Hopkinton plans to build another new elementary school. What to know about the tax impact

HOPKINTON — A proposal to build a new Elmwood Elementary School is a step closer to reality, as the Select Board has approved a budget for the project.

On Aug. 23, the board voted 4-0-1 on the $158.4 million budget recommendation for the new Elmwood Elementary School. Vice Chair Shahidul Mannan and members Amy Ritterbusch, Mary Jo LaFreniere and Irfan Nasrullah voted in favor, with Chair Muriel Kramer abstaining.

"I don't feel the comfort yet," Kramer said during the meeting. "I am working toward a yes, just so you all (School and Elementary School Building Committees) know. I appreciate the need, I appreciate the goal, but I need to know how this all plays financially."

Members of the School Committee, Elementary School Building Committee (ESBC) and the Appropriations Committee made their presentation to the Select Board for a new Elmwood Elementary School building ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline to submit the proposal's schematic design to the Massachusetts School Board Authority (MSBA).

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Growing pains: New Elmwood project is a long time coming

Superintendent of Schools Carol Cavanaugh told the Daily News on Wednesday that the new project has been in the works for a while, with the district first filing a statement of interest for a new Elmwood School in 2007.

"One of the problems that we have there now is enrollment," Cavanaugh said. "When you have about 650 students in that school, the cafeteria is too small (and) things like library spaces are inadequate."

"We typically think about building them (schools) for a 50-year lifespan," added Jon Graziano, chair of the ESBC. "This building is somewhat past the expected useful life that you would have of a school building. This isn't a question of how well it's been maintained, it's an almost 60-year-old school at this point."

Elmwood Elementary, at 14 Elm St., opened in 1965 and was most recently renovated in 2006, according to the MSBA website.

Cavanaugh, who is in her sixth year as superintendent, has seen the town's school population soar.

"It's very interesting, we opened the Marathon School in June of 2018," she said. "When we opened Marathon School, we probably had somewhere around 3,450 kids in the district, and that number was pretty steady. Today we're at 4,206 — we just did the math for opening day, and we've added 801 students since opening day in 2018."

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Hopkinton's population has greatly increased

The rapid student growth is a reflection of Hopkinton’s overall population trends. The number of residents in town grew by nearly 26% — from 14,925 to 18,758 — in the 10 years between 2010-20, according to the U.S. Census. That far exceeded state and national growth, both of which were 7.4%, while Middlesex County grew by 8.6%.

Hopkinton had 4,163 students in its public school system during the 2022-23 academic year. Elmwood, which serves second and third graders, enrolled 627 students this past year. In 2020, Hopkinton schools enrolled 3,862 students, with 557 of them at Elmwood, according to state enrollment data.

While the current Elmwood Elementary School serves only second and third graders, the proposed new school would add fourth graders. Graziano said this will provide a "relief valve" for the district.

Along with student population increases, Cavanaugh said there are many irregularities in classrooms, such as with lighting and heating. She also noted that some classrooms have just one electric outlet, which has led to extension cords "running all over the place."

The Elementary School Building Committee sent to the MSBA a preferred schematic report for replacing the Elmwood School in February. Since then, members have evaluated design options for a new elementary school for Hopkinton's second, third and fourth graders.

The new building will be designed to house up to 1,195 students.

Should the proposal pass at a special Town Meeting and special election, the project's design development is scheduled to begin in December and end next April, with construction tentatively scheduled to take place between June 2025 and December 2027, and a tentative move-in date of January 2028.

How will the project affect taxes?

Despite the Select Board's near-unanimous vote, questions were still raised about the potential impact on a Hopkinton resident's tax bills.

Graziano explained that through the MSBA, the town will be reimbursed as much as $46 million directly, which comes during the life of the project. Some design decisions could also provide "several million dollars in rebates," he said.

"In total, the potential town contribution is something more in the neighborhood of $106 million to $108 million, after all of the rebates," Graziano said. He added that the project will be done through borrowing over 30 years. "It looks like an average homeowner would be paying something in the neighborhood of — at the highest point of the borrowing — about an additional $1,100 to $1,200 per year on their property taxes."

Kramer raised concerns over the tax increases at the Aug. 23 Select Board meeting.

"This kind of capital buy, this kind of capital step, absolutely changes the ability for some people to be able to stay here, for some people to move in here," she said. "So it absolutely changes the game for a lot of people — not everybody, but for a lot of people — and that's the kind of thing that we need to make sure we know completely when we cast our votes."

What comes next for the Elmwood project

The MSBA is expected to vote to certify the project budget and finalize the reimbursement amount at its Oct. 25 meeting.

In September and October, the Hopkinton ESBC will be doing outreach programming to ensure the public is well informed about the project ahead of a special Town Meeting and special election, where voters will decide on whether to move forward with the project.

At the Aug. 23 Select Board meeting, Town Manager Norman Khumalo estimated the opening of the special Town Meeting warrant would occur about Sept. 19, with the warrant being posted Oct. 20. The proposal needs a two-thirds majority at the special Town Meeting and a simple majority at the special election to authorize the town to get the project started.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Why Hopkinton is pushing forward for a new elementary school