Swampscott has an opportunity to make a huge difference for our students. Our elementary school buildings are an average age of 92 years old. Our staff is confronted with daily challenges from our aging and failing facilities. They have been wrestling with an extensive amount of building issues that are exhausting and unnecessary. The buildings do not meet current minimum standards and are far from meeting the demands of a 21st century education.
We cannot allow our buildings to continue to impede teaching and learning. We need to gather as a community to bring about change for the students.
The Town of Swampscott is working on a project with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to build a new elementary school. It is called the Hadley Project as the MSBA recognized the great need to replace Hadley.
However, the MSBA determined that all of our elementary schools are lacking. During the site visit, the MSBA saw first-hand the obstacles facing our District in terms of delivering an equitable education to all students. The MSBA encouraged us to refine our vision of future education in Swampscott and include in the Hadley Project options that may solve the needs of one, two, or three buildings. Thus, the Hadley Project is also referred to as the Elementary School Project.
Together we are looking at four options:
- Build a K-4 school for all 900 elementary students
- Build a 3rd -5th grade school for all 540 students in those grades
- Build a K-5 school 565 students (a little more than half of the students)
- Renovate/Rebuild Hadley for 390 students
For the next 10 months the School Building Committee, along with our Owner’s Project Manager and Design Team will be looking at these options and considering a variety of factors including the educational vision, site considerations, traffic, safety implications, building cost and operational cost. We need your help with this process! Together we will determine the best elementary building project for Swampscott.
We are sponsoring a series of community meetings between now and the fall to discuss important aspects of the Elementary School Project.
The meetings include:
Project charter review — March 5, 7 p.m. in B129 at the High School. The project charter came from community feedback during the earlier forums and outlines the overarching goals for the project.
Future discussions will focus on these subjects:
Existing building, site and traffic conditions — March
Educational goals — April
Sustainability goals — April
Preliminary alternatives — May
Final — July
Preferred solution — August
Each of these conversations is important. Please attend as many as possible to share your input. For the most up-to-date information on the dates and times for the community meetings, visit our website at bit.ly/swampsbc.
Your participation is vital so we can make a difference for the students of Swampscott.
This letter was written by the Swampscott Communications Subcommittee of the School Building Committee: Catie Porter, Christina Colella, David Zucker, Lytania Mackey and Jose Alvarado.