HINGHAM — September 8, 2026 — The Select Board placed two Proposition 2½ debt exclusion questions on the November 3 ballot for roof replacements at Plymouth River and South elementary schools, and reopened the special town meeting warrant to add $1,115,000 to the Hingham High School roof and HVAC project — three unanimous votes that hand the town’s school building costs to voters twice in five weeks.
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Hingham’s school buildings now run on a two-track process, and the board spent most of the meeting making sure it lines up.
The revised warrant article amends an appropriation town meeting approved last year under Article 34, increasing it by $1,115,000 and broadening what the money can pay for — feasibility study, schematic design, detailed design, architectural and engineering work, owner’s project management, construction documents and early bid packages — for a roof replacement, heat pump conversion or other HVAC work at Hingham High School, 17 Union Street. The board opened the warrant, replaced the article and closed the warrant in a single vote.
School Building Committee Chair Angela Thedinga told the board the additional money is not new project cost but schedule protection. “It does help us keep on schedule and minimize the impact to students,” Chair Liz Klein summarized, with completion already pushed toward 2030.
The two elementary roofs follow a different route. Both need a two-thirds vote at the October special town meeting to authorize borrowing, and then a simple majority at the ballot box to exempt that borrowing from Proposition 2½. Julie Strehle walked through the mechanics on the record, and staff confirmed it.
“In addition to a two-thirds majority vote at annual town meeting, then there’s also going to be a ballot question, which requires a majority in favor to approve this, because it is a debt exclusion. It’s outside of Prop 2½.” — Julie Strehle
The ballot questions carry no dollar figure — a point the board flagged as a communications problem, since voters will see only a description of a roof system replacement at 200 High Street and at 831 Main Street. Staff said the amounts voted at town meeting will be the gross Massachusetts School Building Authority figures, inclusive of significant contingencies, before a 36.89 percent MSBA reimbursement on approved expenditures. The final cost could fall if construction bids come in favorably.
The town has scheduled information sessions in each of the first three weeks of October, timed to when mail-in ballots reach homes, and staff said the ballot language was cleared three ways — by the MSBA, bond counsel and town counsel.
Away from the schools, the board authorized the largest single contract of the night: $358,678.20 to Axon Enterprise Inc. for 73 Taser 10 units with certification and a two-day instructor course, funded from police capital and invoiced annually. A sergeant told the board the department’s current model is out of warranty and no longer produced, and that the replacement brings virtual reality training allowing year-round practice rather than an annual recertification. The units have a five-year lifespan. Staff confirmed the price ties to the capital budget.
