Framingham Officials To Find New Location For School Department

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The School Department could be leaving the Perini Building, located at 73 Mt Wayte Ave., in search of a new home. The city announced on Thursday that Mayor Yvonne Spicer, the City Council and the School Committee would collaborate to find the future location of the department. The School Department's lease with the Perini Building ends in January 2020.

Framingham School Department's administrative staff moved into the Perini Building four years ago after the King Building was reopened as King Elementary School. The city signed a five-year lease. “The lease at the Perini building is set to expire in less than a year,” said Mayor Yvonne M. Spicer. “This is an opportunity to collaborate with the School Department, City Council and School Committee to explore a fiscally responsible solution for the Department and the City, and I look forward to it.”

Currently, the Framingham Public School Department occupies 22,000 square feet of the Perini building and the city pays $350,000 a year to lease the space.

The city may run into the same issue it had while trying to relocate the Health Department earlier this month — a lack of useable, city-owned building. When Spicer was addressing the Health Department relocation, she highlighted that in years past, the town neglected to maintain many of the buildings it owned, leaving the city now with few useable options.

"We must make decisions about our facilities now, otherwise we will be in the same situation in the future," Spicer said in a statement, "We have included funding in the FY2020 Capital Plan to put a comprehensive strategy together to deal with this issue."

The city has not yet released a list of potential replacement locations for the School Department.