February 27, 2019 by Carol Britton Meyer
School officials will be submitting a Statement of Interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the third time seeking partial state reimbursement for a much-needed major renovation -- or an entirely new building -- for Foster School.
"The Board of Selectmen supported this step last night [Feb. 26], and I spoke to my own personal connection to the school (3 generations) and it’s importance as a neighborhood school as well as the growing pressure on the north side of town regarding Hingham’s student population due to the Alliance and Avalon apartment construction [and the amount of new students these developments might bring]," Selectmen Chairman Paul Healey told the Hingham Anchor. "We indicated our ongoing and intensified efforts to enlist the assistance of our state representatives and senator to secure state financial aid for this much-needed project."
In the meantime, on April 22 Town Meeting will consider a warrant article seeking funds to cover extraordinary capital maintenance expenses that might occur while awaiting the MSBA's decision.
"Both the Advisory Committee and the Selectmen approved the warrant article requesting $350,000 for Foster School extraordinary capital maintenance," said School Committee Chairman Michelle Ayer in an email to the Anchor. "These funds will be utilized as required for the Foster School building until a permanent solution for the aging building is determined." Town Meeting has the final say.
On February 25 the School Committee withdrew a second warrant article asking voters to eliminate the 2017 vote for feasibility study money and replace it with a request for an appropriation to cover the cost of a feasibility study related to possible eligibility for MSBA funding this time around, or even if the project is denied.
Ayer explained that the Committee decided to withdraw the article due to "some changes in wording that would have been required to submit the article, and the Committee felt we needed more time to prepare for the discussion at Town Meeting [related to that article]."
That said, Ayer emphasized, "While we withdrew the article, we have NOT withdrawn our support or focus on resolving the Foster School building needs. We are focusing our attention on ensuring that both the MSBA and the townspeople of Hingham understand the urgent need to address the Foster School building."
The MSBA's decision on the town's third SOI is expected in December 2019. Any costs incurred in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA would be borne by the town.
Parent/teacher share concerns
In the meantime, a Foster parent and teacher shared their concerns with the Hingham Anchor.
Sara Mason Ader explained her views following what she considers to be many frustrating years waiting for Foster School issues to be resolved.
"As a Foster School parent for the past 13 years, it feels as though the Town of Hingham has largely turned its back on the Foster School community. In the past 20 years, it's hardly been a secret that something has needed to be done about the condition of the school," she said. "For various reasons, the can just keeps getting kicked down the road at a huge cost to the Foster community, and to the town as well. As a town, every year we wait to fix this, we are dumping tens of thousands of dollars into keeping a nonfunctional building open and the cost of new construction goes up. It's a double whammy, and it's an increasing burden for the town and a real educational handicap on 25 percent of our youngest citizens."
'Incredible job'
Ader commends the Foster School teachers and staff for the "loving and incredible job they do with our kids at Foster, trying to educate them as well as they can under these circumstances. That's no easy task when classroom temperatures are routinely over 90 degrees or under 45 degrees, or when the humidity is causing the ceiling to drip and paint to peel," Ader said. "I can't imagine that other town employees would put up with these working conditions or that citizens would willingly visit buildings in this condition. Yet, we are forcing 25 percent of our elementary children to learn in this environment. I continue to be shocked and ashamed that this is happening in Hingham, a town that takes so much pride in its education system."
Monica Matthews, who has been a teacher at Foster School for 15 years, shares Ader's concerns. "I have seen the condition of the building impact my teaching more and more each year. Every day we arrive and evaluate the heating situation -- Is it too hot? Is it too cold? Is there a fuel odor? For example, just today [Feb. 26] two classes are being relocated within the building because of a frozen pipe," she said. "Before vacation, two fourth-grade classes had to move to another location in the building because of a fuel odor in their rooms."
These relocations involve moving books, furniture, and materials in addition to the students, and "the flow of learning is disrupted, Matthews said. "There are contracted people in our building daily, checking the boiler, the vents, and the thermostats. Because of the constant monitoring and servicing, the staff at Foster School is able to maintain a positive learning environment. This has become our new normal."
As a resident of Hingham, Mathews wonders how much this maintenance is costing. "If we were able to start building next year, we still wouldn't have a new school until 2023. Will the building even hold up that long?" she asks.
In a telephone conversation, Selectman Mary Power, the board's education liaison, said Foster School remains a priority among other town projects that are also under consideration. She further noted the Selectmen's role in putting consideration of feasibility study funding on the warrant in 2017 "so the town would be ready to go if we were invited into the program [which did not happen]. We initiated that warrant article because we believe that Foster School is an important priority and we've said so on a number of occasions."
That's the reason, Power said, that the Selectmen did not vote to support asking for funding for the Hingham Public Library project at the upcoming Town Meeting (that article was subsequently withdrawn even though it included a significant amount of state funding). "The feeling is that there are more compelling needs in the town, Foster School being one of them," she said.
Power went on to say, "We all understand that Foster School is a priority, and we're all focused right now on maximizing the town's chances of getting invited into the MSBA program and using the next several months [leading up to the expected December 2019 decision] to do that and to also plan for what we do if that doesn't happen. It's important to educate citizens about this community need and to plan for how they will respond whether we get invited into the MSBA program or not.
"There's a lot of preparatory work we can do, and the Selectmen are firmly behind that," Power said.
Looking back
As background, in keeping with 2017 Town Meeting’s support for two warrant articles related to Foster School, a school building committee was created and seven members appointed.
School officials and the committee were disappointed to learn that Foster School was not selected to participate in the Massachusetts School Building Authority program last year, which was also the case in 2017.
Foster School was built in 1951, with an addition in 1957 and renovations in 1974 and 2008. The building is in need of major work or a new school in order to provide a full range of programs consistent with state and local requirements, school officials say.
After submitting a Statement of Interest to the MSBA in the fall of 2017 seeking financial assistance for repairs or a new school, the MSBA informed school officials in December 2017 that Foster was not chosen that time around for partial funding to address the facility deficiencies that school officials say impact the Foster community on a daily basis.
The school building committee submitted an updated statement of interest to the MSBA in the Spring of 2018 in anticipation of an MSBA announcement last December and were cautiously optimistic at the time. Once again they were disappointed. This time around they are hoping the town will be invited into the Eligibility Period.
Even if that happens, the town would not be committed to filing for an application for funding with the MSBA unless through an affirmative Town Meeting vote.
Hingham received MSBA funds for major South School and High School renovations in the 1990s and for the new Middle and East schools later on.
