The Board of Selectmen attended a meeting the other night to learn how the high school renovation project was coming along. The meeting included the building committee, school committee and finance committee.

Chairman Robert Kimball said that while the cost is still up in the air, the numbers are increasing, which was expected. However, the committee is vying for a one-time reimbursement of up to 60 percent from Massachusetts School Building Authority.

"There are two factors that everyone has to know out there right now, its going to cost many millions of dollars, it's going to involve an override," Kimball said.

"It's a matter of being able to portray what these costs represent," member Timothy Giblin added.

The high school was built in 1971 and uses electrical heating. The science labs are outdated, classroom sizes are too small for the growing number of students and the locker rooms are antiquated.

"The high school is in dire need of some renovations," Kimball said. "I had no idea that school did not have a sprinkler system."

With the possible rise in costs and the reimbursement the town could receive for the school from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, selectmen are in favor of acting sooner rather than later.

 "The MSBA has got a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch of towns and cities waiting for funds and unlike in the past when we say 'Well, you know we can't afford to do that right now, we'll put it off for a couple more years.' That doesn't work anymore, folks.

"We'll will go right back to the bottom of the list. And then we'll start over again and they'll give it [the reimbursement] to a town that's ready to go," Kimball said.

Eight years after Norton Public Schools initially visited the idea of building a new high school, the plans changed to renovate the building with help from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It took three years to get on the reimbursement list.

"We cannot afford to do this project by ourselves. We don't know if it's 20 million. We don't know if it's 30 million, to be honest with you. But it's still cheaper than what it would cost to build a new school, that's for sure."