Burncoat School Building Project

At a glance

What: the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) project to replace or renovate Burncoat High School and Burncoat Middle School, now in the feasibility study (module 3 of 9 per Joseph M. Petty).
Where it stands: ongoing. Referred to the Education Committee (a meeting hoped for in October).
Next: the Council will eventually be asked for loan authorization.

The Burncoat School Building Committee was to vote on 2026-09-30 to send its preliminary design program (about 2,000 pages) to the MSBA with eight options: base repair, add/renovate and new construction, each for the high school alone or high and middle schools together.
The vote picks no option; a preferred schematic follows.

In the report, new construction of both schools (about 2,125 students) is estimated at roughly $635-640 million.
Petty said Doherty High cost about $300 million and a high school alone would be around $435 million (per captions).
The city's share assumes a 50/50 MSBA split.

CFO Tim McGourthy said debt service would reach about $30 million a year by year six or seven of a 30-plus-year obligation.
The administration proposes putting $15 million into a reserve (the New High School Fund; see MSBA Stabilization Fund and New High School Fund) by using unused tax levy capacity (about $26 million available) and free cash up to $7.5 million, with about $17.8 million of assumed interest at 2.5%.
For the $15 million of levy he gave per-household figures of about $192 a year for an average single-family home and $283 for a three-family.
The average commercial/industrial property would be about $1,345 (captions; the apartment figure was garbled).

Tony Economou and Eric D. Batista warned of hard tradeoffs against police hiring, roads, parks and other schools (Worcester East Middle could cost about $300 million).
Khrystian E. King (Education Committee chair) wants to be involved and asked about capacity, MSBA formula changes for gateway cities and who from the Council sits on the building committee. The answer, garbled in the captions, named one current councilor, a former councilor and School Committee members.
Kathleen M. Toomey spoke strongly for the project and equity.
Satya B. Mitra urged doing only what is affordable and securing funding first.

Referred to the Education Committee (a meeting hoped for in October).
Reports adopted: King's report on MMA advocacy for gateway-city school funding (13k) and on projected annual payments from the $15 million commitment (13l).
The Council will eventually be asked for loan authorization.

About 56 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-09-29 - City Council	56

Burncoat School Building Project Meeting - October 30, 2026 - City calendar lists a Burncoat school building project meeting on October 30 at 6:00 PM.
2026-09-29 - City Council — Informational communication 8.31A presented by Chief of Public Facilities James Bedard and the capital projects director (Eric D. Batista, McGourthy also answering); long discussion of cost, tax impact and tradeoffs; King's two report orders adopted; referred to Education.