Students and educators are expected to return to 115 Sycamore St., with construction on merged Winter Hill and Brown schools set to wrap up for a 2031 move-in. 

Outlined in a Tuesday community forum by mayor Jake Wilson, superintendent Rubén Carmona and a crew of project architects from Perkins Eastman, the path ahead is set to be lengthy, with important votes held by the School Committee throughout the year.

An educational program for the school will be presented Monday before the committee; approval on a preliminary design program is due March 18, as required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority for its feasibility study process. That must be completed before the district can advance to in-depth schematic design and ultimately approval for funding.

Whatever the state doesn’t pay for would be covered by the city’s taxpayers; a proposed override is expected to on a special June 2027 ballot for voters to decide. The state provided roughly half the funds for the 396,000-square-foot Somerville High School reconstruction, the city’s Construction Advisory Group noted, or $120 million of the school’s total $256 million cost.

Rough plans for three merged-school designs were shown at the forum by architects from Perkins Eastman. Each had “zones or experiences that are more geared toward early childhood, elementary and middle [students],” architect Robert Bell said. “That is one way to start to break down the scale of the school.”

The three clusters are expected to be pre-K to grade 3; grades 4-6; and grades 7-8. Each will have its own “neighborhood” within the school, designed to provide tailored academic programming and student-support services, Carmona said.

Examples of “neighborhoods” within schools were drawn from various recently constructed campuses with a similar approach, including the Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper School Complex in Cambridge, a $299 million project also designed by Perkins Eastman.

The school will be a “community hub,” offering amenities such as a public gym, and rough plans showed space for outdoor learning opportunities and public use. Expanded use of school facilities was a goal mentioned by Wilson at his Jan. 3 inauguration in Centennial Auditorium at the high school: “We desperately need more community spaces in our city, and this building should be part of the solution,” he said. The community meeting was held at the high school.

Speaking on the timetable for when construction could begin, Perkins Eastman project manager Lisa Pecora said a timeline could be confirmed only after the coming debt exclusion vote. “It is possible to do the early bid package for abatement and demolition in the fall of 2027 and have a construction document ready to go out to bid later in the fall of 2028.”

This means a possible start of construction in early 2029, she said, leading to a possible move-in within the first two months of 2031, midway through the academic year.

Project funding

The new school is set to house 900 students, combining the populations from the K-5 Benjamin G. Brown, which educates 225 kids annually in 19,014 square feet built in 1900, and the prekindergarten-to-eighth-grade Winter Hill Community Innovation School, which educates 400 kids in 89,410 square feet built in 1974.

The Brown School, at 201 Willow Ave. not far from Ball Square, is Somerville’s oldest operating school building, and the city has long eyed the space for renovation.

At the Winter Hill school at 115 Sycamore St., students and faculty were forced to relocate, divided between the Edgerly Education Center and Capuano Early Childhood Center, after a piece of concrete fell in a stairwell in 2023. A structural review decided the building would never reopen.

The city filed two statements of interest to the authority in 2023. Only the Winter Hill proposal was invited to participate in the “eligibility phase” of the state funding process – though the MSBA was receptive to the idea of accommodating both schools in a single project.

A merger of the Winter Hill and Brown was recommended by a majority of Construction Advisory Group members based on several factors, chief among them “maximizing the use of state funding” available from the state. 

Wilson acknowledged there was dissent about the merger from members of the group. The decision to move forward with a combined school rested with him. “We agree with their decision, and that is to maximize state investment,” he said.

Community concern

Concerns continued to be heard from parents and city councilors. 

Ksenia Samokhvalova, a parent of a child at the Brown School, spoke of the shock that swept over the community upon learning of its potential closing and the confusion that would ensue. 

“Winter Hill closed in June of 2023, and it is 2026 – and the fact we don’t know what is the new redistricting or how I am supposed to get my child across town [is very concerning],” she said, later pressing the mayor about a timeline for a closing of the Brown School and when a proper assessment would be done to understand the impacts.  

Plans to close would move forward only after a debt exclusion vote approved funds for a new building, said Rich Raiche, director of infrastructure and asset management for the city. “Until such time as there is a new building to move students from the Brown into, the School Committee can’t contemplate closing the school,” he said.    

Still, once the design for a 900-student school is submitted to the state, it would be an “inherent admission” of the district’s plan to shutter the current Brown school location, and the committee would need to plan for the school’s eventual closing and merger, Raiche said. 

Coordination needed

City councilor Kristen Strezo raised concerns about the decision to have a school population of 900, and emphasized the need to have the School Committee weigh in. 

Committee members would vote in the coming month on space and educational program concerns, which were presented Monday, the mayor said.

Wilson and the city have emphasized that coordination across multiple bodies, with the inclusion of local residents, will be critical as the project advances through a state approval process. 

“Between me, the superintendent, the School Committee, the City Council, our architects and project managers and everyone else, you have a committed, driven team,” Wilson said. “[We have] the expertise needed to deliver.”

Residents can follow the project on its website, which offers resources to help the public understand the plans and roadmap.