01907_Summer_2019 WEB
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28 | <strong>01907</strong><br />
STUDYING SWAMPSCOTT'S<br />
FUTURE SCHOOLS<br />
BY<br />
GAYLA CAWLEY<br />
The consensus among town and<br />
school officials is the town needs a new<br />
elementary school, but what's up in the air is<br />
how many grades and students it would serve and<br />
where it would be.<br />
Last year, Town Meeting members approved a $750,000 study<br />
to determine the best option for the new school. The vote followed<br />
the district's acceptance into the Massachusetts School Building Authority<br />
(MSBA) program for the replacement of Hadley Elementary School, which was<br />
built in 1911 and is the oldest school building in town.<br />
As part of the effort for a new elementary school, the town has formed a 22-member School<br />
Building Committee, made up of town and school officials including Town Administrator Sean<br />
Fitzgerald and Superintendent Pamela Angelakis.<br />
"The condition of our buildings are such that the average age of our elementary buildings is over 90 years old<br />
and (they were) built at a time when special education wasn't a consideration," said Suzanne Wright, school committee<br />
member and chairwoman of the school building committee.<br />
"We've been really creative about where we house different programs and how we move them around. Our building isn't<br />
enhancing our education at all. (Their) age and educational space is inefficient, ineffective and inadequate."<br />
The committee will examine why a 2014 vote for districtwide elementary school failed and look at four options for a<br />
new school.<br />
The town could renovate or rebuild Hadley as a K-4 school, which would house 390 students. That would be the least<br />
expensive option and would require the smallest site. But grade levels would not be educated together, space would not be<br />
created at an overcrowded Swampscott Middle School and fifth grade would not be included at the elementary level, which is<br />
a district priority.<br />
Another option is to build a single elementary school for half of the district's students in grades K-5, which would house<br />
590 students and create space at the middle school. Disadvantages are that not all grade level students would be educated<br />
together and half of the district's elementary students would remain in outdated buildings.
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