On June 2, voters will determine the future of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, when they go to the polls to weigh in on the proposed renovation and addition for the 67-year-old school.
A simple majority at the ballot box will decide the question, which asks if voters will allow the high school committee to borrow nearly $333.5 million in bonds to renovate and expand the school.
“It’s going to have a generational impact on the education that we provide,” said Sally Rizzo, one of 25 school building committee members who have been working since 2022 to bring the project to voters.
The journey to this point goes back much further, however. Attempts to secure funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) grant program failed five times before the high school finally was accepted.
State reimbursements total at least $77 million, but the project will lose out on these funds if a voting majority says no to the borrowing measure, leaving more than $200 million in urgently-needed repairs to be funded entirely by the towns.
“Something is going to need to be done anyway, and if this fails and we lose the state money, we have to go back and figure out how to do [it] piecemeal… which will take years,” Ms. Rizzo said.
The election itself is history in the making. Never before have all six towns opened their polls on the same day for a single Islandwide issue. Voting takes place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday in each town.
A positive Islandwide majority would clear the way for a two-and-a-half-year renovation and addition, updating and expanding the high school at a net cost of about $256.5 million, not including approximatey $147 million in debt service for the bonds. There is also the potential for further state grants to help offset the cost to Island taxpayers, school officials have said.
The building committee has been hosting public forums and house parties throughout the year and twice-weekly tours of the high school all May, to give voters a first-hand look at conditions there. Built in the late 1950s, the school is plagued by obsolete mechanical equipment and systems that fail with a frequency that teachers and students alike have said is getting in the way of education.
“It just makes it really hard,” high school senior Bella Webster told the Gazette earlier this month.
Under the leaking roof, classrooms and other facilities — including career and technical workshops, a key aspect of the comprehensive high school’s program — are dilapidated, undersized and out of compliance with current state educational standards.
“These problems will not go away if this project fails,” superintendent of schools Richard Smith told the Gazette.
As measured by the annual Oct. 1 school census, there were 704 students on the high school campus last Oct. 1, including 178 seniors, while eighth-graders in town schools numbered 174. There also were 189 fifth-graders, most of whom would start as freshmen in the rebuilt school if the project goes forward and the proposed timeline is met.
Work would begin next summer on the two-story addition, which is expected to take two years. The school would be completed by spring, 2030, according to the schedule posted at mvrhsbuildingproject.info.
The current school would continue to be used while work on the addition takes place. Students and teachers would then move into the new building while the rest of the school is renovated, with the oldest parts demolished and rebuilt.
Architects’ drawings of the proposed school show a roomy, light-filled common space and adjoining cafeteria that connect a new, two-story classroom wing with the performing arts center, entered from the second floor by a wide staircase.
The plan also calls for renovations of the gymnasium, including a new practice gym that can be used for wrestling meets and other activities, and sweeping improvements to facilities for career and technical programs and special education.
In developing the project, the school building committee considered a range of conceptual designs by Tappé Architects, from a simple code update of the existing facility to a completely new school.
The all-new options were quickly discarded as unrealistically expensive, while high school administrator Sam Hart said the code update would have been a bare-bones renovation falling short of current state educational standards.
The financial impact of the project would be shared by all the towns by raising property taxes for 25 to 30 years beginning in 2028. A tax impact calculator on the MVRHS building project website shows how much local taxes would rise in each town.
Under the terms of a 2022 agreement between all six municipalities, based on their high school enrollments and property values, the funding formula will hit some taxpayers harder than others.
Residents could see their annual taxes rise as much as $181 for residents to $670 for non-resident property owners based on properties worth $1 million, depending on which town they live in, with Oak Bluffs and Tisbury homeowners facing the highest burden.
The districtwide election, which requires only a simple majority of all voters, has divided Islanders between those who feel the project is prohibitively expensive and others who say it’s too good an opportunity to pass up.
Rick Homans, whose nomination to the Tisbury finance and advisory committee was expected to be confirmed at Thursday night’s select board meeting, said his town’s taxpayers already are carrying a heavy burden from the Tisbury School project.
“There’s a frustration and a sense that the taxpayers are already overburdened, especially compared to other Island towns,” he said.
Should the high school project fail at the ballot box, or if there is a tie, the MSBA will withdraw its funding pledge and all planning for the high school project will end.
“There’s no money,” said former school committee member Michael Watts, who chairs a citizens group supporting the ballot measure.
Mr. Smith said this is likely the Vineyard high school’s last chance at funding through the MSBA.
“This opportunity is not going to come again,” he said.
Diagrams, drawings and other details about the proposed high school are posted at mvrhsbuildingproject.info.
This article appears in May 29, 2026.
To burden the community with more property taxes, for 25 to 30 years (which means forever,) when there is already an affordability crisis for all but a handful of people on island is, in my opinion, unconscionable. The notion it takes a third of a billion dollars to build a high school for our small community is something I simply can’t comprehend. We can do better, we must do better than to continue to crush people with another tax we simply cannot afford.
The back patting for the big vote is comical. Islanders only pay 25 cents on the dollar for any property tax based expenditure. Said differently non-resident home owners pay 75 % of the bill and can’t vote. Edgartown is considering an exemption for residents that will tip the scale even further in the non-resident direction. There is no incentive to spend money wisely when it mostly isn’t your money.
I can’t vote but we will not frequent any restaurants or give money generously to the many charities we have supported. I will purchase items from off island instead of on island.
You and the poorly run state of Massachusetts have taken the island charm from me and my family. We will spend and donate our money elsewhere that appreciates us.
Vote NO! The proposed budget is outrageous and this will be an unfair burden to island taxpayers in an already difficult economic situation. Government needs to be better stewards of our hard earned tax dollars.
Property tax will increase by somewhere between $30 and $35 per $100,000 of assessed value PER YEAR and if the school isn’t built now, with significant state funding, you’ll eventually be on the hook for a whole lot more
With a project of this scale, it is disappointing that our residents were not offered any real insight into what an alternative “Plan B” or “Plan C” for the High School might look like if this proposed plan is deemed too ambitious by the voters. The lack of any serious alternative approach tells me that we haven’t done our homework.
You have got to be kidding me. Clearly this is another attempt to tell stories. There was a plan A, B and C as mandated by process through the MSBA. The committee followed that and it is well documented in both Newspapers and public meeting minutes. But you only get to vote on one. This is the plan the committee of 25 from all towns chose. As for the commentor about +500M. I guess that is another case of I have not read the newspapers or been part of any meetings. At No time has this project been slated to cost that. Never. It goes to show that censorship does not happen in the comments section and that we can publish things that just are not true. I hope everyone watching the complaints from Tisbury in this article gets you to shake your heads. Tisbury made its bed. Those people know who they are and yet we have some perpetuating throwing money out the door. Your money. Tax money from every transaction in the state. We the citizens get some of our money and more back.
Please vote No for all the obvious reasons.
$300 million now is actually over $500 million after the loan is paid off !!
Why would anyone want to saddle this much debt on to taxpayer’s, especially the retired and those who are struggling enough with property taxes and insurance ?
Vote yes. It’s now or never.
I want my kids to succeed. I’m voting yes. Yes for our kids, yes for our teachers.
I will vote for this, but to the school board: please acknowledge the hundreds of thousands spent on an athletic field plan designed by an architect that is being disregarded to place 2 fields in. One of which is in front of the school, which makes no sense and only serves certain teams. Taxpayer dollars were spent on this- and this plan should be used. I have no doubt we will be asked to spend more money on these fields in the next years.
To quote the article:
Residents could see their annual taxes rise as much as $181 for residents to $670 for non-resident property owners, depending on which town they live in, with Oak Bluffs and Tisbury homeowners facing the highest burden.
I’d advise everyone to check out the calculator on the project website – it costs a lot more – especially if you live in Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven. Misleading journalism.
https://www.mvrhsbuildingproject.info/tax-calculator-home
I struggle with this because of that one picture you show – big open ceiling is such a waste of space, if a second story is needed just build it – this building doesn’t need to be pretty it needs to be functional. Where can we see the whole design before tomorrow?
You can see the design on the MVRHS website. It’s been there all along and links have been available in this paper. Just throwing it out there. If the original building wasn’t designed for a second floor you can’t just add one. It is not that easy.
You have had plenty of time to review the design. Just like everyone had options to vote on, time to ask questions, opportunities to tour the building, it was all presented to you. Please do not make excuses. If you want to vote “no” for personal or economic reasons, that is your democratic right; however, asking to see pictures, designs, or other options at this point is laughable.
I would honestly respect someone more who said, “I’m voting no because I am strapped for cash, and I hope I die or move before the Island taxpayers get saddled with this” than the person asking for more information or accusing officials of backroom chicanery.
NO!! To much money!!!
As a Tisbury resident, I already have the burden of the Tisbury School taxes, the recent Prop 2 1/2 override, the onerous new septic regulations and the anticipated Tisbury Town Hall and Police Department building taxes, I must vote “NO” on this additional tax burden! I never buy what I cannot afford!
Why are non-resident taxpayers on the hook to pay three times as much as residents? Residents’ children can be educated here, non-residents’ children will not. Is it because non-residents have no say, no vote, and no choice? Where is the fairness? The Towns on the Vineyard have created an “us versus them” approach to taxation. Where is the gratitude that should be given to those who have quietly subsidized Martha’s Vineyard for generations?
Everyone has a choice where they put down roots. Nothing prevents people from declaring their island home their primary residence. Registering to vote. Etc. It is a choice people make. Nobody makes a this argument that they don’t want to pay for police or firehouses or shellfish constables. Only about schools. Ownership comes with taxes. Again. People have free will to make that choice. Everyone is welcome to sell their second homes. There is a great market. Someone will pick it up quickly.
I like single floor plans, no second level. Australia classrooms have doors that go directly outside, pretty cool. This is an island we dont have to conform to the coastal designs.
My view is no. Because we are spending to much money putting the burden on taxpayers. I can’t afford to live here anymore, real estate taxes is like having a mortgage.
Take a look at Edgartown tax rates compared to many other towns in MA.
A bunch of people without children in the comments.
This is a crazy amount of money …. Why so big and so expensive…. Why did the existing building fall into disrepair? The same will happen to this building… waste of money…
Bring back the old days please, just educate our children, you don’t need a the Taj Mahal to do it.
vote NO