The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and the City of Somerville today announced an agreement on a scope of work to renovate the East Somerville Community School (ESCS), a K thru 8 facility badly damaged by fire on December 9, 2007. After working in close cooperation, the MSBA is recommending to its Board of Directors that Somerville be moved into the schematic design phase of its capital pipeline. In this phase, detailed designs will be produced for the renovation of the 118,500-sq. ft. building, of which over 90,000 sq. ft. will be paid for by the MSBA.
The MSBA is collaborating with municipalities to equitably invest $2.5 billion in schools across the Commonwealth by finding the right-sized, most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solutions to create safe and sound learning environments. The MSBA has reformed the Commonwealth’s formerly rampant and unsustainable program, which had accumulated $11 billion in debt. In 2007, as a result of programmatic reforms and sound fiscal management, the MSBA was able to reopen a sustainable, reformed grant program. In its five year history, the MSBA has made approximately $6.5 billion in reimbursements to cities, towns and regional school districts for school construction projects. These timely payments have saved municipalities over $2.9 billion in avoided local interest costs and have provided much needed cash flow to municipalities in these difficult economic times.