Selectmen Sign Off on Middle School Feasibility Study

Progress on the Hingham Middle School Project has moved forward last night when the Board of Selectmen agreed to sign the Feasibility Study Agreement provided by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Raymond Estes, Chair of the Building Committee and Dr Dorothy Gallo updated the Selectmen on the current state of the project which is proceeding within the $600,000 allocated at Town Meeting.

The Feasibility Study is the next step in the model Middle School Project following the appointment of a project manager and designer by the school committee. Formal written approval for the design company Ai3 has been given by the MBSA, and while they are still awaiting formal approval for Mary Mahoney (Project Manager), the project appears to be gathering momentum. 

At the time of writing, the space summary submitted to MBSA last week is still to be discussed between the two parties but Estes said he is confident that they have submitted “a design for the Middle School that everyone will love and embrace.”

Estes stressed that this is a project for the whole town to be involved in and said that the project is on budget “with room to spare.”

Selectman John Riley asked how environmentally-friendly the school would be, bearing in mind the costs of utilities required for a project of this size and suggested that perhaps Geo-Thermal heating could be looked into as a way of ensuring sustainable energy costs. Making model schools more efficient is part of the MBSA plan and would fall within the stipulations set out in the guidelines provided to the School Committee prior to the commencement of the project.