To the editor:
The solution to the Marblehead High School roof project is simple, at least as laid out by the School Committee and administration. Defer the HVAC work, and use the $5.6m approved in 2022 to replace the roof. They’ve identified that the issues aren’t very pressing and weren’t prioritized, and the cost of the roof replacement has not gone up.
But we all know none of that is true. Any homeowner knows you don’t let your roof leak for three years. It’s not going to fix itself, and the problems compound. It’s absurd to try to convince people who have been dealing with years of soaring costs that replacing the roof still costs what it would have in 2022. Also, somehow the project manager didn’t actually look at the roof and a full feasibility study wasn’t done before they requested the money.
The fact is that the School Committee is so inept that they kicked an uninvestigated $5.6m line item down the road for three years, and now they are trying to gaslight us to cover their irresponsible actions and demand more money from the town when it’s already faced with a must-pass override to pay our educators fairly. I am all for paying more to the schools, and I fully support the coming override. It just really stings that so much of the tax increase is due to our School Committee and administration mismanaging our money, and all they can tell us is that nothing is their fault. The sentiment I hear is that this is a deliberate attempt to tank the override intended to fairly compensate our children’s educators and get our schools back on track.
Henry Gwazda
Mohawk Road
