MSBA Rejects Framingham's First Ask For South Side School Funds

FRAMINGHAM, MA — To build the brand new Fuller Middle School, it took Framingham three tries between 2013 and 2016 to get accepted into the state's funding program.

The process is going similarly over a plan to build a new elementary school somewhere south of Route 9.

The state School Building Authority (MSBA) on Feb. 3 notified city and school officials it would not accept Framingham into this year's funding round. The city can apply again this spring for consideration in next eligibility round.

Framingham school officials have been talking about building a new elementary school somewhere south of Route 9 for years. A majority of elementary school students live south of Route 9, but only three of the city's nine elementary schools are south of the line. The School Committee began making moves on the project in spring 2020, scoping out potential properties and conducting a pre-feasibility study.

If funded, Framingham would construct a new K-5 building on the south side and turn the Hemenway Elementary building into an early childhood learning center. The aging Hemenway building, built in 1961, would need to be entirely rebuilt to keep it as a K-5 school, officials have said.

The Framingham School Committee last winter voted to send a statement of interest to MSBA to enter the 2021 eligibility round. The 2022 eligibility period opened on Jan. 28 and closes on April 29.

School officials were not surprised by the MSBA rejection. The agency received 58 funding requests from school districts across the state for the 2021 eligibility round. The Fuller Middle School project was one of only 10 across the state funded in a single year.

"Our experience indicates that it will likely take multiple submissions over the span of several years before the district receives an invitation into the MSBA capital pipeline, yet we are eager to move ahead with an initial submission once the portal is opened by the MSBA this spring so that no opportunities are missed," Superintendent Robert Tremblay wrote in a January 2021 memo about entering the MSBA process for the new south side school.