Do you live in Harvard? Do you have school-age children now or will you in the future? Do you pay taxes or rent in Harvard? Are you interested in Harvard schools and their connections to the community? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we hope you will join us for a community meeting about the Hildreth Elementary School building project. The meeting is set for Thursday, March 2, at 7 p.m. in Volunteers Hall of the Harvard Public Library. We hope to have so many people in attendance that we are full to capacity.
At the meeting we will update everyone on how the money appropriated at Town Meeting in 2016 has been spent so far. As a reminder, the town voted overwhelmingly to appropriate $500,000 to conduct the first several phases of the Massachusetts School Building Authority project (the state is reimbursing the town 45 percent of the costs). The work so far has included hiring an owner’s project manager, hiring an architect/design team, and conducting tests of the land and building conditions.
The state requires us to fully consider three options: rebuild the 1955 wing of the building (known currently as the kindergarten wing) and bring the rest of the building up to current codes; extensively renovate and rebuild parts of the existing school; or rebuild the school completely. We realize that each of these options affects the Harvard community in different ways. To learn more you may want to check out the website https://sites.google.com/psharvard.org/hesbuildingproject/home.
We are seeking as much input as possible before determining a preferred option by holding community meetings such as the one on March 2. Please come to learn more and then share your thoughts with us.
Linda Dwight is the superintendent of Harvard Public Schools.
