By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
January 13, 2009 05:04 am DANVERS — The state will foot at least half the cost to fix up Danvers High, Town Manager Wayne Marquis said. "We are doing everything we can to maximize this reimbursement," said Marquis, who added this was an "initial reimbursement rate," not a final one. Marquis learned of the 49.11 percent minimum reimbursement rate at a meeting he and other town and school officials attended with Massachusetts School Building Authority representatives in Boston on Wednesday. Marquis said the rate could increase to the mid-50s. The reimbursement rate for the project has been a matter of speculation after the state changed the way it oversees school building projects with the creation of the School Building Authority and issued a moratorium on projects that lasted until 2007. The price tag for the renovations must still be determined by a feasibility study, for which the town and the state are hammering out an agreement on how to work together. The town could increase its reimbursement rate by opting for energy-efficient renovations or a solid maintenance plan, Superintendent Lisa Dana said. A "green school" design would add up to 2 percent to the reimbursement rate, for instance. The project is needed to fix old or inadequate heating and ventilation systems, address the undersized auditorium, update the 1964 academic wing and add a science wing. The renovation of the high school had been part of a plan to build a high school and middle school complex at the high school campus on Cabot Road. In 2000, the plan was scuttled when voters defeated a Proposition 21âÑ2 override of tax levy limits. The town went ahead with a $30 million renovation of Holten Richmond Middle School on Conant Street, a project completed in 2005, with the state footing 62 percent of this bill. The high school project got the nod for state funding in 2007.
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