As CMS project wraps up, officials tout $7M in savings
Residents will get a smaller-than-expected tax increase over the coming years, attributed to a mix of good management and luck.
Acton’s new middle school is complete.
Eight months after students moved into the building, school leaders are heaping praise on project staffers. Some hail this as a model for future town builds.
“It’s pretty surreal,” schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter said at a Middle School Building Committee meeting last week.
Voters approved roughly $102.8 million for the middle school in 2022 and greenlighted another $7.2 million in 2023 as project supporters warned of rising construction costs and inflation.
The construction team surpassed its original appropriation. But officials dodged the worst of the price hikes, and Project Manager Hunter Apteker said staff expect to return just under $7 million to the town. He said he’s never seen a project return this much money.
That’s money on paper, though, not actual paper money.
Superintendent Hunter told The Acton Bridge earlier this year that any unused funding for the middle school simply wouldn’t be borrowed, and residents would get a smaller-than-expected tax increase over the coming years.
In an email, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur confirmed Acton doesn’t have unspent CMS money on hand and said she expects the town will include an article on next year’s Town Meeting warrant to formally rescind that borrowing authorization.
Experts credited a mix of good luck and good management for the savings.
“A promise made and promise kept is very valuable these days,” said Select Board Chair Mark Howell.
The middle school project did hit some speed bumps, and Vincent Miller from the town-contracted firm LiRo Hill said crews are still ironing out issues with the building’s climate control system.
Debt from the middle school is also hitting taxpayers, with one estimate ahead of the 2023 vote pinning the annual tax impact for a $1 million home at $989.34.
Kudos — and turkeys
For all the money, multiple building committee members relayed praise for the new building.
K-8 School Committee Chair Andrew Herchek flagged a “cliff of projects” in the town’s future, potentially including new public works and public safety buildings. He recommended compiling “lessons learned” from this effort that could help in the near future.
Finance Committee member and guidelines Chair Don Kupka hadn’t heard about the $7 million savings when asked last Thursday night. “That’s great to hear,” he said.
Having raised the alarm about Acton’s debt and rising tax bills, he said, “That would be great if we don’t need it all.”
New campus athletic fields will remain off-limits while freshly planted grass takes root. In the meantime, a picture of a flock of turkeys perched on a railing prompted laughs from building committee members.
Miller said the big birds “are here every day,” and building committee panelist Heather Bout noted, “That is a true connection to nature,” in line with one of the middle school’s architectural goals.
“I don’t know if they’re going to start playing basketball yet,” Miller said, “but they’re everywhere else.”
