The sweeping plan to renovate and expand Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School drew a landslide of support in Tuesday’s historic Islandwide election, with about 85 per cent of voters approving the $333.5 million project.
Soon after the polls closed at 7 p.m., unofficial tallies from the six town clerks showed decisive majorities.
“We won overwhelmingly in six towns. There was no question about it,” all-Island school committee chair Amy Houghton said, as supporters gathered at the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs Tuesday night to celebrate the landmark vote.
A provisional count, certified by school district secretary Rebecca Claussen and business affairs manager Mark Friedman shortly before 10 p.m., was 3,448 votes in favor and 647 against.
“There is a mandate across the Island … and it showed that people felt like their votes really counted,” Ms. Houghton said.
Work is expected to begin next summer on the two-story classroom wing addition, followed in 2029 by a year’s worth of extensive renovations to the existing school.
Architects working with the 25-member school building committee have completed about 15 per cent of the design so far, said Sam Hart, the high school’s staff coordinator for the building project. Their work has been funded by $2 million that town meeting voters approved in 2022.
Tuesday’s vote frees up the school to proceed with the project.
“The architect will come back [and] the engineers will come back and figure out what the spaces are going to look like, everything down to the furniture, the fixtures, the paint colors, everything,” Mr. Hart said.
“We’ll be shovel-ready in the spring of 2027,” he said.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) has pledged to reimburse at least $77 million of the construction costs, using revenue from the state sales tax, but Islanders first had to vote to borrow the rest.
They turned out in force to do it. Some towns saw hundreds more ballots than in the annual spring town election only a few weeks ago.
“It was very, very busy all day and did not ever stop,” said West Tisbury town clerk Tara Whiting-Wells.
Many voters arrived in family groups. Sarah Hartenstine, who came to the Tisbury polls with her father Russ, voted yes with enthusiasm.
“I went to high school here, and I know how badly we need a new one. I had a ceiling tile fall on me in Spanish class one year,” said Ms. Hartenstine, who graduated in 2023.
Building committee member Tracey Stead voted in Tisbury alongside her sons Griffin, 21 and Elliot, 19, who was taking part in his first election.
All three said they looked forward to a new and improved high school for the youngest Stead brother, now 13 and in sixth grade.
Other parents brought smaller children, occasionally sweetening the deal for those too young to vote.
“Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream,” one little girl chanted with a gap-toothed smile, as she and her dad headed for the family car.
Tuesday’s vote opens a new chapter in the long-running campaign to update and expand the high school, which opened in 1959 as the Vineyard’s first all-Island public school and saw its last capital improvements in the 1990s.
Starting in the 2010s, the high school applied six times to join the MSBA building program, finally winning provisional acceptance in 2022 after Island voters approved a $2 million feasibility study and town leaders agreed on a cost-sharing formula.
The school building committee has spent the past two years developing the project, working with Tappé Architects — the company that designed the Tisbury School renovations — on a design that could meet the school’s many needs without overburdening Island taxpayers.
The 199,000-square-foot design meets current state requirements for classroom size, energy efficiency and other standards that did not exist when the original school was drawn up seven decades ago.
While some Islanders have balked at the project’s high cost, supporters have pointed to the school’s many obsolete systems and its general decay as problems that will grow no cheaper to address as time goes by.
“Spend the money,” said Sam Hall, a West Tisbury resident with two kids currently in the high school. “We will spend it now, or spend more later.”
Every single town voted in favor of the project, and by wide margins. Edgartown voted 733-115; Oak Bluffs voted 787-164; Tisbury voted 762-169; West Tisbury voted 679-108, with two provisional ballots yet to be certified and one blank ballot; Chilmark voted 365-54; and Aquinnah voted 122-37, according to the certified results.
“When I heard the first towns coming in, I literally welled up,” said superintendent of schools Richard Smith. “I’m just ecstatic, and I feel like the Island has come through.”
While the election night vote totals are still subject to change, Mr. Friedman said the outcome is not.
“Two of the clerks have notified us that there are still a handful of provisional ballots out there, [although] these won’t remotely jeopardize the results,” he said.
In Oak Bluffs, a steady stream of voters came in to cast their ballots as the day waned. Select board member Emma Green-Beach was among them, and voted yes.
“I feel confident that the committee did their due diligence in the process thus far,” she said. “I’ve been on a tour of the high school, and getting this MSBA funding is so important.”
School building committee member Sally Rizzo said the turnout and landslide showed voters’ commitment to their community.
“I think people realize how important the high school is to the Island, and they didn’t want to see it deteriorate,” said Ms. Rizzo, who estimated that 30 per cent of the Vineyard’s registered voters cast ballots in the election.
Mr. Hart gave thanks to everyone who turned out.
“Thank you, voters,” he said. “We’re so proud of this community.”
Haley Sandlow, Bill Eville, Emma Kilbride, Charles Leitner and Ethan Genter contributed to this report.
This article appears in June 5, 2026.
I am so pleased for all of us that the vote was so strongly in favor of the long researched and developed plan to both build and restore our high school.
So happy for the results yet I am surprised at the low overall turnout, I wish that more registered voters turned out to participate in our democracy. It is not favorable to have major decisions decided by the minority no matter how well informed or intentioned.
Can’t wait for my new tax bill!
The good stuff costs more.
No surprise. Nonresidents cannot vote. However, we are most willing to accept thanks for the taxes we pay with great good cheer to educate our young people. I am firmly convinced that with this new complex our students performance and standings will improve.
I’m so tired of hearing this argument and it just cheapens the relationship of those who live here and those who vacation here. If the taxes are too high on your SECOND home, sell it. It’s an enormous privilege to own a home and be a nonresident. Wake up and check your privilege. If you can afford a second home, you can afford the increase and should care a least minimally about the people who make this place work. You’re never going to get gratitude or sympathy for paying the taxes on the home you chose to buy. The people who live here need services just like you do wherever you came from. These are living, breathing, real life people who are here year round and have every right to be educated in a building that is safe and up to code. You can’t pick and choose what you think is worth it or not in a collective community. Just because you don’t use the services your taxes pay for doesn’t mean they’re less important.
Just because someone has a second home does not mean they are rich. Anyone who works hard and saves can make an investment, whether the stock market or a second home.Thats intelligence not a privilege. Most tradespeople here earn more than I do. Then the slap-in-the-face is when the year rounders get another tax break as in OB, VH, and WT further shifting the burden to those who do not use the services. We also pay personal property taxes on the furnishings of the home vs the locals who get exemptions. Some day a smart lawyer with lots of time on their hands will see that taxpayers will be able to vote in LOCAL elections. This country was built on taxation without representation. Those seasonal homeowners keep your taxes artificially low.
Maybe some second home owners have the extra money.
Many do not and squeak by every year.
Great attitude.
Many of us have been here generations.
Have you?
It’s called taxation without representation.
You’ll get your new school on the backs of many hard working second home owners.
Yes you should be grateful.
Without those taxes dollars the Island would be a vastly different place and would not be able to afford all the wonderful things we pay for.
DROP THE MIC
No matter if you are for or against this project, your comment is completely out of touch and tone deaf.
Living on Martha’s Vineyard just became much more expensive. The tax increase will trickle down and affect everyone who lives here. Rents and the cost of services will go up. This will work wonders for the affordable housing crisis. Brilliant.
And our kids and their teachers will get the facilities they deserve to thrive in this changing world.
According to the Massachusetts Department Of Education, Martha’s Vineyard Regional already spends $41,000 per pupil per year. That’s second highest in the State, almost twice the State average of $23,000. Isn’t that enough to help our kids thrive? Before you tell us things cost more here because we are an island, Nantucket manages to scrape by spending 25% less, $30,000 per pupil, and they are further out in the Atlantic than we are. I would like to see some accountability and an explanation of how, with this level of spending, the school was allowed to fall into this level of disrepair before we cough up more hundreds of millions of dollars. I wonder how long the new building will last?
To add to Otto’s comment: MVRHS ranks 138 out of 349 Massachusetts high schools. With $40,000.00 per student per year, we are in private prep school territory without the expected results. You must dig deeper than local newspapers to get the actual figures on performance. Despite the excessive amount spent on MVRHS students, the performance results are far from acceptable.
Everyone points to money spent and performance. Nantucket is one town. No duplicative services. We cannot get out of our own ways here on MV. You want lower costs, regionalize and consolidate. But the resistance is massive. This island wide vote was a first and experienced tremendous vitriol. Use this as an example of how to move forwards. Yes. Performance could be better. New super and principal. Cheers to something better!
Ha! Thanks for this laugh I really needed it.
Oh, stop. If this didn’t pass, you’d be seeing talks of an override because of all of the repairs that school needs and would continue to need over time. This is a sorely needed project, period. If you want anything to be done about the ridiculous overall cost of living in this state, start complaining to the people who keep driving up the costs of everything (you know, like, our governor).
Well said.
Honestly don’t think the majority of voters truly understood the math formulas available & those numbers will definitely increase as all large construction projects of this scale/plan requires.. Time will tell when everyone’s assements increase to absorb the funding payments ..
We needed a new building. The price was my concern as I feel our mode of education is so outdated. That being said, my main concern for the island is, why the part time residents are unable to vote on matters of local concern… I am a full time resident now, but was part time until we decided to retire on island a few years back. I think it is ridiculous that the all residents who pay taxes are not able to vote on issues that will change their investment in time and money….Please for the future of our island let’s work to in able all residents the right to vote on matters that concern our island…. The people who are able to vote should first and foremost remember we are not a suburb we are a resort island. Yes, we need to accomodate the year round people, with housing, education, etc. On the other hand we need to allow all residents full and part time a say…It’s up to the seasonal residents to go after the vote…You have mine…Some how Some way the laws on voting have to change
Should everyone be able to vote everywhere they own real estate?
People who have a place in NYC, the Island, Aspen and St. Barts?
Should they have to be citizens?
As with all large projects like this sure the cost now is a $333.5 million project for the Island Tax Payers. But in all reality there will be changes that are made, cost overruns, and it probably wont get done on time. Who is going to pay for this. Glad I am no longer paying taxes on MV
Hmmmm. Tisbury delivered on time, on budget. Same OPM. Same architect. Same builder. Why can’t they deliver? This is 333 before state funding. Project without financing but with state reimbursement is closer to 250M. But the state requires approval for the whole thing. Facts matter.
On time and on budget? Tisbury School project (the second, after the first collapsed by a few votes) was meant to come in at $55 million. It required a $26 million dollar over-ride, putting the cost near $82 million. Not to mention the $100k per month for the trailers that was pulled from other funds… but you know, on time and on budget.
Oh, and it leaks.
J Klingensmith, you are entirely correct. Change orders are where moola is earned, as all construction people know. Bad weather days, late arriving materials, rising costs from time of starting the project to actually ordering materials as the project continues. The cost being discussed now, is not the cost it will end up being. How the contracts are written, fines for delayed work, a small sub going bankrupt during the process. The people who know about construction know this is not the real cost. IMHO
Again, How did they do it in Tisbury without cost escalation and open on time? Could it be because they are professionals who plan, have contingency plans and stay on top of literally everything? These people are in construction. They know this. How much work would they have if they never delivered?
I just sold my home in Florida and will now stay year round on MV, J Klingensmith. While you may no longer pay taxes here you certainly are paying higher insurance costs where you are. And crime in Florida is worse than it was 10 years ago. Open carry in Florida has resulted in multiple shootings among a heavily armed populace. I’ll gladly pay a little more in taxes for a school on a safe island than deal with the craziness down there.
In this country you can only vote in one state. Period. Full stop. That cannot be changed, not even by a “smart” lawyer. Summer people can choose to change their residence to the Vineyard and pay MA income tax, estate tax, etc. Or not. If it is their choice not to pick the Vineyard as their primary residence, it is their choice not to vote here.
The vote was decisive, and that should be respected. The Island clearly chose to move forward with the high school project.
But a landslide vote does not end the discussion. It begins the accountability phase. A $333.5 million project on Martha’s Vineyard is not just a school issue; it is a cost-of-living issue. Higher taxes do not stay neatly on tax bills. They eventually show up in rents, services, labor costs, and the already impossible burden on working families.
Otto raises a fair question. If we are already spending at or near the top of the state per pupil, taxpayers deserve a clear explanation of how the building was allowed to deteriorate this badly in the first place. “The good stuff costs more” is not an answer.
Students and teachers deserve a safe, modern school. But taxpayers deserve transparency, discipline, and measurable results. From here on, every change order, delay, cost increase, and educational outcome should be watched closely.
The project passed overwhelmingly. Now prove the money will be managed just as overwhelmingly well.