This week, Massachusetts Treasurer Steven Grossman helped dedicate the new $68.6 million Norwood High School, marking the first opening of a school facility built under the state’s cost-saving "Model School" program.

Grossman was joined by and Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Executive Director Katherine Craven. The model school program incorporates successful design elements from existing schools into the design of new facilities. Rather than reinventing the wheel for each new school project, the use of an existing model simplifies the design process; streamlines construction; reduces the amount of time it takes to build a new facility; and utilizes design dynamics that have already been deemed successful by students, teachers, and administrators, according to a statement.  

The MSBA is reimbursing 59.21 percent of the $68.6 million eligible cost of the new Norwood High School. The design for the 227,500 square-foot school is based on the Whitman Hanson High School, and includes a college-style library and performing arts facilities.  It replaces a 187,500 square-foot facility consisting of four buildings constructed between 1925 and 1962. Through the model school program, MSBA and Norwood officials were able to significantly lower the price of a project initially estimated to cost more than $100 million and begin construction in May 2009 instead of November 2009.

"As the inaugural model school, the new Norwood High School, or the ‘school on a hill,’ is a testament to the dedication of the local community to the education of its students," Craven said in a statement. "By participating in the MSBA model school program, the town of Norwood and the MSBA saved taxpayers $35 million in design and construction costs, while demonstrating to other communities across the commonwealth how to build a high-quality facility in a fiscally-responsible manner that benefits taxpayers, administrators, teachers and students for years to come."