Project Journal

 This is a very exciting time for our school community to see the addition and renovation of our elementary school.  Tremendous planning has gone into every detail of the project and how it will progress as we welcome students back for a new school year.  Safety is of the greatest importance to us in the care of our students and I have complete confidence we are ready for a great school year while completing this project at our school.  We will continue to provide ongoing communication for parents and regular updates on the progress of the project.


August 3, 2017
Thursday was an exciting day with the launch of the construction project at Center School!  The 'wing' has officially been taken over by Brait Construction and they will begin abatement next week in preparation for demolition of the wing.  All of this work will happen over the next few weeks and be completed before the start of school.  If you drive by Center School you will see the construction fence going up and the office trailers (for the construction company!) being placed out back near the softball field.  For the remainder of the summer, the construction fencing will overlap into parking lots and school grounds.  As we get to the end of August the fencing will be moved back in some areas to get ready for school.  As we get closer to the start of school, we will be sending you some important updates for the school year regarding the construction project.

September 7, 2016
Informational sessions on the Center/Sylvester Building Project will be held on the following dates.  View the Sylvester School Solution Presentation here.

  • Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 10:00 am to 11:00 am, at Salmond School
  • Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, at Center School Auditorium
  • Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at Center School Auditorium
  • Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, at High School Media Center (prior to School Committee meeting)

August 3, 2016
On July 20, 2016, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) awarded Hanover with a $15.8 million grant towards the renovation of Center School.  On August 1, 2016, the Hanover Board of Selectmen approved a Special Town Meeting for September 26, 2016 with a subsequent Ballot Vote on October 1, 2016 for the community to vote on whether or not to approve the remaining funding ($16.4 million) required by Hanover to finance the project.  We are very appreciative of the hard work of the Building Committee, our designers, the project management team, and for the cooperation from the MSBA and Board of Selectmen to get to this stage in the process.  We look forward to providing more details to the community in the weeks ahead to help our citizens make an informed decision when they vote in the fall.

June 7, 2016
We are pleased to announce that the Project Manager, P3, Inc., and the Mt. Vernon Group Architects met the directive of the Building Committee to reduce the initial estimated project cost.  This was especially challenging given that necessary public safety items, which were not part of the initial design, had to be added into the project budget.  Despite these additions, the project manager and architects designed a building that meets our educational and design goals for the school at millions less than the original estimate, which exceeded $35 million dollars.  At the May 31st meeting of the Building Committee, we were presented with revised plans and a revised budget that was approximately $3 million under the initial project estimate of $35 million dollars.  The final project budget voted at the May 31st meeting is $32,825,00.00, with $500,000 already being appropriated by the Town at the 2014 Town Meeting.

The Building Committee continues to do an excellent job of narrowing cost items and managing the project in a fiscally responsible manner while ensuring maximum educational benefit for the lowest possible tax impact.  Due to the diligence of P3, Inc. and the Mt. Vernon Group, we expect that the state reimbursement rate will be between 52% and 54% of eligible costs, which is a higher reimbursement rate than allowed for the Hanover High School project.  Based on expected reimbursement rate and the project budget, we estimate the Town's share of the cost to be approximately $15.6 million dollars.

May 19, 2016
Dear HPS Families and Staff,

In 2014, Town Meeting unanimously appropriated $500,000 to fund a Feasibility Study to investigate the building and renovation options for Center / Sylvester School. It has been a very busy two years.  The Center / Sylvester Building Committee in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) appointed P3, Inc. as the Project Management team and Mt. Vernon Group as the Designer / Architect team.  We began by evaluating Sylvester School to determine whether it was feasible to retain Sylvester as a school.  We determined that option was not in the best interest of our taxpayers or students.  The Sylvester building is severely deficient in regards to function, structure, air quality, hazardous materials, handicap accessibility, and mechanical / electrical components.  It is completely inaccessible to individuals with mobility disabilities.  The building has inadequate ventilation, wiring and electric systems that do not meet code, it is not energy efficient, and the current amperage does not adequately support technology.  In addition, the overcrowding and lack of sufficient space for educational programming remains problematic.  As we suspected, the cost of retaining Sylvester School was significant - 13 million dollars simply to bring the building to code and that does not include improvements to enhance educational programing.  Because the “no build option” is not reimbursable by the MSBA, the $13,000,000 expense would be a direct cost to our taxpayers with no state funded offset.  For a slightly higher investment, Hanover can receive a state of the art renovated school with greater educational benefits for our children.

In October 2015, the School Committee voted to reconfigure our elementary schools.  Effective for the 2018 school year, Cedar will house preschool, kindergarten and first grade.  The configuration of Center School will depend on the outcome of this project.  Should voters decide to move this project forward, grades 2, 3 and 4 will be housed in a renovated Center school.  Should the project fail to move forward, town wide grades 2 and 3 will be housed in Center School with town-wide 4th grade at Sylvester.  The selected design option builds to a town wide population of 560 students, as allowed by the MSBA.  Some highlights of the most recent plan include a new wing of classroom space, new cafeteria and stage, media, art and library rooms, a dedicated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Media) laboratory, dedicated SPED instruction space, courtyard with outdoor classroom and student garden space, breakout spaces for student collaboration that will facilitate project based learning, completely updated wiring and HVAC, wireless technology and complete systems upgrade.  It will be a state of the art learning center for all of our students.

The initial design from Mt. Vernon had an estimated cost of $35 million dollars, with approximately half to reimbursed by the MSBA, making the tax impact to the residents approximately 18 million.  At the most recent Building Committee meeting, we directed Mt. Vernon to employ additional modes of value engineering to provide us with options that reduce the tax impact to our citizens.  We are looking forward to reviewing the revised designs options and sharing those with our community.

At this point, Hanover has invested $500,000 and 3 years into developing a fiscally responsible plan for renovating Center and taking Sylvester School offline.  We are fortunate that the MSBA has backed our project and we continue to work with the MSBA to minimize the Town’s financial share of this project.  In addition to our work with the MSBA and our architect to maximize Hanover’s reimbursement rate, we are working closely with Town officials to establish a capital savings that we can use to offset the impact to the taxpayer.  The Building Committee continues to develop this project with a respectful balance of spending.  We are aware of the tremendous opportunity before us, the amount of resources invested thus far and mindful that if we do not take advantage of the MSBA’s willingness to fund this project, we will be paying to maintain and upkeep a barely viable, educationally unfit building for the significant future.  We appreciate the Town’s support of this project and look forward to presenting this project to voters in the fall.

— Libby Corbo on behalf of the Center School Building Committee.

October 29, 2015
Dear HPS Families and Staff,

Last night, the Hanover School Committee unanimously voted to change the future grade level configuration of our two elementary schools with a tentative implementation date of September 2018.  The proposed configuration is anticipated to include Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first grade at the Cedar School.  Grades two, three, and four will reside at the renovated and enlarged Center School pending successful approval of the building project.

As you likely know, we are engaged in an ongoing project to renovate and expand the Center School in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority.  The Sylvester School is no longer compliant or suitable as an educational facility for our students.  We will be working as a community in the future to determine a repurposing plan for this historic building.

The building project has required that our district Leadership Team and our elected School Committee members take a very deep and serious look at the long-term educational vision for our community.  For over two years, and more intensely in the past few months, members of our School Committee and Leadership Team have been working with teachers, parents, and community members to evaluate these options.  The collective goal is to make decisions that afford every child in Hanover an exceptional and equitable education that starts in elementary school and continues to their graduation day from Hanover High School.  At this time, we believe this configuration provides our youngest and future elementary students with that opportunity.

This was a very difficult decision and there were strong feelings on both sides of the issue.  We want to assure our families and staff members that over the next three years (and perhaps longer if needed), we will work as hard as possible to ensure smooth transitions and support all of you through a change process in any way possible.  There will be many opportunities to offer ideas and provide feedback on the educational, cultural, and operational opportunities before us.  With this decision made, we will begin focusing our energy and enthusiasm on the school building design and an educational programming strategy that will engage and excite our school community.

Thank you very much for your time and attention to this message and we look forward to working with you in the years ahead as this project continues.

Respectfully,
Matthew A. Ferron
Superintendent of Schools