Swampscott Board Weighs Surplus School Buildings, Eyes Community Forum on Reuse

SWAMPSCOTT -- October 15, 2014, Swampscott's Board of Selectmen took stock of four vacant municipal buildings and debated a path forward on school reuse as a failed town meeting vote left the town's elementary school future in limbo. Town Administrator Joseph Younger outlined the four surplus properties, the former police station at 89 Borough Street, the former senior center at 86 Pearl Street, Michon Elementary at 35 Burpee Road, and the 104,000-square-foot Greenwood Avenue School on 2.2 acres, and said the board had reached out to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to explore whether Greenwood could host a replacement Hadley Elementary, though he cautioned that MSBA officials had privately signaled the answer was likely no. Town meeting member Kelly Cunningham argued the defeated consolidated-school proposal was flawed because the 635-student building was already overcrowded on day one and reduced combined recreational space from roughly nine and a half acres to below half an acre. The board voted unanimously to promote Joseph Gombali to permanent fire lieutenant and to appoint Lynn M. Lavoie as part-time benefits coordinator, and accepted Swampscott's designation as a Purple Heart community, the fifth on the North Shore to receive the honor.