 616 reside in our district,” Danish said. “The rest are from neighboring towns that will not pay one penny toward the $131 million. All that cost is being put on the taxpayers.”

    The home districts of the 219 school choice students send $5,000 for each of them to Nauset. Danish noted that amount doesn’t come close to the $20,500 per-pupil cost of educating them. There are also 86 students from Provincetown and Truro whose towns pay much higher tuition.

    The state average for school choice enrollment is 1.7 percent, Danish said. “At Nauset, it’s 23.7 percent, 14 times the state average,” he said. “To fill a school built for over 900 students, we will become even more dependent on students from outside our region. … We are not asking for school choice to stop but that Nauset [stay] closer to the state average.”

    John O’Reilly, a Brewster member of the Nauset Regional School Committee, said that the school would suffer without choice students and that important programs would not survive.

    “The other thing that it provides,” O’Reilly argued, “is a robust and diverse student population.” He said that the district “has been using tuition from school choice to offset the operating budget. The $1.4 million accounts for 22 to 25 teachers. The additional money allows us to open up and provide a much wider program for kids.”

    Keeping students from opting out of Nauset is a factor as well. Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson of the state Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education said, “Most districts are finding it worthwhile to bring in kids at $5,000 a head. The bigger concern we hear from local officials is that every time a school choice student leaves, it creates a hole in the district. In areas like Cape Cod and out west, the loss of school choice kids is very problematic. If you lose kids, you lose revenue, you have to cut programs, and you lose more kids. Your neighbors in Dennis-Yarmouth are losing about 400 kids to school choice, one of the largest numbers in the state.”

    When the Sturgis Charter School opened in Hyannis, O’Reilly said, Nauset High lost students. By 2014, the district was sending 25 students to Sturgis. That year, he said, the charter school was the only high school on the Cape offering an International Baccalaureate program. Then Nauset added the I.B. option, he noted, and “today there are 13 kids attending Sturgis. We’re pulling the kids back into our high school. … If our program falls behind or is lacking, parents will send their children to Sturgis or choice out to another district.”

    For the Nauset renovation project to move forward, all four towns must approve it by a simple majority at town meeting and then pass a debt exclusion at a town election.

    Levasseur said taxpayers can go to the building committee’s website (nausetbuildingproject.com) to see the estimated tax impact of the project. Based on an estimated “conservative” 4.25-percent interest rate over 25 years (the school committee will establish the term later this month), the owner of an Eastham property valued at $400,000 would pay an average of $151.12 per year, with payments declining from $200.99 in the first year (Fiscal Year 2025) to $101.46 in the last (FY 2049). A property of the same value in Wellfleet would pay an average of $125.10 per year, with payments dropping from $166.38 in the first year to $83.99 in the last.

    RENOVATION

    State Agrees to $36 Million Share of NRHS Rebuild

    Project needs approval at all four town meetings and elections

    By

    EASTHAM — The Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) approved funding for the renovation of Nauset Regional High School (NRHS) on Feb. 13 to the tune of $35.6 million — representing 27 percent of the total $131.8 million cost of the project.

    An additional $1 million in state funds is potentially available if the project gets final approval. Greg Levasseur, chair of the Nauset Building Committee, announced the MSBA decision at a meeting of the regional school committee that same day.

    Proposed NRHS site plan
    The site plan for the proposed renovation of Nauset Regional High School. (Courtesy Nauset Building Committee)

    The MSBA directors’ vote means the balance of about $95 million will fall to taxpayers in Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, and Brewster. Wellfleet’s share would be about $13 million; Eastham’s would be about $19.7 million.

    For the work to proceed, the project must be approved by eight votes in the four district towns: first at all four spring town meetings to allow the borrowing of the required funds, and then at each town election to approve Proposition 2½ debt exclusions.

    The regional school committee was scheduled to vote on the bonding method and term for the borrowing at its Feb. 13 meeting. But Chair Chris Easley of Wellfleet said the vote had been put off until at least March 23. He said the vote would take place before the first of the district town meetings, which is Wellfleet’s on April 27.

    The school committee members commended Levasseur and the building committee for their work.

    “You really have to be close to the action to understand how much work has gone into getting to an affirmative decision today,” Jim O’Leary said. “Whether this project goes forward or not is really up to the towns now.”

    School Choice Questioned

    Recent questions about the renovation have focused on school choice at the high school.

    There are 921 students currently enrolled at the school; 219, or 24 percent, are school-choice students from out-of-district towns, and 86 more are tuition-paying students from Truro and Provincetown. Thus, school-choice and other tuition-paying students make up about one-third of the school population.

    The MSBA projects a population of 905 students by the completion of the project in 2024.

    Nauset High courtyard
    Nauset High School’s courtyard. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    A group calling itself Concerned Voters of the NRHS Renovation has argued that it’s unfair for the district towns to fund the entire project with so many students coming from outside the district.

    David Danish represented the group at a Brewster Finance Committee meeting on Jan. 29 when a presentation on the project was made.

    “We have no problem funding a school for the students in the Nauset region but we do have a problem along with the other taxpayers in the four towns funding a school for the students who are coming to our school with no skin in the game,” Danish said at the meeting. “That is, one-third of the students who attend NRHS are not directly involved with the capital expenditure of approximately $132 million.”

    Each town’s share of the cost is based on enrollment numbers. As of January, 13.7 percent of all students living in the district are from Wellfleet; 20.7 percent from Eastham; 19.4 percent from Orleans; and 46.4 percent from Brewster. Levasseur said those numbers are constantly in flux.

    Erika Meads, a member of a parent group supporting the renovation, said school choice should not be a major factor in considering the project’s merits. She said if the plan is not approved now it will only cost the towns more in the future.

    “People have been working for four years to come up with the most cost-effective solution,” Meads said. “It’s not like people above us at the state are coming up with this plan — these are people who live in the communities.”

    The parent group, she added, is working to distribute factual information on the project to district voters.

    Levasseur said the building committee will be producing updated information in flyers and online at nausetbuildingproject.com. Forums are scheduled in the four towns, including one in Wellfleet on March 25 and one in Eastham on March 31.

    LEARNING

    A Tour Explores the NRHS Renovation Landscape

    Safety, systems, and space are top needs

    By

    NRHS
    Not exactly a lounge at NRHS. Better places for teachers and staff to gather are part of the plan. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    EASTHAM — Nauset Regional High School (NRHS) opened its doors in 1972, and few alterations have since been made to its ahead-of-its-time open-campus design. Now the district is planning a nearly $140 million renovation project that would expand and reconfigure the facility entirely.

    The school is offering tours for interested members of the community. This reporter was the sole tourist who signed up on Dec. 10. Principal Chris Ellsasser, who graduated from Nauset in 1982 and became its principal in 2018, was my guide. The one-hour tour is always given by Ellsasser after the school day ends.

    Security and Comfort

    Two roads lead into and around the campus; neither is designated as an entrance or exit. There are multiple parking lots along the way, none indicating its relationship to the administrative offices.

    Having graduated from NRHS in 2013, I know my way around the place, but as I parked my car and walked toward the main entrance, I noted the lack of wayfinding signs and realized a first-time visitor might easily be unsure about how to approach the buildings.

    The unstructured array of entry points into the school is a cause for concern, according to Ellsasser, and an important part of what the renovation will address.

    The proposed project will provide two access points to the school complex, one next to the administration office and one next to the gymnasium. Both will be gated, and gates will be electronically locked once school starts, according to Ellsasser.

    Parking lots will be designated: a new student parking lot will be built in front of the school, an athletic parking lot will be configured next to the football field, and the existing parking lot on the side of the school will be for faculty and visitors.

    Students will still move from building to building outdoors, Ellsasser explained, around a “town square” or courtyard at the center of the campus. The intention, he said, is to better secure the school while providing a feeling of community and a place for students to gather.

    A walk through the gymnasium, a connecting hallway, and the cafeteria offers no views. That’s because, Ellsasser said, when the school was built windows were seen as an invitation to distraction.

    That theory has changed, he said, as he showed me how the cafeteria will be pushed back to allow for the courtyard, while the gymnasium and fitness center will be reconfigured to overlook it. Large windows are planned to allow for more visibility and natural light.

    NRHS classroom
    Bringing natural light into learning spaces is one renovation priority. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Increased visibility for teachers and students will improve security, according to Ellsasser. And more natural light, he said, has been found to improve learning.

    “This whole design is about creating a real comfortable environment,” said the principal.

    Systems in Fatigue

    En route to the arts building, we stopped to look at a mural on an outside wall. An animal seemed to have also been admiring the artwork –– we saw a large hole where a critter had clearly made a new home.

    Repairs on the aging facility are a daily challenge, Ellsasser said. “There is a certain amount of fatigue that comes with a place that is so stressed.”

    The diverse workshop programs (art metal, guitar-making, woodworking, sculpture, etc.) are an integral part of the academics at Nauset. But the shop rooms are like old garages, stocked with old tools and worn tables.

    Here, Ellsasser told me that the primary issue is not aesthetics but ventilation.

    Heating and lighting are also problems in the science building. The lab spaces are larger than classrooms and well-equipped, but dark. And as we walked from one classroom to the next, two rooms were overheated and one was cold.

    Crammed Into Corners

    Crowded conditions were on view throughout the tour. Again and again at entry points to classroom areas, we encountered stairs that led directly into classrooms, rather than into hallways. Often that means to get to class one has to make a trip outside to a different entrance or walk through one classroom to get to another.

    Locker bays have turned into teacher offices or classrooms in remote areas of the school. One example I saw were the architecture and human rights classrooms, which were crammed into corners of the building. The assistant principal’s office is in a distant back room as well.

    The new design calls for a new research center with space for the school’s growing robotics programs and high ceilings for using drones, Ellsasser said. It also calls for a new library and research center. The plan includes a new location for a performing arts space to seat 750; the current capacity is 600. The hope, Ellsasser said, is that these amenities will make the school more useful to the broader community.

    The plan also includes more classrooms, some collaborative classroom spaces where students studying in different areas of campus can work together, and updated offices.

    “We want this to be a thriving place on a Wednesday night,” Ellsasser said, “but we’re asking for what we need.”

    NRHS Renovation Report

    The Nauset School Building Committee is now finalizing its proposal for the Nauset Regional High School renovation. It is due to be submitted to the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) on Jan. 2. The MSBA works with municipalities to assess size and cost appropriateness of school projects. They also dedicate funds — their revenues are a slice of the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax — to school building.

    Nauset is seeking $40 million in state funds for its renovation, and a decision on that will come at a Feb. 13 meeting, according to MSBA Executive Director Jack McCarthy.

    Articles to fund the rest of the project — an estimated $100 million — will be presented at the spring town meetings in the four towns that make up the district (Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet). All four towns must vote to approve the project in order for it to move forward.

    This is the first of an Independent series on the facility and the decisions ahead.

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