SWAMPSCOTT — The results from a community survey conducted by the Hadley Elementary School Reuse Advisory Committee show that many residents want to preserve the original school building, but have differing opinions on what it should be used for.
The survey was active from March 9 to March 30 and received 789 responses.
According to a presentation of the results in a Tuesday evening meeting of the committee, 41 percent of respondents said preserving the original, main Hadley building, built in 1911, was important. However, 35 percent said they did not believe it was important to preserve the school’s 1925 annex building, with 45 percent having no opinion either way.
“I think the ambivalence toward the annex gives this group a lot of flexibility in the way we think about things,” said committee Chair Steve Perdue. “It gives us the ability to think about things like parking, which will be necessary for any of the uses, and I think it helps with open space.
Should we have more open space, less open space? Should we have more quality open space?”
The survey revealed that, indeed, an overwhelming majority of respondents wanted any use of the Hadley site to maintain or add to open space amenities, with 76 percent saying so.
One potential use of the site respondents were not in favor of was affordable housing. A significant portion said they did not want the building to be used in this way (market-rate housing is not being considered as a use for the site).
“It’s kind of terrifying to me to see that people don’t want affordable housing,” said committee member Joan Honig. “We have to have compassion, and I don’t understand where the ethical and moral responsibility in this town has gone.”
Other members, however, felt that this result from the survey was not due to a lack of support for affordable housing in general, but because respondents may have felt that there were more appropriate, commercial uses for that particular site.
“When I think about affordable housing as a potential use of Hadley, it’s got nothing to do with my view of affordable housing and how much we need it in town,” said committee member Laurier Beaupre. “It’s just a question of, do you take this site and use it for that purpose, when given it is an oceanfront site on Humphrey Street, there could be different uses for it?”
The committee is considering four different types of uses for the Hadley site: municipal, public or civic, local commercial, and non-market-rate housing.
The town selected the site of the current Stanley Elementary School as the location for a new elementary school in the fall. If the town decides at the May town meeting to build this new school, the Hadley building will no longer be used.
Hadley is the oldest school building in Swampscott, and will need extensive renovations to meet building safety standards. The site includes the school building, open space that currently holds fields and a playground, and a parking lot.
