Templeton Sends Plan For School To State

Templeton Sends Plan For School To State
Costs of new facility detailed
Rebecca Leonard
News Correspondent

TEMPLETON  Templeton officials unanimously voted to send the plans for the new elementary school in a final submission to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

“You can see that a tremendous amount of design has gone into the project,” stated John Winikur the owner’s project manager for the school.

At a joint board meeting on Monday night, the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, Elementary School Building Committee and Advisory Board came together to discuss the final plan of the proposed elementary school. Members of each board and committee were able to ask questions before they voted to send the plan through to the MSBA for its review and approval in a few months.

An estimated calculation for the tax impact on the residents of the town was also discussed at Monday night’s meeting. The school would require a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion tax override, which would raise taxes for the length of the bond.

The annual residential tax increase would be about $2 per $1,000 of assessed value every year, over a 28-year loan. The total cost of the project is $48 million which includes the building construction, site work, fees and expenses, furniture, fixtures, equipment and contingencies. Eligible costs will be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority – about $22 million, making the final total cost for the town $26 million.

“We have applied and received more reimbursement for how well you all have taken care of the old buildings up until now. The MSBA has taken that into account,” said Mr. Winikur.

The town currently pays $480,000 a year for the bond for the renovation of the Narragansett Regional Middle and High School, which will expire in 2019. If the town times it right, that amount could be rolled over to the new bond, taking $480,000 off of the proposed amount the town would be paying, per year, for the new elementary school.

Discussion of what would happen if the town decided not to move forward with the project revealed it would take about 10 years to get to this point in the project again. It would need to reapply, and be put on a three- to seven-year wait list. Any costs that it is being reimbursed for now would become non-reimbursable funds.

The school was approved to continue to the schematic design phase in August and in the last two months, architects, engineers and designers have mulled over the site and planning a design that will allow the school to blend in with the rest of the town.

The final product will be submitted to the MSBA on Oct. 1 for a final review during its board meeting on Nov. 18.

The debt exclusion vote will take place on Dec. 8.

The plan is for a 93,000-square-foot, three-story school to be built on the site of Templeton Elementary School, which would house 580 students and replace both Templeton Elementary and Baldwinville Elementary School.