5 February, 2015
The Hopkinton Elementary School Building Committee (ESBC) on February 4, 2015, voted unanimously to approve a short list of site alternatives for further evaluation. As part of the Center School Feasibility Study, funding for which was approved by Town Meeting in May 2013, the Committee has been evaluating 11 alternatives at 4 locations.
These 11 alternatives and related evaluation criteria were the subject of two recent ESBC community workshops.
Over the coming weeks, the ESBC will perform additional due diligence of the following site alternatives (the short list):
Center School: Alternative 1C + 25 Ash Street, consisting of new construction on town owned property behind existing school, augmented by abutting 25 Ash Street, with preservation of the front of existing Center School building.
Irvine Property: 20+ acres located on Hayden Rowe, just South of Hopkinton Parks and Recreation land at EMC Park.
Todaro Property: 20+ acres, with access from 147 Hayden Rowe St, abutting the Irvine property to the North, adjacent to Water Fresh Farm and abutting 5 acres of town owned property on the South.
The committee’s decision followed extensive deliberations and discussion over several meetings, including input from two community workshops, and consideration of expert advice from town and school district professional staff, Compass Project Management, and Drummey, Rosane, Anderson (DRA) architects. Flexibility for future growth, minimizing disruption to education during construction, and other factors in the published site evaluation matrix (http://tinyurl.com/siteevalmatrix) weighed heavily in deciding the short-listed sites.
Through the remainder of February and early March, the ESBC and its partners Compass Project Management and DRA architects will complete additional due diligence of the short listed sites. The community is invited to the third community workshop to review results of this additional work, Saturday, March 7, 9:00 – 10:30 AM at the Center School, 11 Ash Street in Hopkinton. The ESBC expects to make a final decision on a preferred site by March 16th, 2015.
Please send questions and feedback to: schoolproject@hopkintonma.gov.
