School officials announce Hansen expansion

By Mike Berger

In an effort to address an apparent critical need for more classroom space, the Canton School Committee last week announced the start of a two- to three-year plan to replace four modular classrooms at the Hansen Elementary School with eight permanent classrooms.

The first step in the process was authorizing $250,000 for architectural plans as part of the capital budget for the next school year, although the committee intends to seek the funding from the town’s free cash reserves at the upcoming town meeting.

The request for more classrooms at the Hansen came from the newly formed School Building Study Committee (SBSC), which was established at last year’s town meeting to examine school facilities and future enrollment trends. Headed by School Committee member John Bonnanzio, the committee also includes Selectman John Connolly, town residents Jon Arata, Stacy Chambers and Luke Grady, teacher Jan Chamberlain, and School Business Manager Ken Leon.

Arata and Chambers made a presentation to the committee Thursday night, and the committee followed with a motion to approve the architectural costs.

The report referenced the “deleterious condition” of the four modular classrooms, which Arata said have, at most, two to three years of use before major repairs are needed.

The proposed addition would replace the four existing modulars and add another four classrooms on a second floor for a net gain of four classrooms. The new classrooms would be directly connected to the existing building and would require the installation of a new building-wide sprinkler system in order to comply with state fire safety regulations.

The Hansen addition is being viewed as a short-term fix for an ongoing space crunch across the Canton school district. The SBSC is currently projecting enrollment growth of 1 percent per year, although that figure would almost certainly increase with the addition of any new multi-family housing projects in town. Arata, Bonnazio, and Chambers agreed that the town may be facing the need for another elementary school within the next 10 years.

Speaking on the need for additional space within the system, Bonnanzio said a changing and more transient student body has resulted in the need for smaller, more specialized instruction spaces, such as classrooms for English Language Learners (ELL). Currently, the Hansen and other schools are using storage rooms — in some cases without windows or ventilation — for small group instruction.

School officials have pegged the total cost of the Hansen School addition at $3.4 million, which includes the aforementioned architectural costs plus $3 million for construction, $58,000 for furniture and fixtures, and $150,000 for contingency costs. Both Leon and School Superintendent Jeff Granatino said they do not expect the project to be eligible for state reimbursements.

If the funding for the architectural plans is approved at the May town meeting, then the plans could be ready within six months, at which point a special town meeting could be called to expedite the project, which has an expected construction timeline of five to six months.

The $250,000 for architectural costs has been tentatively included in the FY15 long-term debt budget, which also includes $160,000 for an energy-efficient boiler at CHS, $365,000 for tennis court repairs at CHS, and $158,000 for a new gym floor at the middle school. In the meantime, the committee has applied for $260,000 in Community Preservation Act funds for the tennis court repairs and hopes to receive another $50,000 from selectmen to put toward the project. There is also $160,000 left over from previous capital projects, which could be used pending the approval of the Capital Planning Committee.

If all of these financing measures are successful — including the proposed free cash transfer for the architectural costs — then the committee’s debt capital budget would be reduced to $263,200.

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