ORANGE — All of Orange’s elementary school students — from preschoolers to sixth-graders — should go to Fisher Hill Elementary School.
That is the option architects and school officials are choosing to pursue after months of studying potential solutions for the Dexter Park project. The Dexter Park project is the town’s effort to replace Dexter Park Innovation School, which is currently the town’s school for third through sixth grade, and has the lowest possible rating from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The town’s School Building Committee met with architects from Raymond Design Associates and Martin Goulet of Hill International Inc., which is managing the project on behalf of the town, Thursday night, and unanimously decided to pursue an addition to, and renovation of, Fisher Hill as the town’s future elementary school.
“We have a great opportunity to build a great campus,” said School Committee member Alex Schwanz. “A school is not just the building itself.”
The plan now is to add a three-story wing to the northern side of the current Fisher Hill building, which would be where students in the third grade up will be educated. The new wing would also be where a new entrance to the school would be built, with a new drive to be added to control traffic flow.
Preschool and kindergarten students would still be educated in the same areas they currently are, with a new playground to be built for them.
The final result would not just be the three-story addition, however, and architects at RDA emphasized that the current building would be renovated, potentially getting new, larger windows to let in more natural light.
The addition and renovation would happen during “phased construction,” with some construction happening in the summer and some during the school year, said Dan Bradford, project architect for RDA, with Dexter Park students staying in school at Dexter Park during construction. After the wing is completed, Dexter Park would be demolished, and new playing fields built over Dexter Park’s current footprint.
Schwanz and others liked the idea of having more fields at Fisher Hill, and mentioned the possibility of town residents being able to use them during after-school hours for recreation.
Many of the details of the project still need to be fleshed out, but, according to Goulet, initial price estimates put the project at around $50.9 million — around 80 percent of which is estimated to be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
Goulet said there are many variables, such as materials and window sizes, that could increase or decrease the price, and that he’ll be a “stick in the mud” reminding the town that “everything has a price tag.”
Of course, this project will not happen if it is not accepted by Orange voters, who just rejected a half-million-dollar Proposition 2½ tax override this past week amid fiscal woes.
Hill International and RDA expect to present a final schematic design and proposal for the project to be finished early next year, and for residents to vote on the project at the 2020 Annual Town Meeting.
Build-time estimates are around 24 months — from when the construction starts — Bradford said.
The project chosen Thursday night is the result of an $875,000 “feasibility study” voters approved last year to examine potential solutions to the problems at Dexter Park.
Built in 1951, Dexter Park was designated a “Category 4” school by the Massachusetts School Building Authority in 2006. Category 4 is the worst rating from the authority, and demonstrates a need for substantial repairs or replacement. Only one of nine schools in the state with Category 4 status, Dexter Park was given the designation after boiler and heating problems, a leaking roof, asbestos and opaque windows.
The feasibility study — also being reimbursed by the state at a rate around 80 percent — looked at more than 20 options to fix these problems, including renovating Dexter Park, building a new school at the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School campus and resurrecting the old Butterfield School building, which was closed in 2015 to alleviate pressure on the town budget.
Thursday night, only two options remained, the Fisher Hill addition and renovation, and a three-story entirely new building to be built in front of the current Dexter Park building. The latter option was eliminated for several reasons: First, it would be slightly more expensive than the Fisher Hill option, and second, only Dexter Park would be demolished, leaving Fisher Hill a decommissioned building overlooking the new school.
Selectboard Chairman Ryan Mailloux said it would be difficult to convince taxpayers to decommission another building, and described the option as having Fisher Hill “looming” over the new school, detracting from the new school’s value.
A detailed schematic of the Fisher Hill addition and renovation is viewable on the project’s Facebook page titled “Dexter Park Improvements.”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268
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