Treasurer Cahill, The MSBA and The Town of Norwood Break Ground On The New Norwood High School

Norwood is the first community to join the “Model School” program

BOSTON, MA– State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Chair of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”) and Katherine Craven, MSBA Executive Director attended the historic ground-breaking ceremony today for the new Norwood High School. It is the first high school selected to be a part of the MSBA’s “Model School” program. Norwood has worked with the MSBA to adapt the Whitman- Hanson High School’s design to fit its own needs and in doing so has saved taxpayers an estimated $30 million.

“This school will actively demonstrate that a learning facility can be modern, beautiful and cost effective,” said Treasurer Cahill. “It is also proof that when local communities and State agencies work together, everyone benefits.”

"The ‘Model School’ program accelerated the design process and saved taxpayer dollars,” said MSBA Executive Director Katherine Craven. “The Whitman- Hanson High School design was used and adapted to create a perfect fit for the town of Norwood.”

The “Model School” program allows projects to move through the MSBA’s pipeline faster and reduces the uncertainty of construction cost inflation. Reduction of design and construction time will lessen the impact a major construction process has on students, teachers and other building occupants.

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 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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