Hopkins School Addition

Enrollment is actually  tracking very accurately in keeping with what both demographers have projected:

Projections from both demographers put us over 800 students in 2032. 

That is true. The Schools did not seek funding from the MSBA.

It is important to note that the MSBA’s first order of priorities states that: “priority shall be given to school projects needed in the judgment of said board to replace or renovate a building which is structurally unsound or otherwise in a condition seriously jeopardizing the health and safety of school children, where no alternative exists.” 

It would be difficult to say that the Hopkins School has any deficiency other than space. The Hopkins building is only twenty years old, which, by today’s standards, means it should sustain for at least 30 more years.  Center School, by contrast, was deemed “obsolete” by the MSBA and the Elmwood School was deemed to be at end of life.  

Over the past decade, as our district has steadily grown, residents have continuously asked us to be proactive in finding solutions to the rapid growth we have experienced. That means being prepared for students we know are coming and not just the ones who are already in front of us.  It is true that Hopkins School is currently overcrowded.  While we were able to increase classroom space by adding modular classrooms, there are other areas of the building, including the cafeteria, music spaces, and small group instruction,  that are inadequate for the students we have in front of us.  The MSBA will only consider current enrollment when determining eligibility and while the current conditions are overcrowded at Hopkins, larger overcrowding issues we are going to face are still in the years ahead which they will not look at when determining eligibility today.  

You may remember that we hired a demographer, Dr. Arthur Wagman, to look at enrollment projects.  We are slightly ahead of his projections for the 5th-6th grade student population.  He predicted a 5th-6th grade enrollment for the 2023-24 school year of 644 (332 students in grade 5 and 312 in grade 6).  We currently have 664 students in our schools for grades 5 and 6 (354 in grade 5 and 310 in grade 6). The MSBA had similar projections and predicted an enrollment of 665 students for the end of the 2023-24 school year, which we may well exceed as we have students enrolling throughout the year.  Projections from both demographers put us over 800 students in 2032.  The school is crowded today, but is safe and operational.  It will not, however, be able to safely accommodate over 800 students as built today and, while the MSBA considers only current enrollment in determining eligibility, Hopkinton is noted by the state to be an anomaly in its rate of growth and our schools and our town need to be prepared for that growth before the numbers hit Hopkins.  

We want to stress that the state’s priority for entry into the MSBA process is end-of-life schools where (1) children are unsafe or their health is jeopardized; or (2) where no alternative exists. None of those criteria are met here: the school is in excellent condition; children are safe and healthy in it; there are other alternatives.

The state of Massachusetts has many school districts applying for school building project reimbursement, and those schools are in much worse shape than Hopkins. As we saw with both the Marathon and Elmwood projects, we would likely submit and resubmit an SOI for many years before we were invited into the pipeline for the Hopkins project, if ever. 

The MSBA process is as follows:  A Statement of Interest must be submitted by mid- April each year.  The MSBA board will select from the submitted SOI's by the end of the year.  The MSBA receives 100-125 SOI's per year.  In 2024, 5 were invited to participate.  If Hopkins was to submit an SOI in April 2025, it would be 2031 before a project was in place (3 years after the new Elmwood opens).  The town would then need to follow the MSBA requirements and space templates which would result in a larger building at 116,270 sq. ft or a 42,500 sq ft addition.  A larger size and more extensive renovation required by the MSBA plus escalation on the project at 4% per year produces a project between $78 and $82 million.  The MSBA current effective rate for Hopkinton is 35.5% to 38% or $28 - $32 million.  This leaves the town share in the range of $50 million. 

It should also be noted that the District is planning to apply for MSBA reimbursement for HVAC for the Hopkins project in 2025 (the next available opportunity to apply for HVAC), which, if approved, could lower the present cost of the Hopkins addition. 

Ultimately, there are big financial risks in postponing this project while clinging to near-to-impossible hopes of MSBA funding. The financial risks would be coupled with  significant programmatic and instructional losses to our excellent school district.  We hope the Select Board will allow the community to determine the fate of the Hopkins project at Hopkinton’s  Annual Town Meeting in May.

YES!

The first public forum on the Hopkins School addition was held on February 12.  See the links in the Presentations section above.

There is also a Public forum schedule for April 3rd and April 30th at HCAM.

GRADE 5

When considering a reconfigured grade 5-6 school, it should be noted that our sixteen (16) current fifth grade teachers work in National Park professional learning communities (PLCs). Although there are typically four teachers in a PLC, two teachers are assigned to work in a partnership referred to as “switch teachers,” with one delivering two subjects (for example, ELA and social studies) and her partner delivering the other two subjects (for example, math and science). Each teaches a period of writing to their own homeroom. Grade 5 students currently attend one special per day, for the most part. This instructional configuration will remain when the Hopkins School fifth graders merge with sixth graders in a lower middle school model; however, students will then have the opportunity to experience two related arts each day.

Possible Typical Weekly Schedule for a Grade 5 Student

Please note that this is a student-facing schedule.

*Other proposed related arts include: Engineering, Library, Studio Art, Digital Art

GRADE 6

Grade 6 operates on a seven-period daily schedule, with students receiving instruction in ELA, Writing and Composition, Math, Science, Social Studies, and two related arts offered each day. Over the course of the year, sixth graders experience eight different related arts. Sixth graders change classes for each of these courses, and each is taught not by a generalist but rather by someone licensed specifically in that field. Sixth graders will remain in the current red, yellow, and blue teaming structures.

Possible Typical Weekly Schedule for a Grade 6 Student

This schedule preserves the current Hiller block twice per week. It also affords grade six students the opportunity to experience recess three days per week, which would be new for that grade level. The new Hopkins outdoor area has a proposed walking path, which research indicates an activity that middle school students seem to enjoy. 

The grade six students cannot move into the renovated Hopkins until the fourth graders vacate that school and move into the Elmwood replacement school. The new Elmwood replacement school is scheduled to open in the winter of 2028, although there are hopes that the new Elmwood school might be ready for a September of 2027 opening--no guarantees. If the fourth graders move into the new Elmwood replacement school in the fall of 2027, the six graders will move into the renovated Hopkins School also in the fall of 2027.

This project has often been referred to as the “Hopkins Lower Middle School Project” as well as the “Hopkins Addition Project”. Despite giving it the “lower middle school” moniker, there are no plans at present to seek to formally change the name of the building.

Because the two schools, Hopkins and HMS, will be on the same schedule, which may mean that some faculty and staff could work in both settings, perhaps considering both buildings to be middle schools makes instructional and programmatic sense.

If the Hopkins project does not move forward, there are choices that will need to be made.

1.  Option: Grade 5 could remain at Hopkins alone, with unused space.  Outcome:  This results in wasted space and will cost the district money upstream as it will need to expand the physical plants serving all of grades 6-12.

2.  Option: Grade 5 and some of grade 6 move to Hopkins.  Since the Hopkins School can not accommodate all the grade 6 classes, they would need to rotate through multiple teachers across the Hopkins and middle school buildings.  This avoids inequity of programming.  Outcome: There is disruption to the student learning environment and teachers' ability to differentiate based on their knowledge of their students.  This still neglect space problems at the middle and high schools.