Middle School Project Presented to Hingham Community

The School Building Committee continued with their outreach to the community on the Middle School Project last night with a televised meeting broadcast from the Town Hall.

Although the turnout was small for the  public hearing, the Building Committee made every attempt to answer any concerns that had been raised.

Scott Dunlap, of the designing company Ai3, took the time to go through the latest additions to the designs.  He pointed out the increase in parking capacity from the current school, the energy issues that had been raised by the Selectmen and the guidelines provided by the MSBA. Dunlap also confirmed that, contrary to rumor, there would be no indoor swimming pool at the Middle School.

John Riley, Chairman of Selectmen, had asked about the use of geo-thermal technology to power the school as it can provide significant energy savings in residential and small commercial developments.

Dunlap admitted that this “is an energy resource that is gaining momentum and popularity on small projects,” but advised that in a project the size of the Middle School, the introduction of geo-thermal would not be as cost effective.

The new school will take advantage of the latest developments in sustainability and Ai3 have taken the original Whitman-Hansen High School model and made significant improvements to a design that was considered one of the most energy efficient High Schools in the Commonwealth when it was occupied in 2005. 

l will have a rainwater collection system, a rooftop photovoltaic array, the ability to provide real-time energy data to the faculty and will be constructed with materials that have significant recycle content. This should ensure that the building would be 50-55 percent more efficient than the Whitman-Hansen design and be a significant step in the goal to have a minimum of LEED Silver Certification.

One area raised by the public was the weather, with the Middle School suffering structural damage in the heavy snowstorms that hit the area in February. According to the presentation, Massachusetts has adopted a new building code and any new building has to be significantly better than anything designed five years ago. Ai3 have taken this into account and they are confident that the new school would be able to handle a similar weather situation.

“Different people have different concerns, there are things that are more important to them than others and that’s perfectly fine,” said Building Committee Chairman Raymond Estes. “Certain folks are concerned about the dollars that we’re spending and I’m concerned about the dollars we’re spending on this. That’s why we’re taking great steps to make sure that this is the most cost efficient Middle School that we can possibly build for this community.”

Next week the Building Committee will review the final design from Ai3, meet with the Advisory Committee to finalize the wording for the warrant article and provide their submission to the MSBA for their consideration. 

Estes appreciates that there is still a long way to go before the construction can even start but is optimistic that the town will support the efforts that are being made to bring the project to life.

“This is a new school but this is a community project,” he said. “That is why we’re trying to outreach to the community because we want the community to be involved in this because this is going to service Hingham for generations to come.”