MassDevelopment.com: Press Room: $7 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports the Cambridge School of Weston Expansion

$7 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports the Cambridge School of Weston Expansion
February 8, 2006

Contacts:
Alicia Tildsley, MassDevelopment, 617-603-3120
Margie Combs, The Cambridge School of Weston, 781-642-8608

MassDevelopment today announced a $7 million tax-exempt bond issue for The Cambridge School of Weston. The independent, day and boarding high school will use bond proceeds to construct a 20,000-square-foot science and art gallery building, and a 3,000-square-foot maintenance facility on its 65-acre Weston campus. The school's new science building will feature a number of "green construction" elements, including a vegetative roof, a gray water recycling system, composting toilets, a wood pellet boiler and glass walls to expose the inner workings of these "green" components. In addition, the facility will house six science labs, two independent study rooms, an integrated studies classroom, two art galleries and 600 feet of wall space suitable for displaying student work. Both new buildings are slated to open in September 2007.

"MassDevelopment is proud to support green construction projects like The Cambridge School's new science and art gallery facility," said Robert L. Culver, MassDevelopment president/CEO. "While initially projects like this can be slightly more expensive to construct, they ultimately save the tenant money by reducing upkeep and energy costs, all while supporting a cleaner, natural environment."

The Cambridge School of Weston is a co-educational day and boarding school for students grades seven through twelve. The school opened in 1886 and by 1972 had designed the nationally recognized "Module System" for learning. This educational program, which the school still employs today, allows students to study in depth a wide variety of academic subjects. Under the Module System, the year is divided into seven terms, each lasting approximately four and a half weeks, during which students study two or three subjects intensively at one time. The school offers a diverse curriculum of more than 300 courses, including; Beowulf and Grendel, Facing History and Ourselves, Digital Collage, Figurative Sculpture, Marine Biology at Woods Hole, Ecology and Culture in the Neotropics of Latin America, Advanced Drawing Studio, Environmental Chemistry, Analytic Geometry, and many integrated studies courses such as Dimensions of Time and The Art of Prediction: 19th and 20th Century Historical and Scientific Philosophy. The Cambridge School's 320 students are from eight states and five countries, and roughly one-third live on campus during the academic year.

"School should be a place where children discover new things daily that challenge their minds, and where they absorb values, skills and standards they can build their lives around," said CSW Head of School Jane Moulding. "MassDevelopment has been a valuable resource in arranging financing for this expansion project which, when finished, will provide our students with new and innovative learning experiences from the moment they set foot inside."

MassDevelopment, the state's finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. In fiscal year 2005, MassDevelopment financed or managed 158 projects statewide representing an investment of nearly $1.9 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of 2,769 housing units and more than 9,800 jobs: 4,702 permanent and 5,100 in construction.