School Committee approves $114 million capital improvement plans request

Year two of the Dartmouth School Committee’s 10-year improvement plan will include 14 capital improvement requests that comes out to a total of $114,565,000.

Out of the 14 requests are three large ticket items: $5.6 million for Memorial Stadium renovations; $6 million for replacing the high school roof; and an estimated $100 million for new or renovated schools.

“That’s $111 million out of the 114 … $2.9 million is what we’re asking for this year in normal capital items,” said School Committee member John Nunes during a School Committee meeting on Monday, Dec. 8.

He said, “Those three big ticket items … are something that’s going to last a long time.”

Assistant Superintendent James Kiely noted that $100 million for new or renovated schools is a placeholder as it won’t be known how much the project would truly cost until a study is conducted.

He explained that the main goal of the request is to garner support to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority about replacing the middle school building.

“I think the important point is that it’s critical that we begin the process of replacing our three 80 year old [buildings],” Kiely said.

Renovating Memorial Stadium has been an ongoing project that began in 2018 and aims to “preserve that facility for generations,” Kiely said.

Memorial Stadium was built as a memorial for those who served in WWII, which Kiely called an “important part of the community.”

In addition to renovating the stadium’s facilities and making it fully ADA compliant, the renovation project also aims to preserve and maintain the concrete structure.

The $6 million ticket item to replace the high school’s roof is the estimated total cost to complete the project. The school district was recently accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s grant program after Spring Town Meeting members voted to fund a feasibility study. The grant program could fund approximately 50% of the total cost.

Another request includes $600,000 to repair and replace HVAC systems with the goal of ensuring appropriate conditions in the schools.

“We’re fighting a battle every day in this district to try and have temperature controlled environments,” Kiely said. “And our newest building … needs a lot of work amongst the other buildings needing more.”

The plan would include replacing equipment in the Quinn School, most of which is the original equipment from when the school was built in 1967.

“The Quinn School is going to be in existence for a good long time. It’s a well built school, and it hopefully can last, but it needs better work,” Kiely said.

The plan also includes a request for $950,000 to reconstruct the high school’s track, an increase from last year’s $567,000 proposal.

“We were way low,” Kiely said.

“It’s a 25-year-old track, which is at least five years beyond its useful life and maybe more,” Kiely said, noting that the track is currently being used daily for physical education classes, athletics and by community members.

Kiely noted that as more time passes, the more expensive replacing the track could cost, due to the subsurface most likely now needing to be reconstructed in addition to the track’s surface.

The remaining requests include replacing a school bus and a maintenance truck, purchasing new music and athletic equipment, renovating bathrooms, replacing telephones, replacing flooring to get rid of asbestos, replacing technology hardware and modernizing playgrounds.

Schoool Committee members unanimously approved the requests, which will now appear at the next capital budget planning committee meeting.