The Hingham Select Board voted Tuesday night to reopen and amend the warrant for this fall's special town meeting, swapping out a scope-only article for one that would authorize an additional $1,115,000 to keep design work moving on the high school's roof and HVAC overhaul. The change means the money would be spent now rather than after next year's annual town meeting.
Angela Thedinga, representing the 2025 School Building Committee, told the board that project planners had run into a funding gap as they mapped out the next phase of work.
"We've learned that the remaining amount of funds only covers 50% of the design development," Thedinga said, adding that the shortfall "puts us at a September 2030 construction completion date, which extends us into the beginning of another school year."
The committee's fix is to authorize the extra $1.115 million now instead of waiting for the project's full funding vote at annual town meeting next April. Thedinga said doing so would let design work finish on schedule and pull the completion date forward.
"It would also position the project for construction completion in June 2030 instead of September 2030," she said. "So the key benefit is reducing school year construction time."
Vice Chair Julie Strehle, the board's liaison to the project, flagged the article's unusually specific ask of $1,115,000, noting the figure was built from a consultant budget mapped to the work needed before the roof project's full funding vote. Thedinga confirmed the money would eventually be spent regardless of the timing shift.
"It's really just front loading this amount so that we can stay on as advantageous of a timeline as we can," she said.
Board member William Ramsey sought to nail down what the vote actually meant before signing off.
"We're not adding 1.1 million to the project, as Julie put it very artfully, we're fronting the money to avoid crossing into another school year and to avoid potential escalating construction costs," Ramsey said.
Town Administrator Tom Mayo confirmed the amended article requires a two-thirds vote at town meeting because, unlike the scope-only article it replaces, it authorizes borrowing. The board then voted unanimously by roll call to open the warrant, insert the revised article and close it for the Sept. 8 filing deadline.
The board turned next to a related item on the same night's agenda: placing two debt exclusion questions on the Nov. 3 special town election ballot, one funding roof replacement at Plymouth River Elementary School and the other at South Elementary School. Both stem from the same school roof capital program overseen by the School Building Committee, and both use MSBA-approved language.
Katie Dugan, Assistant Town Manager for Finance, told the board the figures come from submissions made to the Massachusetts School Building Authority on Aug. 27, and that the ballot will show the larger, pre-reimbursement borrowing total rather than the town's net cost.
"The numbers that the MSBA requires you to vote on are the gross numbers and include significant contingencies," Dugan said, noting the town expects a 36.89% MSBA grant on approved expenditures.
Strehle asked the board to confirm how the two votes fit together: a two-thirds vote to authorize borrowing, plus a separate majority vote on the ballot to exempt that debt from the town's tax cap.
"There's also going to be a ballot question which requires a majority in favor to approve this because it's considered a debt exclusion. It's outside of prop two and a half," Strehle said.
Dugan said voter information sessions are planned for the first three weeks of October, timed to when mail-in ballots begin reaching households ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The board approved both ballot questions in separate roll-call votes.