Swampscott Votes OK $98 million Elementary School

Swampscott will build a $98 million elementary school on the Stanley Elementary School site at 10 Whitman Road, voters decided in a special election on Tuesday. According to Swampscott Town Clerk Susan Duplin’s unofficial results, the turnout was 35% of the town’s 11,875 registered voters and the affirmative captured 65% of the vote.

Tuesday’s majority vote essentially OK’d a $64 million Proposition 2 1/2 debt-exclusion override. The Massachusetts School Building Authority is making available a $34.3 million grant award toward the school building project, leaving Swampscott taxpayers to pick up the remaining $64 million. The $60 million would be borrowed right away, taking advantage of low-interest rates, and $4 million next year, and the borrowing would be paid back over 30 years, according to the Swampscott Finance Committee.

“The maximum estimated annual net impact on the median single-family household tax bill is approximately $300,” wrote the Finance Committee in a letter printed on last month’s Town Meeting warrant. Click here to read the Swampscott Reporter’s article on the election including details of the financing.

The new school once built will unify a trio of neighborhood elementary schools: Stanley Elementary School, Hadley Elementary School and Clarke Elementary School. It will serve 900 students enrolled in kindergarten – fourth grade. (more…)