Treasurer Cahill and the MSBA Announce The "My Ideal School" Contest Winners

Winners received $100 savings bonds and the Grand Prize Winner received $200 savings bond

BOSTON – State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and Katherine Craven, Executive Director of the MSBA, presented savings bonds to over a dozen students at the State House today. The students were the winners of the 3^rd Annual “My Ideal School” Contest. The contest was open to 1^st grade students and was designed to promote a discussion between students and teachers about how to create effective learning facilities. Students were asked to create images of what their ideal school would look like and to describe three things they love about their school.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for students and teachers to work together to articulate their needs,” said State Treasurer Cahill. “The contest also helps the MSBA understand which aspects of schools are most important to the people working and learning in them everyday.”

The winners each received a $100 savings bond. The Grand Prize Winner is Wally Heller from the Cunningham School in Milton. He received a $200 savings bond for his outstanding entry. The savings bonds were generously provided by Sovereign Bank.

"Treasurer Cahill and I are pleased to celebrate the work of these students,” said Katherine Craven. “I congratulate all of the winners and encourage them to continue to help us understand how we can improve school construction across the Commonwealth."

During the next five years, the MSBA will collaborate with municipalities to equitably invest up to $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 is committed to protecting the taxpayer’s dollar by improving the school building grant process and avoiding the mistakes of the past in the funding and construction of school facilities.

To date, the MSBA has made approximately $6 billion in reimbursements to cities and towns for school construction projects inherited from the former program -- $3.8 billion of which are accelerated “payments-in-full” to districts which had been waiting years for a partial payment from the state prior to the creation of the MSBA. Those payments have saved municipalities millions of dollars in interest costs and reinvigorated a system that once had $11 billion in outstanding obligations. In its four year history, the MSBA has successfully contained the Commonwealth’s formerly rampant and unsustainable financial liability for the costs of 1,150 local school construction projects and last year was able to reopen a sustainable, reformed grant program as a result of programmatic reforms and sound fiscal management.

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