Swampscott Town Meeting members overwhelmingly invested in a brighter future for town children by approving a warrant article giving town officials permission to borrow $97.4 million to build a new elementary school.
Monday night’s 244-39 vote — all the more dramatic because it was carried out under COVID-19 remote meeting conditions — sets the stage for town residents on Oct. 19 to undertake a debt-exclusion vote required under the state property tax limitation law and give the town the green light to move forward with borrowing money to pay for the new school’s construction.
“We are extremely gratified that the vast majority of Town Meeting members voted to move this critical project forward. The School Building Committee has done a phenomenal job in developing this plan and making sure that questions have been answered and concerns addressed. I know they will continue to do that over the next month as they share the details with an even wider array of people. This was a significant step in the right direction,” said Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis.
Monday’s strong endorsement for building a new school stands in sharp contrast to the 2014 Town Meeting vote where a school-building measure failed to garner the required two-thirds support from Town Meeting members.
Both sides should be applauded for the respectful tone of the discourse during the three-hour meeting. Capable Town Moderator Michael McClung handled the first warrant ― prohibiting market-rate housing at the Hadley School site should the school project move forward and the building become available.
Because he serves on the School Building Committee, McClung stepped aside for the debate on the school warrant, virtually handing over the gavel to Attorney Jeff Goldman, son of the late Martin Goldman, who served as moderator for more than 20 years, earning wide acclaim and universal respect.
Goldman surely did his father proud, with his skillful facilitation of the discussion (and his bow tie selection.)
Anchoring Monday’s vote were two crucial endorsements of the Town Meeting article in the form of the Finance Committee — the people charged with analyzing and endorsing or recommending against town spending proposals — and the Swampscott Education Association.
The committee stated in its warrant endorsement that the town has the financial reserves, coupled with favorable interest rates, to prudently arrange long-term borrowing terms for $60 million of the new school’s cost. The remainder of the building’s cost is mostly covered by a state school building aid commitment to the town.
“…the maximum estimated annual impact on the median single family household tax bill is approximately $300,” the committee stated in its analysis.
The Swampscott Education Association’s members teach in town schools ― including the aging Clarke, Hadley, and Stanley schools ― and also comprise many town residents.
The Association spoke of equity and safety in an opinion piece endorsing the elementary school project (Item, Sept. 10). “We would never want to sacrifice the quality of the teaching staff for the benefit of a building,” the Association wrote.
Education has changed in the decades since Clarke, Hadley, and Stanley were built. The aging buildings cannot fully meet 21st-century learning demands for a technologically-proficient generation of students — much less for the next generation of young minds who need and deserve a first-rate education provided in a state-of-the-art school.
The new school proposed for construction on Whitman Road is estimated to have at least a 50-year useful life and it is likely to exceed that life span. Swampscott Town Meeting members made a smart and sound investment in the town’s future on Monday night and voters can make the same investment on Oct. 19.
