Swampscott Digs In On New K-4 Elementary School

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The first shovels into the ground where a new 154,000-square-foot elementary school will rise over the next two years hit the frozen dirt on the site of the former Stanley School during a Tuesday morning ceremony.

Swampscott officially broke ground on the $98 million elementary school that residents overwhelmingly supported with a $64 million debt service tax override last fall following a decade-long plan to address the town's aging elementary school buildings.

"It takes a village to raise — and educate — a child," Swampscott Superintendent Pamela Angelakis said at Tuesday's ceremony. "It takes a community to build a new school. Today is a celebration of our community's commitment to education, which has never wavered in my 32
years in this district.

"While we may not have taken the most direct route to get here, all that is important is that we have arrived, and for that, I am sincerely grateful."

The school on Whitman Road is expected to serve about 900 students in the town.

"A lot of people, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work to get to this day," School Building Committee Chair Suzanne Wright said.

Among those on hand for the groundbreaking were State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) and State Rep.-elect Jenny Armini (D-Marblehead).

"There's no feeling like building a new school," Crighton said. "It has the potential to transform so many young lives for generations to come."

The new school is scheduled to open at the start of the 2024 academic year.

The school will be the town's first in 70 years after voters backed it by nearly a two-thirds majority in October 2021.

Voters were asked to approve a debt exclusion to fund the twin schools that will consist of one K-2 building, one Grades 3-4 building, and a common area for facilities, staff and activities.

Swampscott was approved for $34 million in state reimbursement funds for the project.

The October 2021 approval came almost exactly seven years following the rejection at both a town meeting and a townwide vote of the last elementary school project that would have replaced the fourth-oldest group of elementary school buildings in the state.

Hadley Elementary was built in 1911, Stanley was built in 1929 and Clarke was built in 1952.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)