FROM APRIL 2008: Improved communications with aldermen are helping Newton, Mass., Mayor David Cohen win support for a $56.3 million appropriation for the Newton North High School building project, which he has promised will cost no more than $197.5 million. In January 2007, aldermen approved a $141 million appropriation, which Cohen said would cover the total cost of the project. Five months ago, aldermen began expressing frustration at what they described as a lack of communication and accountability from the mayor as they learned about asbestos problems, rising costs, and a delay in finalizing a guaranteed maximum price.
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EARLIER: Newton, Mass., residents facing a $197.5 million price tag for the new Newton North High School may have to gear up for 15 additional school building projects that could total at least that much. The city's School Committee is considering a facilities plan that calls for building four new elementary schools and renovating 11 other elementary and middle schools.
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FROM FEBURARY 2008: Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill has warned Newton Mayor David B. Cohen that extensive design changes would have to be part of any meaningful plan to save money on the construction of Newton North High School. The project has come under increasing fire since the estimated price tag for the school rose from $141 million to more than $186 million; the final cost likely could go even higher.
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EARLIER: With the estimated cost of Newton North High School ballooning to $186 million, parents and officials in Newton, Mass., are locked in a citywide argument over whether to stop construction until spending can be brought under control. In the process, a city that values education is asking a question that stabs at its civic soul: Just how much is too much for a public high school?
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FROM JANUARY: As the cost of the most expensive high school in Massachusetts history was spiraling skyward this summer, Newton Mayor David B. Cohen allowed the architect responsible for the school's costly design to withdraw from active participation in the project. Architect Graham Gund and his firm bowed out of an active role in the Newton North High School project in early August. The agreement was not well known in the city until this week, and its existence appeared to fuel the mounting criticism of the school project, which has jumped from an estimated $141 million last year to $186 million in recent weeks. A spokesman for the city, however, says the transition--which put Gund's partner in the project, the firm Dore & Whittier, in the lead architectural role--was always planned.
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Just a year ago, the proposed Newton North High School in Newton, Mass., was supposed to be $141 million, a figure that would have made it the most expensive school ever built in the state. Then, it went up to $154 million. Then, $171 million. And now, to the community's astonishment, the price is pegged at $186 million. And rising. Mayor insists the city can afford the building. At the same time, he is pushing for a property tax override of roughly $25 million, which he says is for other city costs, not the new school. But some Newton residents, local officials and the state's School Building Authority are skeptical. Some wonder not only about Newton North's price ceiling and how the city will pay for it, but also where they erred.
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JULY 2007: Construction has begun on the new Newton North High School, the most expensive high school project in Massachusetts. The cost may run as high as $160 million, officials say. The campus will include will include a state-of-the-art theater for student productions, a glass-walled cafeteria and student-run restaurant, and a new outdoor stadium. The architect is Graham Gund Architects.
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APRIL 2007: It is already tagged as the most expensive high school in Massachusetts: a $154.6 million showplace, designed by Graham Gund Architects and awaited with some anxiety by the residents of Newton. The new Newton North High School's design includes a new outdoor stadium, an indoor swimming pool, state-of-the-art vocational education workshops, a glass-walled cafeteria, a restaurant, and a trendy zigzag shape. But now, even before ground has been broken, some are wondering how the cost got so huge, and whether the project is ushering in a new era of budget-busting high schools. Newton officials are struggling to trim to project to meet Mayor David Cohen's target cost of $141 million.
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