Several sizes fit most; Stock school designs could hold down costs.

COLUMN: In our opinion

Four years after the Legislature created the Massachusettts School Building Authority to deal with a huge backlog of school projects and put the brakes on out-of-control school construction costs, the agency is turning its attention to an aspect of its mandate that should produce significant savings on the design of school projects for many communities.

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill this week renewed his call for standardized school designs, incorporating the low-frills approach detailed in the authority's school-assistance regulations. In brief, districts must show that new buildings are needed to replace structurally unsound ones, to provide required educational programs, to ease crowding, to achieve court-ordered desegregation or to prevent loss of accreditation.

Mr. Cahill's point, reiterated in an interview with the Boston Globe last week, is simply that too much money is spent on the design and construction of architectural extras. The standard designs now being actively explored would be for schools of between 170,000 and 240,000 square feet. They would have a gymnasium, auditorium and science labs, but not luxuries such as field houses and swimming pools. Communities that wanted to go beyond the basic package could do so, but add-ons would not qualify for state school building assistance.

While the standard blueprints might not always work on New England's difficult topography, it is instructive to note that 21 architectural firms already have signaled interest in submitting model school designs.

The new Newton North High School is the poster child for lavish spending, having blown through one budget estimate after another on its way to a $197 million price tag, nearly twice the original projection. Norwood appears on track to spend $100 million for its new school, and Shrewsbury spent a similar sum in constructing a new high school and renovating its existing facilities.

The use by school districts of standardized architectural designs should be pushed without further delay. Fancy school's out, we say, and it's about time.