[Ed note: My Southborough accepts signed letters to the editor submitted by Southborough residents. Letters may be emailed to mysouthborough@gmail.com.
The following letter is from Al Hamilton.]
To The Editor:
I have recently posted to the Select Board 1/20/26 Packet a proposal to develop a plan to address the Neary School issue. I believe that this proposal is prudent and takes into account the needs of the school system, and tax payers. The outline of the proposal is that we would invest in the necessary repairs and upgrades to keep Neary as a viable school for the next 15 years. The identified repairs and upgrades are:
- Our PreK-8 school population is likely to increase over the next few years. We are seeing a demographic bulge which is the grandchildren of the baby boom.
- This demographic bulge is likely to be temporary. The long-term trend is for birth rates below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman. The current US birth rate is about 1.6 and Massachusetts has one of the lowest birth rates in the country. It is likely that after this bulge passes through our PreK-8 system, we will see school populations at or below our current levels. This is a trend that is being repeated throughout the industrialized word.
- If we engage in a building program now, we will likely find ourselves in the same position we are now with significant over capacity after the demographic bulge passes. Essentially, we would be making the same mistakes we made in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. This would be a poor allocation of our very scarce capital resources.
- The existing system has the capacity, if we repair Neary, to accommodate this bulge. The right time to reconfigure our PreK-8 system is in about 15 years when we likely will have a smaller school population and this is the proper time to “right size” our system
The key to this proposal is to avoid making the changes to the facility that would trigger much more expensive modifications. The layout would not be reconfigured, and the kitchen would remain a warming kitchen (as is has been for over a decade). The other part of this proposal is that it would have a budget cap to make sure that “feature creep” does not get out of hand. My current estimate is that $15,000,000 is a reasonable number for this program based on what I think the community can afford. If borrowed for 15 years at 3.9% that would lead to a tax impact of about $310 on a home worth $900,000.
Why do I believe we need to keep Neary “On Line” for 15 years?
There is more work to be done on this proposal but I believe this is a program that meets the needs of our students and taxpayers. I will have more to say as we move forward.
Al Hamilton
35 Pine Hill Road
[Editor’s Note: Click here for the proposal that Hamilton refers to as included in the Select Board packet, and here for the full agenda and meeting packet.]
