HINGHAM — September 22, 2026 — The Select Board unanimously recommended favorable action on three school building articles headed to the October 29 Special Town Meeting, including a $16.37 million Plymouth River Elementary School roof project that will now replace the full roof deck after the School Building Committee found the sections it had hoped to salvage are 92% loaded.
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The Plymouth River Elementary School roof carries a $16.37 million total project budget; the South Elementary School roof, $8.576 million 6:28; and the high school roof and HVAC project, $1.115 million in additional design funds and an expanded scope of expenditures.
The committee had kept a full roof deck replacement in the schematic design package while evaluating whether any of that deck could be saved. Updated structural information closed that option, and the committee voted to keep the full replacement in scope and to designate portions of the deck as solar-ready, which reaches MSBA funds for structural reinforcement that are uncapped when tied to solar readiness. The MSBA also returned questions on the schematic submittal, and missed MAAB items are now inside both schools’ numbers.
Reimbursement is estimated at 36.89% of eligible costs, which produces an estimated grant of $3.02 million for South Elementary and $5.76 million for Plymouth River. The estimated town share is $5.56 million for South, $10.61 million for Plymouth River and $16.17 million for the two combined. Every one of those numbers turns on which costs the MSBA rules eligible, and roof work carries a $100-per-square-foot cap that structural work tied to solar readiness sits outside of. Financing is figured at 30 years and 4.5%. A tax estimator that lets a resident compare their own assessed value against a table of tax impacts is being finalized for release late this week or early next. Article C, the high school item, carries no tax impact.
All three roofs are hovering around 30 years old, some Plymouth River portions are original to the building, and one section at South still has original timber in its structural supports. Water infiltration runs through all three buildings, including over critical infrastructure such as control panel rooms, snow loads disrupted programming at Plymouth River last winter, the school was evacuated twice last year, and basketball games at the high school were canceled because of water in the gym. Fronting the $1.115 million saves roughly five months of escalation costs on the high school project and allows construction, including digging geothermal wells, to start next summer rather than during the school year.
