SWAMPSCOTT — The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) has approved the town’s proposal for a new town-wide elementary school.
The MSBA allocated up to $34 million in grant funding for the construction of the school, which would replace the three existing elementary schools and serve students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
“I am happy that the MSBA agrees that we could not just replace one elementary school, while the rest of our elementary school kids stay in such old, outdated and inadequate buildings,” said Suzanne Wright, chair of the School Building Committee and member of the School Committee. “I am also excited for our amazing teachers — who finally will have an elementary school building that fully supports their dedication to educating our kids.”
The existing school buildings have an average age of over 90 years, making the town’s elementary schools the fifth oldest of any town in Massachusetts. The oldest building, Hadley Elementary School, was built in 1911; the Stanley School was built in 1929 and Clarke School was built in 1952.
The proposed school, which would be located at the current site of Stanley, would be split into what the town calls a “twin elementary school,” with separate wings and entrances for different age groups. One wing would serve kindergarten through second grade, while the other would house third- and fourth-grade classrooms, and both would share a library, art classrooms, a gymnasium and other resources.
“This district-wide, K-4 school building meets the broadest combination of educational vision priorities and addresses the needs of all of our students,” said Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis. “Any other choice would have resulted in many of our students continuing to learn in outdated and insufficient learning spaces for at least the next decade. I look forward to the day, coming soon, when all of our teachers and youngest students come together in a 21st-century learning environment.”
The project would require a debt exclusion of approximately $64 million, which would need to be approved by a special town meeting, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 13, and a town-wide vote in October. The Select Board will meet next week to set the dates for these events. If approved, construction would begin in summer of 2022 and be completed in summer of 2024.
The town’s Finance Committee, Capital Improvement Committee and Select Board have worked to plan its use of financial reserves to bring down the cost to taxpayers of the construction, projecting that they will be able to limit costs to $1 per day for the median single-family taxpayer.
“The grant awarded to Swampscott today by the MSBA is even higher than we projected, so there is extra good news in today’s MSBA vote,” said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “This news, combined with the fact that the cost of Swampscott’s proposed new elementary school is 5.5 percent below the average new school cost statewide over the past two years, is really good news for Swampscott taxpayers. We have been financially preparing for this new school for the past five years … This is the moment for Swampscott.”
