September 13, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
During the 2024 Annual Town Meeting, voters will undertake the task of approving a name for the new elementary school at the former Foster School site on Downer Avenue.
“The construction of the new school is progressing smoothly and is on track for completion by the beginning of the next school year,” School Committee Chair Nes Correnti told the Hingham Anchor.
Supt. of Schools Margaret Adams and Director of Business and Support Services Aisha Oppong recently outlined a process for the district to follow to gather name suggestions from the community, which the School Committee approved unanimously. “These suggestions will be collected and presented this fall to the School Committee, which will vote to select a proposed name [in January],” Correnti said.
The chosen name will be submitted to the Select Board and Advisory Committee for their consideration and will be included in the Annual Town Meeting warrant article for voter consideration.
“We are so excited for the Foster community and our town as we get closer to the completion of this long-awaited project,” Correnti said. “This has been years in the making, with so many volunteers, community members, and dedicated school staff investing countless hours to turn this into a reality.”
Adams’ and Oppong’s outline is based on the School Committee’s “Naming New Facilities” policy and includes the following:
A form to collect suggested names from the community will be shared by the superintendent through various forms of communication starting this week.
Feedback will be solicited from the PTO and school council through meetings held this fall. Suggestions are due by Oct. 31.
The data collected will be synthesized by the superintendent and presented to the School Committee for discussion on Nov. 27.
A second round of feedback will be solicited based on data collected from December 4-22. The information will be widely shared through the media and communication platforms.
The superintendent will present the data collected from the second round of feedback on Jan. 8, with a final School Committee vote on a warrant article on the proposed name taking place Jan. 22.
The warrant article will be presented to the Select Board and Advisory Committee in February for their consideration.
Town Meeting voters have the final say.