Marblehead school construction to cost $30M

MARBLEHEAD – The price tag on the new building to replace the Glover and Eveleth elementary schools is pegged at $30 million.Glover School Building Committee Chairman Patricia Blackmer points out that the Massachusetts School Building Authority approved 40 percent reimbursement for the project late last month, lowering the town’s share of the cost to $18 million.She will make a 10-minute presentation on the proposal at Thursday’s School Committee meeting. The committee is in the final stages of preparing a firm construction cost estimate for the May 3 Town Meeting, including portable classrooms and bus transportation during the construction period. The project will also face approval in a debt exclusion override vote in June. If the town approves, the new Glover School is expected to open in the fall of 2013.The committee plans to build a two-story, 30-feet-high, 425-student kindergarten-Grade 3 school on the present Glover site. The Eveleth site will be returned to the town for other uses.Parents were scheduled to vote on their children’s education options during construction. The majority of parents at a meeting last week favored letting kindergarten classes stay at the Eveleth next year and 2011-2012, and attend the new Glover School in 2012-2013. District Grade 1 students will attend the Eveleth School in 2011-3012 and 2012-2013. District Grade 2 will attend the Eveleth School in 2012-2013. Since Eveleth has six classrooms, this plan will involve renting portable classrooms.Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac said he plans to use a lottery to move 20 kindergarteners to a class at the Bell School, leaving three kindergarten classes at the Eveleth.