State Treasurer Steven Grossman, Chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), and Jack McCarthy, MSBA Executive Director, announced today that the MSBA Board of Directors voted to proceed with the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District into the Schematic Design Phase to potentially replace the Maquan Elementary School and Indian Head Elementary School with a new elementary school on the Indian Head site. The Board further authorized the proposed project for consideration in the MSBA’s Model School Program.
“I am delighted to see that the proposed Maquan project is being considered to move into our Model School Program,” Treasurer Grossman stated. “This pioneering initiative has been tremendously successful, and it has helped communities across the Commonwealth save valuable time and money while delivering top-notch schools and modern learning environments for our students.”
The District will now work in collaboration with the MSBA to produce detailed renderings of the potential new school. The proposed project would replace the existing Maquan and Indian Head schools with a new approximately 130,000 square-foot facility serving students from pre-kindergarten through grade 5.
“We have worked collaboratively with Whitman-Hanson officials for an extensive period of time and I look forward to continuing our partnership with them during this next stage in the process,” said Executive Director McCarthy.
The Model School Program incorporates successful elements from existing schools into the design of new facilities. Through this program, districts can simplify the design process, streamline construction, reduce the amount of time it takes to build a new facility, and utilize design dynamics already deemed successful by students, teachers, and administrators. The Model School Program was created in 2008.
The MSBA partners with Massachusetts communities to support the design and construction of educationally-appropriate, flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective public school facilities. Since its creation, the MSBA has made more than $9 billion in payments to Massachusetts school districts. These timely payments made by the MSBA to cities, towns, and regional school districts for school construction projects have saved municipalities over $2.9 billion in avoided local interest costs and have provided much needed cash flow to communities.
