State board approves school roof replacements in Worcester, other projects in region – Worcester Telegram

The Massachusetts School Building Authoritys board of directors on Thursday approved four school roof replacements in Worcester and four other projects in the region.

In Worcester, Tatnuck Magnet School, Vernon Hill School and Worcester East Middle School will receive funding from the MSBA to fully replace their roofs, while Burncoat Street Preparatory School got the OK for a partial roof replacement.

In addition, the board approved a boiler replacement at Lincoln Street School.

Combined, those five projects are expected to cost close to $10 million; the MSBA will cover about 75% of that total.

Elsewhere in the region, the MSBA directors also on Thursday approved $2.3 million of an expected $3.1 million needed to replace part of the roof and boiler at Fitchburgs South Street Elementary School; $751,188 for a $1.5 million partial roof replacement at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School; and $365,276 of the $1.2 million required to replace the boiler at Southboros Mary E. Finn Elementary School.

All of those projects are to be completed through the MSBAs Accelerated Repair Program, which is intended to help pay for roof, boiler, and window and door replacements in a relatively quick time frame.

"The Accelerated Repair Program allows us to make critical repairs to more schools in less time," state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, whose office oversees the MSBA, said in a statement, adding that the projects "make schools more energy efficient and generate significant cost savings."

Worcester in particular has benefited from the program, submitting and getting approved for around four projects a year over the last decade. This year, the district has shifted its focus from window and door replacements to upgrading roofs; according to the school departments budget book last year, it planned to submit 15 school roof replacements to the MSBA for approval from 2019 through 2023.

While almost all of those schools are elementary schools, one of the exceptions is Worcester East Middle, a nearly century-old school that has regularly been on the districts submission list to the MSBA for a more comprehensive replacement or renovation.

But school officials decided the roof project couldnt wait for the school to be accepted into the authoritys core project pipeline. Worcester East Middle currently sits behind Burncoat High School as the districts No. 2 priority for replacement/renovation, meaning it could be years or even a decade before the school is rebuilt or renovated, given the MSBAs lengthy approval process for comprehensive building projects.

While Worcester East Middle is in the MSBAs Accelerated Repair Program, it wont be able to be submitted as a core project, according to Brian Allen, the districts chief financial and operations officer. Typically, Accelerated Repair Projects are completed in a year and a half.

"But once the roof is completed, we still intend to submit for full renovation under the core program," Allen said, adding the district still sees it as the second most pressing school construction project behind Burncoat.

Scott OConnell can be reached at Scott.OConnell@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottOConnellTG

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State board approves school roof replacements in Worcester, other projects in region - Worcester Telegram