SWAMPSCOTT — The project to build the town’s new elementary school is making progress.
“Currently we are on schedule,” Suzanne Wright, chair of the School Building Committee, said. “It’s going up and it’s looking great.”
The committee met Tuesday to deliver an update on the project to build Swampscott Elementary School.
Project Manager David Harris, of Lavallee Brensinger Architects, gave a breakdown of the project’s status during the meeting.
Harris said crews are making progress, especially with the installation of steel beams, which Wright said students from the current elementary schools were able to sign before some of them were installed.
Trevor Fuce, assistant project manager for Hill International Inc., added in the meeting that the project is moving ahead on budget.
Wright credited the construction and design teams for the project’s progress and pointed out how proactive the teams have been throughout.
“[They have] been doing a really good job of collaborating on this and getting ahead of every need before it’s an urgent need so we can keep everything on schedule,” Wright said.
Wright said the 154,000-square-foot school building, which broke ground in December 2022, is expected to wrap up in time for students to start taking classes in September 2024 as expected.
According to Wright, construction has mostly gone smoothly as the town and construction crews try their best to accommodate those in the neighborhood of the project.
The $98 million project had its origins in a 2011 effort by the town to gain approval for a new school building from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which ultimately failed in 2014.
The current elementary-school building project was pursued by the town in 2017 and ultimately approved by MSBA, and was approved by the town in a September 2021 Town Meeting, with the town’s share of the project expected to be $64 million.
Wright said the building, which will be able to accommodate 900 students, was developed with community input and included strong support from the town’s public officials.
“Every committee in town really understood why this was such a critical need,” Wright, who noted that the town had some of the oldest school buildings in the Commonwealth, said.
The new Swampscott Elementary School will consolidate the town’s three K-4 schools, which currently have a combined enrollment of around 700 students.
The new school is being built on the site of the former Stanley Elementary School, which closed after the 2021-22 school year before being demolished so construction on the new school could commence.
Wright said the committee has not been involved in discussions about the future of the Clarke and Hadley school buildings, but said the Clarke Elementary building has been floated for use as for preschool or administrative building.
