Price for Marblehead’s school project set at nearly $23M

MARBLEHEAD – The Facilities Master Plan Committee has a cost figure for the Glover-Eveleth school project: $22.9 million.That means the feasibility study for the project will cost $345,000.At the request of the FMPC, the School Committee will ask Town Meeting for $345,000 and another $50,000 to cover the salary of the Owner’s Project Manager for that study.If Town Meeting approves them, the two amounts will go before the voters for a debt exclusion override in June. The Massachusetts School Building Authority will reimburse the town for at least 40 percent of the cost, provided the town and state agree on a project and complete it.The new school will house students from the Glover and Eveleth schools, which currently have a combined enrollment of 381. Glover Principal Mary Devlin has told the FMPC that she asked nearly a dozen parents to move their children to other schools this year because her classrooms are at capacity. Without the reassignments, the two schools would have to house an enrollment of nearly 400. The facilities committee is proposing a new building that will house 450.Using the MSBA figure of 166 square feet per student the new school will be 70,550 square feet. At a cost of $325 per square foot, the new school will cost $22.9 million.