Dear Shrewsbury Families & Community Members,
I am very pleased to inform you that earlier this afternoon the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted to invite our community into the “eligibility period” for consideration of a potential future building project to expand Shrewsbury High School, primarily to address chronic and severe overcrowding.
This is an initial step toward a potential partnership between the MSBA and our town to share the cost of a possible future SHS expansion project (you can see information about the eligibility phase here). It is important to note that there are many steps in this multi-year process (typically taking five to six years until completion) that will require both local approval and MSBA approval in future votes in order for a project to be funded and built. For information, you can view these slides from last March regarding what became the School Committee’s and Select Board’s submission of a “statement of interest” request for consideration of the project to the MSBA. The graphs regarding actual and projected enrollment vs. the design capacity of SHS are particularly striking.
Both Sherwood Middle School and Beal School were constructed through the MSBA’s program, where the MSBA provided state funding for roughly half of the cost. We are proud that both of these projects were on time, under budget, and were both subsequently selected as "MSBA Model Schools" due to their excellent design and quality. We were also fortunate to have the MSBA fund about half of this year's multi-million dollar Oak Middle School window replacement project, and a number of years ago they partnered with us to replace Spring Street School’s roof as well.
I wish to thank the School Committee and the Select Board for voting to submit the statement of interest, as well as State Representative Hannah Kane and State Senator Michael Moore for submitting a letter of support. Thanks also to our Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, Chris Girardi, for his hard work to put together the submission to the MSBA, and to Bill Tuttle from the Public Buildings Division for his significant contributions as well.
Today’s MSBA Board vote represents a significant step in what I hope will ultimately become an important future expansion of SHS. Despite today being Friday the 13th, I think this was an auspicious day for our community!
Finally, I am also well aware (thanks to the fans in my family) that December 13 is a famous birthday — perhaps it was fate that the vote was today, since when the MSBA team toured SHS to assess the facility, one of Mr. Lapomardo’s choirs was practicing a Taylor Swift song!
Respectfully,
Joe Sawyer
Superintendent of Schools