Hingham pushes school plan hard
Hingham would most likely have to close Foster Elementary School, and redistrict to accommodate its approximately 400 students in the town’s three other elementary schools, if local voters reject a plan to replace the building, officials said.
“This is a dire scenario,” School Committee member Matt Cosman said after Superintendent Margaret Adams outlined the contingency plans at an Oct. 11 meeting. The change would impact all students in town, not just those at Foster, said School Committee Chair Michelle Ayer.
Adams said other options — such as repairing and remodeling Foster, or finding an alternative space — are not feasible. She did not have specifics on the cost or timing of redistricting.
A Special Town Meeting on Nov. 1 will decide whether to spend an estimated $113 million to build a new Foster Elementary School. If the measure passes, it also needs approval at the Nov. 8 election.
Officials expect to get about $25 million from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to offset the cost. The town also plans to use several million dollars from its free cash for the project.
A debt exclusion — a property tax increase for the period of time it takes to pay off the loan — would fund the remainder of the project. Officials estimate it would cost the owner of the median-priced home in town — assessed at $740,000 — about $396 more in property taxes annually over 30 years.
Foster Elementary, in the Crow Point neighborhood, opened in 1951, with additions built in 1957 and 1974, and accessibility improvements made in 2008. The town has been talking about replacing it for more than a decade, with detailed planning starting in 2017.
The proposed new school would accommodate 605 students in kindergarten through Grade 5 in a 126,385-square-foot building behind the current 72,000square-foot structure. The new school also would allow expansion of the pre-K program that integrates students with and without special needs.
If voters approve the project, officials anticipate the new school would open in September 2024. Students would remain in Foster during construction; the old building would be demolished in the summer of 2024.
The Nov. 1 Town Meeting also will vote on another debt exclusion to spend $47 million to build a new public safety facility on Route 3A near the Hingham Shipyard, on land the town bought for $5.5 million in 2020. If approved, the project would cost the average taxpayer about $260 a year for 30 years, officials said.
A third article on the warrant asks voters to approve spending $7 million from the town’s debt stabilization fund to reduce the amount needed to be raised in taxes for both projects.