After years of fierce debate, study and negotiation, the city took a big step last week in moving forward with the voter-mandated decision to go forward with the renovation/build-out for a new and improved Somerville High School.

Although the path has been long and somewhat tedious, in the end it came down to looking ahead to the future and ensuring that the city is well-equipped to teach our high schoolers in the best – and safest – manner possible.

It has been common knowledge for years that the venerable structure that served our community so well for generations had seen its better days and was in dire need of repair and shoring up. In fact, it took a proverbial kick in the pants by state inspectors to get a lot of us onboard and willing to bite down and do whatever was necessary to drag the much beloved into the 21st century – albeit with some of us kicking and screaming.

Yes, $255,982,704 is a tremendous amount of money. More than a quarter of a billion – that’s right, with a “b” – dollars, as a matter of fact. But that is, unfortunately, the cost of doing business in today’s world of state-of-the-art educational facility construction. Let us hope and pray that it is money well spent, because this type of expenditure cannot be repeated so easily.

Ultimately, it is for future generations to be the final arbiters of the actual success of the project. We wish them the best.