Swampscott Vote On New K-4 School Set For Oct. 19 At High School

SWAMPSCOTT, MA —Swampscott residents will head to the high school in one month to vote on the proposed $97.5 million K-4 elementary school.

The Swampscott Select Board on Monday night approved the high school gymnasium as the temporary single voting location for all precincts.

While the switch is only for the special town school vote, for now, Swampscott Town Clerk Susan Duplin said a stable location for all voting should be determined after precincts were spread throughout the town in previous elections.

"We need to find a more permanent polling location after this," she said during the tidy, 30-minute meeting. "We keep bopping around. Nothing's set in stone."

Select Chair Peter Spellios agreed that in a town of 3 square miles it made sense to have one central location where everyone votes. The spring annual town election took place in the high school cafeteria, but Duplin said she was told since the school was in session part of Oct. 19 the gymnasium would be a better spot.

Oct. 19 is listed as an early release day on the school calendar.

The Select Board voted for five days of early voting beginning on Oct. 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at town hall. There is no voting on Columbus Day, then early voting at town hall will continue Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and conclude Friday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Residents will have until Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. to request a mail-in ballot and those must be returned to the town clerk's office or the dropbox at the town hall by 8 p.m. on Oct. 19 to count.

Duplin said anyone not registered to vote must do so by Sept. 29 to vote for the school.

Voters will decide whether to authorize the $97.5 million debt exclusion for the proposed new twin elementary schools at the site of the current Stanley School. The town secured state matching funds of $34 million, which brings the cost to the town to about $63.5 million.

The proposed school will be made up of a K-2 building and a Grades 3-4 building with a common room for facilities and staff use. The school will be built to serve about 900 students.

Town meeting members voted 244 to 39 to support a townwide vote on the new school at last Monday's special town meeting.

The "yes" vote also gave town officials the authority to negotiate an easement of property from the Unitarian Universalist Church needed for an access road as part of the state-approved proposal.

With the state matching funds, the town finance committee — which supported the new school — said the maximum annual net-tax impact of the new school would be $300 annually for the median single-family homeowner in the town.

If authorized and when completed, the proposed new school would replace the aging existing Hadley (which was built in 1911), Stanley (1929) and Clarke (1952) schools — which officials have said represents the third-oldest group of elementary school buildings in the state.

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(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.)

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