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Building a new school is often about timing.
There are timelines to keep, deadlines to make and asking the right question at the right time can sometimes make all the difference. The latter is what the School Committee has been grappling with when it comes to the Muraco School feasibility study.
Earlier this year, the School Committee voted unanimously to put an article seeking funding for the Muraco School feasibility study on the Spring Town Meeting warrant. Then on April 9, there was a 3-2 split vote to move the question to the Fall Town Meeting warrant at the suggestion of Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett.
Hackett said he was worried that if the article was approved in the spring, it would not give the district enough time to put together the required plan to get the school they wanted.
School Committee Chair Tim Matthews and newcomer John Bellaire voted against moving the warrant article to fall.
But on Wednesday, April 22, the School Committee, during a midday meeting, took a third vote, agreeing unanimously to go back to the original quest and bring Article 27 to the floor of Town Meeting.
Since the article is already on the warrant, Bellaire said he felt certain a discussion and substantial debate would occur around the funding anyway and the School Committee should be ready to frame that discussion.
Matthews agreed the committee had an obligation to take control of the process and make sure the narrative is theirs.
Committee member Tom Hopcroft said his only concern with going forward with the Spring Town Meeting was “rolling the dice and potentially losing the project altogether.” But, he said he’s since realized there are a number of steps that have to be taken whether they vote in the spring or the fall and the risk isn’t any greater either way.
Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji asked Hackett if there was an operational risk to moving forward in the spring given that his office staff was about to be slashed in half due to budget cuts. She also wondered if he was concerned about enrollment numbers or possible conversations around redistricting.
“I’m concerned about all that,” he said.
Spring or fall, what’s the difference?
The Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) invited the district into the new school eligibility period in December 2025 with an eye on building or adding to the Muraco Elementary School. It is the first module of what is typically a lengthy process to get to a new building. Muraco is also the last school in town to go through the process.
Once the eligibility period is started, the district has 270 days to complete all the requirements that come with it, which includes putting together an educational plan and securing funding for the feasibility study, among other things.
Hackett said the 270-day eligibility clock started ticking in early March.
The superintendent said his fear is that if Town Meeting members ask questions around enrollment or want building or educational plan details, he wouldn’t likely have answers for them because they haven’t yet built an education plan for a new/renovated Muraco. But if Article 27 were pushed to the fall, they would have time to come up with a plan.
Mnayarji also worried that they didn’t have enough data to make a solid case for a new Muraco at Town Meeting, but said she was willing to go forward with Article 27 as a show of good faith to the community.
“For this building that has been delayed for decades,” she said.
Hopcroft had a similar thought. He said given the strong sentiment from the Muraco community that waiting until fall is just kicking the can further down the road, he thought a vote to bring the feasibility question forward in the spring would send a strong message of support.
He also said should they fall short “at least we come out of Spring Town Meeting knowing what the homework assignment is for Fall Town Meeting.”
In the end, Matthews laid out a number of reasons why they should move forward, including, “I really want to honor the Muraco community’s high-level engagement over the past several weeks.”
During the April 16 public forum, a number of educators and parents urged the School Committee to continue moving forward with the Muraco project by sticking to the original plan to ask for feasibility funding at this Town Meeting.
At the forum, Shamus Brady said a group of parents both inside and outside the Muraco School community had been working on gaining Town Meeting support for three yeses: Yes for supporting a 5% budget, yes on an article that would fund the new elementary literacy program and yes on Article 27 to fund the Muraco feasibility study.
He admitted they had not spoken to all Town Meeting members, but of those they had talked with roughly 70 said they supported all three endeavors and only two or three said they’d vote no on all three.
“At this point, we just have a lot of strong support, and we’re not done,” Brady said. “We’re going to work every single day until that vote comes, on the Town Meeting floor, working to talk to people, answer questions, persuade them, if we can and I just want you to know that we’re behind you and we’re backing you.”
Matthews also said another reason for moving forward is that he wanted to make sure that area of town, in which he lives, doesn’t get left behind.
The 2026 Spring Annual Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. Monday, April 27, at Winchester High School. For a full guide to all the warrant articles, including financial aspects, go to 2026 Spring Town Meeting guide.
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
