Town Meeting: Residents Vote in Favor of $600K Study for New Middle School

The Hingham will receive a feasibility study and move forward with plans to improve conditions at the aging school after residents voted in favor of Articles 15 and 16 at last night's Town Meeting

With Hingham resident’s approval , the town  can now spend an estimated $600,000 for a feasibility study on replacing , under the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s Model School Program.

According to town reports, the school district will expect to receive 30 to 45 percent reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the $50 million to $57 million project. Plans to build a new school are not definite until the study is completed.  It is still undecided whether Hingham will construct a new school, renovate the existing school, or replace parts of the current building.

Last night, Linda Hill, the Hingham School Committee chairwoman along with School Committee member Raymond Estes explained to town residents  that if they voted against the feasibility study, the Town would not receive any reimbursement and would eventually have to come up with the total cost of a new school.

“It will only get more expensive,” Estes said to the town residents. “We are saving money by doing this project now.”

 Estes explained that the current Middle School is old  with overcrowded classrooms.  He reminded the residents of the roof that collapsed on Feb. 2 after a snow storm and explained that a new school is the best plan moving forward.

 Mike Barclay of Bel Air Rd. was also in favor of the feasibility study. Barclay told  residents that the town should act like a corporation and invest in its infrastructure by building better schools. Barclary said the amount of repairs that needed to be done to the Middle School are substantial.

“Ten  years from now it will be worse,” Barclay said “It’s 50 years old. It has out lived its life. It will have to be repaired at sometime.”

 Although the majority of residents voted in favor of a feasibility study, many town residents disagreed with the decision to move forward with the Middle School construction plans and believed the plans were moving too fast.

 Some town residents pointed out that the school is only 50 years old and a new one is not necessary.  Hingham resident Russel Reeves suggested moving six graders to the elementary schools to solve the  overcrowded classrooms problems.  One resident believed taxpayers could not afford the new school because of the bad economy.

Bernard Manning a Cushing Street resident said a new middle school is not needed and believed overcrowded classrooms are not as bad as people think.  Bernard explained that he was a kid, there were 35 kids in class, teachers were unmarried females, and the playgrounds had no fields and only gravel.

With the approval of the feasibility studyon Monday night, the school committee is now in the process of hiring a project manager and will move forward with plans for the aging Middle School.  The  School committeee will interview three finalists  for project manager on Wednesday.