January 19, 2024 Submitted by Hingham Public Schools
Hingham Public Schools is thrilled to announce that the survey of the Hingham community identified Foster Elementary School as the top preference for the naming of Hingham’s new elementary school.
Over 2,000 community members participated in the naming process for Hingham’s latest elementary school, set to open in the fall of 2024, following two rounds of surveys.
After analyzing both surveys, the community solidified their choice of Foster Elementary School.
Dr. Margaret Adams, Superintendent, recently presented the findings to the School Committee recommending the new elementary school to be named Foster Elementary School.
The current school building that will be demolished later carried the name of William L. Foster Elementary School, named after William Foster, a former selectboard member for over 40 years.
Per town bylaw, the name of any new town building must be voted on at Town Meeting. As such, HPS disseminated the first survey in October to generate the top four suggested names.
The most popular names included Foster Elementary School, William L. Foster Elementary School, Crow Point Elementary School, and North Elementary School. Harborside Elementary School was later added from the results of a Foster School student survey.
These preliminary results were presented to the School Committee in November at which time the School Committee voted to disseminate a second survey to gauge community input for the final naming.
The second survey totalled nearly 1,400 respondents, with a diverse split of respondents that included staff, students, parent/caregivers, community members, and alumni.
The top two names identified were Harborside Elementary School and Foster Elementary School, Foster capturing 28% of all votes and Harborside capturing 24%. The comment section helped shape the final recommendations. Overwhelmingly, the comments reflected a desire to keep Foster as it is central to its identity for current and past Foster School families.
The School Committee will submit the name through a warrant article to the town, which will later be voted on at the Spring Town Meeting.
Thank you for reporting on this. I never saw the surveys on this, so I am glad that they decided to keep the name of Foster School. It just seems weird to me that that would not be the first and really the only choice for a school that will occupy the same lot of land where so many of us went to school.
Ramsey school