This subject has been front and center for some time now with many different positions taken either in support or against the proposed elementary school project. I had the opportunity to see the new Peebles Elementary School currently starting construction in Bourne on Cape Cod this past week.
The current elementary school is a 65-year-old building constructed in 1953 as a temporary building to house a 200 percent expanding student population mainly from nearby Otis Air Force Base.
The new Bourne school building project has a cost of $40 million with a state reimbursement of approximately 38 percent, making the net cost of $24 million to the town. The number of students planned for is 470. In round numbers the Harvard project has a $10 million to $11 million additional cost for about the same number of students and with similar requirements as the Peebles project.
This should, in itself, raise a red flag for questioning the entire process, starting with assumptions made to replace a functioning 29-year-old building.
David Hobson
Woodside Road
