By Joe Stewart

On November 12, Norfolk residents will decide at Special Town Meeting whether to fund design services to expand the Freeman-Kennedy School. Town Meeting will be held at the King Philip Middle School, beginning at 7 p.m.

Since 2018, the School Committee has been studying what to do about ongoing enrollment growth, which is now projected to grow by more than 200 students by 2035. The H. Olive Day school is already out of space for current enrollment and the Freeman-Kennedy School will be out of space by 2026. Construction is expected to take three years, so if voters approve, new classrooms would be ready in the fall of 2027.  

Rather than pay for temporary modular classrooms or other short-term fixes, the School Committee plans a permanent expansion of the Freeman-Kennedy School to add new classrooms and related instructional space.   

To educate voters on the proposal, the School Committee has held community forums in March, April, and October which were recorded and are available online, https://bit.ly/4hib33A.  The next and last forum before Town Meeting will be November 6 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Freeman-Kennedy School library.

In the most recent forum, held on October 9, Superintendent Ingrid Allardi, Ph.D. provided a thorough review of the district’s assessment and planning efforts. Allardi highlighted the full-scale feasibility study that was undertaken by Ai3 Architects, a Framingham-based firm specializing in sustainable architecture and healthy school design.  Following a year’s work, the results of the study were published in 2021.  

Due to rising construction costs, the scope of the feasibility study was expanded to take a second look at assumptions, to explore the feasibility of a modular solution and to select another demographer to conduct a new demographic study of Norfolk. The Town of Norfolk also created a School Building Committee to provide guidance and oversight of the expanded study.  

Among other conclusions from this study was the enrollment projections. Allardi noted that the results of the latest demographic study were consistent with the previous demographic study, with enrollment projected to grow by 200 students in 10 years.  

Justin Thibeault, principal project architect from Ai3, summarized the options that were assessed: a permanent addition and three modular options (a connected 2-story structure, a standalone 2-story structure, and a standalone 1-story structure). Costs for the modular options were further organized into A and B categories which relate to the expected lifespan of the materials used, with B expected to be about 15-20 years and A about 20 years.

One of the Building Committee’s considerations related to the future costs of replacing the temporary modular structures, the lifespan of which is expected to be about 15 years, versus that of the permanent addition, which is about 30 years.  Allardi shared that one way of thinking about those costs is that in 15 years the town will need to spend a similar amount again, effectively doubling the cost of the permanent structure.  Furthermore, operational costs are somewhat higher with the modular structures (e.g. heating and cooling in particular).

Aside from replacement costs, other concerns with the modular structures include increased security risks (the detached temporary structures would impose new security risks), increased student transit times and related logistical issues as students cannot travel from building to building independently, and the loss of field and play space (in the case of Modular Option 3).

As the town has studied how to address rising enrollment, cost estimates have increased substantially, from $13M in 2019 to this year’s estimate of more than $30M.  Allardi remarked that voters should expect construction costs to increase in future years.

Regarding the timeline, the vote in November would authorize design, a vote in January 2025 would authorize project bidding, and then a vote in the fall of 2025 would authorize construction to ultimately deliver the new classrooms by the end of August 2027.

One of the questions discussed, raised by former selectman and current candidate for State Representative, Kevin Kalkut, was the impact of enrollment at H. Olive Day school. Allardi listed the adaptations the district has taken, including the conversion of the music room to a classroom (so music education has changed considerably); partitioning the library to enable a former office to serve the technology team; and the conversion of the teachers’ workroom to support guidance (so the copiers and related equipment are now in the hallway). Importantly, if nothing is done, the district anticipates needing modulars to house the new students.

For more information, visit the project’s website at https://bit.ly/4hib33A, which includes photos illustrating conditions at H. Olive Day and Freeman-Kennedy as well as meeting recordings and related materials.