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Merrimack Valley
School Department to seek state money for new building
Published: July 18, 2007
NORTH ANDOVER - The town hopes to cash in on the state's plan to distribute $500 million next year to cities and towns for new school buildings.
But the competition for the money will be intense.
The state's School Building Authority has received requests from 110 school districts so far, and the authority will select communities based on the most need, according to Executive Director Katherine Craven.
North Andover officials plan to tell the authority that the School Department would use the money for a building to alleviate overcrowding in two elementary schools.
Communities that want to be considered for state funding for new schools have to send a "statement of interest" by the end of the month.
"We know for certain that we have overcrowding at the Franklin and the Sargent schools," said School Committee Chairman William Kelly.
Officials have been talking about erecting a 10-classroom building next to Atkinson Elementary School that would house the town's preschool classes. Officials estimate the building would cost $4 million, but they have not yet created blueprints for it.
The planning of the building is in its "embryonic" stage, and construction likely wouldn't begin until the fall of 2008, Kelly said.
The School Committee voted last month to give the vacant Bradstreet School, which has eight classrooms, to the police for a new headquarters.
Craven recently cautioned that giving up the Bradstreet School "may affect future grant funding" from the state because the law prohibits a town from "taking a building out of service as a school, and then applying for similar space any time in the 10-year period following."
But Kelly stressed Building Inspector Gerald Brown said the 1911 Bradstreet building does not meet the standards for a school and cannot be used until it undergoes a total rehabilitation.
But the competition for the money will be intense.
The state's School Building Authority has received requests from 110 school districts so far, and the authority will select communities based on the most need, according to Executive Director Katherine Craven.
North Andover officials plan to tell the authority that the School Department would use the money for a building to alleviate overcrowding in two elementary schools.
Communities that want to be considered for state funding for new schools have to send a "statement of interest" by the end of the month.
"We know for certain that we have overcrowding at the Franklin and the Sargent schools," said School Committee Chairman William Kelly.
Officials have been talking about erecting a 10-classroom building next to Atkinson Elementary School that would house the town's preschool classes. Officials estimate the building would cost $4 million, but they have not yet created blueprints for it.
The planning of the building is in its "embryonic" stage, and construction likely wouldn't begin until the fall of 2008, Kelly said.
The School Committee voted last month to give the vacant Bradstreet School, which has eight classrooms, to the police for a new headquarters.
Craven recently cautioned that giving up the Bradstreet School "may affect future grant funding" from the state because the law prohibits a town from "taking a building out of service as a school, and then applying for similar space any time in the 10-year period following."
But Kelly stressed Building Inspector Gerald Brown said the 1911 Bradstreet building does not meet the standards for a school and cannot be used until it undergoes a total rehabilitation.
