On Thursday, September 12, the East Gloucester School Building Committee voted unanimously to continue investigating two options for a consolidated East Gloucester/Veterans Memorial Elementary School. Click HERE to view the presentation from Sept. 12. The two sites still under consideration are: Veterans Memorial School (Option F2), for a 440-student school. This design entails a new school with parking and circulation for buses in front of the building. This option includes providing a new location for the Mattos Softball Field and lights. This plan would require transition space for the Veterans school students during construction. This option scored 87 out of 100 possible points on a scale measuring educational goals, location, site circulation (of buses, cars and parking) and amenities (playgrounds, playing fields and school garden space.) Currently the cost is estimated at approximately $69 million, with potential reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority of approximately 59% of all eligible costs. Schoolhouse Road/ Green Street Field (Option G1), for a 440-student school. This design entails a new school built with an East-West orientation to maximize solar benefits and preserve as much of the surrounding woods and open space as possible. This design maintains field space that could accommodate Little League/softball or a peewee football field and preserves the existing playground off of Green Street. This option scored 91 out of 100 possible points on the measurement scale mentioned above. Currently the estimated cost is approximately $65 million, with possible reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority of approximately 59% of all eligible costs. This option would not require any transition space for students during construction. The Review Process
At last Thursday’s meeting, the School Building Committee reviewed nine possible options for the new school, evaluating each one’s merits and drawbacks related to fulfilling the educational goals of the District, and the feasibility of the building site. The six options presented for the East Gloucester School site scored the lowest. Of those six, the two lowest scoring options were for renovating or repairing the existing East Gloucester School building, with overall scores of 39 out of 100. These options fulfilled very few of the District’s educational goals, offering more of a “band-aid” approach that would provide costly, short term improvements rather than a strategic, long-term solution to the entire District’s need for new facilities. The two options to remove the existing East Gloucester building and construct a new school on East Gloucester property (one for 230 students, and one for a combined school of 440 students,) presented extreme challenges with bus and car circulation, parking and safety. Additionally, the option to rebuild a stand-alone 230 student school (for East Gloucester Students only) on the East Gloucester property did not meet the district’s long term goal of providing updated school facilities to as many of our students as possible, in the most economical way possible for the City. Background This recent development in the East Gloucester School Building Project is part of a process that has been underway for over four years. In 2016, after a year of debate and seven public hearings, the Gloucester School Committee unanimously approved an elementary school plan for the District that outlined plans to consolidate East Gloucester with Veterans Elementary, and Beeman with Plum Cove Elementary. The overarching goal behind Gloucester’s elementary school plan is to provide the best possible education and learning environment for every student in the District, in a way that is most financially feasible for the City. Since 2017 when the East Gloucester School Building Project was accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s funding program, the School Building Committee has methodically reviewed 14 options eventually narrowing down to the two described here. Next Steps In the coming month, project designers will continue studying the soil, rock and groundwater at each site, will conduct traffic studies, and review environmental and neighborhood impact of the two design options to determine the suitability of each. The Building Committee will vote to narrow down to one recommended site by mid-October. The School Committee will then vote whether to support the Building Committee’s recommendation, and the final site will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for review by October 23. Informational Meeting An informational meeting is scheduled for September 23, 7pm, in the Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall to update the community about this latest development in the project. Building Committee members, City representatives, and project managers and architects will present the current options in detail and answer questions about the project. Attendees are invited to submit written questions in advance via the Gloucester Public Schools website www.gloucesterschools.com, and during the meeting. There will be an East Gloucester Building Committee Public Hearing on Monday, September 9 at 6:00 pm at the City Hall Kyrouz Auditorium. The agenda will include a presentation from project architects Dore & Whittier, an update on progress to date, and a public comment period. The official agenda is available for download here.
An updated project schedule that includes upcoming meeting dates can be viewed here. |
AuthorsMembers of the East Gloucester Building Committee post project updates here periodically. Archives
January 2021
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