Needham Calls Special Town Meeting To Pay For Modular Classrooms

NEEDHAM, MA — The select board has called for a special town meeting asking representatives to approve the town spending an additional $630,000 for the construction of two modular classrooms at the Mitchell School. The modular buildings are for accommodating the school's full day kindergarten program, which starts this September.

Last May, Needham town meeting representatives voted in favor of appropriating about $1.6 million to build the classrooms, but the town only received one bid this past Fall, and came in higher than expected, Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick said the bid came in higher than expected for several reasons.

"There is uncertainty in the market relating to tariffs on imported construction materials, and an extremely tight market for labor given the amount of construction in the Boston metropolitan area," Fitzpatrick said. "Additionally, there are a limited number of suppliers of these types of modular structures, and the extent of the site work required may have acted to limit interest in the project."

According to Fitzpatrick, the town could elect to go out for another bid or make changes to the original project plan, but she said doing so would delay construction a year and would likely increase the cost of the project.

Though full-day kindergarten could run without the modular buildings, Fitzpatrick said it would require significant compromises to the curriculum. Some of those changes include a lack of space and materials for art classes, English language learning needing to be done in hallways and stairwells, and lumping all after school programs in the cafeteria without being able to separate age groups, she said.

The special town meeting is scheduled for Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m., at the Needham Town Hall.

Photo by Dan Libon