ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Charis Allison holds a sign that she helped make asking for votes at the Veterans Elementary School.
SAUGUS — Residents voted to approve a $186 million investment in Saugus Public Schools in a special election Tuesday night.
By a more than 2-1 margin voters supported a plan that calls for $160 million for a proposed grades 6-12 combination middle and high school and a $25 million district-wide master plan that would restructure the district to include an upper elementary school for grades 3-5 at the existing Belmonte Middle School and a lower elementary school for Pre-K through grade 2 at the Veterans Memorial Elementary School.
The master plan is a town project and is not being pursued through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The town’s share of the total project would be an estimated $118 million, bonded over a 30-year period.
The MSBA will reimburse the town at a minimum rate of 53 percent — which is expected to increase — of eligible approved project costs for the middle-high school.