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Elmwood School SOI Invited Into MSBA Period Of Eligibility

By contributor,
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On Wednesday, April 14, 2021, the Hopkinton Public Schools statement of interest for the Elmwood school was voted into a Period of Eligibility with the Massachusetts State Building Authority or MSBA. Over the next 270 days, the school district will need to prepare a variety of documents to prove that they are eligible to enter into the next phase, which is known as the Feasibility Study. The 270-day Eligibility Period formalizes and streamlines the beginning of the MSBA’s grant approval process and benefits the town by providing a definitive schedule for the completion of preliminary requirements, including identifying needs for planning and budgeting. Successful completion of all activities in the Eligibility Period will allow the town to be eligible for an MSBA invitation to Feasibility Study.

This is very exciting news as the first time a statement of interest was submitted to the MSBA for the Elmwood school was back in 2008.

The Elmwood school was built in 1964. Over the years the school district has kept the building in good condition. Nevertheless, the age and configuration of the building make it very difficult to offer students 21st century academic programming, especially related to small group targeted instruction (SpEd, ESOL, and reading remediation, for example) and technology integration. The parking, drop off, and pick up processes prove challenging on the property. The location is further compromised because the school is built on a Tennessee gas line. And finally some of the common spaces in the building, for example the library and the cafeteria, are markedly too small for the ever-expanding student body. In sum, the Elmwood School--the second oldest building in the district--struggles due to increased enrollment, the need for 21st century academic programming, and, as a result, an expanded faculty.

Over the next eight months, the school district will engage townspeople in a process of looking at available spaces to build a school, address traffic concerns, project enrollment, determine grade configurations, and more. It will be very important to hear the voices of the community.

The scope and configuration of the school to be built will impact the cost of the project. What the MSBA encouraged the district to do was to think very creatively about Hopkinton‘s educational needs, not just now but in the decades to come.

Should the School Committee vote to do so tonight, the Hopkinton Public Schools will be adding an article to the town Special Town Meeting Warrant for May 8, 2021. The article will be asking Town Meeting to vote for a sum of money to be taken out of the Legacy Farms Host Community Agreement (HCA) specifically for a feasibility study. It is important to note that neither this vote nor the sum of money means we are building a new school. What it does mean is that we are assessing the feasibility of building a new school. Because the money is coming from the Host Community Agreement, there will be absolutely no impact to any tax payer in Hopkinton to conduct this feasibility study. The request to Town Meeting voters will be to move the schools’ money from its stabilization fund to the general fund such that the district can begin a feasibility study to replace the Elmwood School, which includes determining grade level and building configurations.

The specifics of the district’s Eligibility Period will be sent to Hopkinton by the MSBA on Monday, April 26, 2021.