At its board meeting on October 25, 2023, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) unanimously voted to move the new elementary school building project forward into the schematic design phase. This is exciting news for the district, as it allows the project team to continue developing a detailed design for a new elementary school.
This new elementary school will be built with a larger design enrollment, allowing the district to consolidate the number of elementary schools in Stoughton from five to four, with the South Elementary School and Wilkins Elementary School determined to be the schools that will be closed when a new elementary school opens. The new elementary school will be located on Fano Drive (also known as the Line Lumber site), which is located off Park St., not far from where the South School is currently located.
Building a larger school not only gives more students the chance to attend a new school, but it also presents long-term cost savings for the town, as opposed to having to construct two separate new elementary school buildings. This consolidation plan will also involve the eventual redistricting and re-drawing of the current elementary school district boundaries, rebalancing the number of students attending each school and reducing pockets of overcrowding. (Where this project is still years away from completion, consolidation and redistricting will not take place until fall of 2027, when the new school is slated to open. Students will remain at the school they currently attend until then.)
There is still a lot of work to do over the next several months before the MSBA approves the project scope and budget and the project comes before Town Meeting and voters for approval. We will continue to keep you updated throughout this process.
In the meantime, we would like to thank the members of the project team and building committee for their work in securing the positive outcome at the MSBA board meeting. And, we would like to thank our State Senator Walter Timilty for his continued support throughout this project.
For more information about the new elementary school building project, click here.