Officials Prepare to Meet School Building Authority

Months after the town voted against building a new school and separating elementary schools by neighborhood, the School Committee will be meeting with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to discuss how to keep the funding the town was offered.

The public meeting will be 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9,  in room 511 of the State House in Boston. Officials hope to learn at the meeting what they need to do so they don't lose their place in the funding line. 

Based on the plan in March, the town would be responsible for the majority of the proposed $38 million dollar construction, but would receive more than $14 million from the MSBA. 

The Center School, which the new building would have replaced, is the biggest concern in the district; it has classrooms that aren't up to MSBA standards and also lacks many luxuries afforded to newer schools. The building also does not meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The town conducted a feasibility study in 2008 that found that the two best options for Hopkinton were to either completely renovate the Center School or build a new school on Fruit Street. After looking into the numbers the town said both projects would cost roughly $40 million and decided to pursue the Fruit Street option in the .

The agreement made with the MSBA in February was specific to the new construction option, but with residents strongly opposed, the town is looking into what needs to be done to prevent losing everything from the agreement and starting over from nothing.

At a joint meeting of the School Committee and Board of Selectmen Monday night, Superintendent Jonathan Landman presented the findings from this past week's Community Conversations forums, which he and members of the School Committee used as an opportunity to gather information about residents' concerns.

Landman said that of the 77 citizens that attended, 64 were against the idea of neighborhood schools. He also pointed out that cost was the biggest factor in determining whether the town should renovate Center School or build a new building.

"It's a conversation with the MSBA that's about what the next solution is. It probably won't be the building we talked about before, and it probably won't be in that location," School Committee member Scott Aghababian said.

In addition to selectmen and School Committee members, Sen. Karen Spilka and Rep. Carolyn Dykema are expected to attend.