The Beacon - Episode 15: School Building from Representative Mark Falzone on Vimeo.

One of the votes I am most proud of was to establish the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). As a leader of the movement to get state school building assistance back on track, I took great pride in helping to create the mechanism that has done so much for our local municipalities and provided outstanding financial assistance to support excellent schools in every community of my district. The Director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, Katherine Craven, was the recent guest on my cable TV show, “The Beacon,” and her essential work in the Office of the State Treasurer has made the MSBA a model of how we should respect the taxpayers while promoting the best quality education possible for our students.

I appreciate Ms. Craven’s thanks for my helping to get projects moving in all four communities I represent, because I know her role was essential as director in making recommendations to the authority. She and I both recognize that in today’s world local communities cannot afford on their own to finance the building, renovation, and repair of their school buildings. State assistance and partnership are necessary.

I was deeply concerned with the condition of this state assistance prior to the Legislature’s creation of the MSBA in 2004. The previous system was essentially bankrupt. It had lost focus and was not keeping its promises. Local communities were fronting money for schools and not getting repaid for the state’s promised share. As one of the leaders for change who found this situation unacceptable, I supported the reform movement that led to the establishment of the MSBA.

Huge improvements happened almost immediately. The backlog of projects was cleared up and the criteria set for creating new projects. Controls were put in place with information gathered through the new process, and standards were set so that a few luxurious “Taj Mahal” schools would not drain away all the money to just a few communities at the expense of all the others. Better budgeting practices were instituted and better business practices required. Reliably funded by a penny on the sales tax, this planning has saved $3 ½ billion over the past five years as bankers no longer get double interest from both short-term community borrowing and again from long-term state bonding all on the very same projects. Now communities know they will get paid the state monies that are due and will get paid on time. With the Legislature’s support, we have a sustainable program that is saving the taxpayers money and ensuring that the schools are built and renovated efficiently, in a transparent process, and with proper cost controls.

In one example from my district, Lynnfield saved almost $2 million in interest costs alone from four school building projects when the MSBA stepped in to clear up the backlog of old, previously approved projects that were not receiving reimbursements that were due. Now, as the school districts come to the MSBA with problems of overcrowding, and tired and structurally unsound buildings, those most in need are first in line for money available. Quality is required by the MSBA to protect every taxpayer dollar, and reuse and renovation are planned where possible and where it makes economic sense.

Saugus will now have a much improved, modernized Belmonte Middle School. The MSBA will partner to find the right size solution that the town can afford, the best value on the dollar for our students as the scope of the project is determined. I was personally pleased that Ms. Craven recognized that “this important project could have fallen through the cracks if you had not pushed us, but that will not happen thanks to your advocacy.”

The most recent good news concerns two Wakefield school projects that have been major priorities of mine, both of which are now in the pipeline for state funds after the vote this past week at the MSBA’s most recent meeting which I attended in person. Working with community leaders, our Wakefield legislative delegation will now see commitments to build a performing arts auditorium and to renovate existing classrooms at Wakefield High School, and also to do the work needed on the Galvin Middle School.

School building problems in Lynn also received necessary assistance from the MSBA. The questionable site chosen for the Lynn Classical High School prior to the existence of the MSBA led to problems of a disconcerting, uneven, sinking of the school’s foundation. This was resolved in time to avoid a real disaster, and pointed to the need, now in place, for every school project to have a competent professional project manager. Now Lynn also has in the pipeline for state assisted funding the project at the Marshall Middle School.

I thank Katherine Craven for her kind words of appreciation for the role of the Legislature in establishing this partnership for the best quality schools we can afford, and for her own work to make this model agency, the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a successful and efficiently run reality.