Swampscott has taken the first step toward a possible middle-school renovation that could eventually require a town-wide debt-exclusion vote, but not this year and likely not until around Fall 2030.
The timing matters because the town is also projecting that its operating budget could run out of room under Proposition 2½ by FY29, and the capital plan lists a separate $20 million High School HVAC project in FY31. Those would be separate ballot questions, with separate tax effects, but they could arrive in the same general window.
On April 8, the Select Board and School Committee each voted unanimously to submit a Statement of Interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the Swampscott Middle School at 207 Forest Avenue. The filing starts the state process for possible reimbursement on a major school renovation or construction project. It does not commit the town to borrow money or build anything.
April 8 vote started the MSBA process
The middle-school filing asks the MSBA to consider the building for its core program, which reimburses part of the cost of major school renovations and new construction. Facilities Director Max Casper, presenting with Superintendent Jason Calichman, described the Statement of Interest as an initial report on building conditions.
“It’s really just reporting to the state, to the MSBA, the conditions at your building,” Casper said. “You’re not supposed to be hiring professional help or creating some, like, massive study.”
The School Committee had already voted unanimously to authorize Calichman to submit the filing. On April 8, the Select Board did the same, on a motion read into the record by then-member David Grishman before the April 17 state deadline. The Statement of Interest was filed that month.
The language the board adopted says the filing commits the town to nothing: the MSBA “in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application, the awarding of a grant, or any other funding commitment,” and it does not require the town to seek funding later. Casper told the board the MSBA chooses only some applicants, generally the districts it considers neediest. Selection is expected at the end of 2026.
Debt exclusion is separate from an override
If the project reaches a construction-borrowing vote, the tax question would almost certainly be a debt exclusion, not an operating override.
As earlier coverage laid out, an operating override raises the property-tax levy permanently. A debt exclusion lets the town go above the Proposition 2½ limit temporarily to pay the bond for a specific project. It drops off the tax bill when the bond is paid.
Both require a town-wide ballot. Both are separate from Town Meeting votes. Town Meeting can authorize borrowing; the debt-exclusion ballot question lets the tax bill rise to pay for it.
Officials cited building systems from the 1950s and 1970s
The middle school dates to roughly 1958, when it was Shaw Junior High. A 1977 addition converted it into a high school, and it was later converted back to a middle school. Officials said that left “two distinct sections,” one from the 1950s and one from the 1970s.
Casper said the boiler “was installed in 1977 that we still operate today.” The backup generator for the emergency and fire-alarm systems also dates to the late 1970s. Compared with the elementary school’s modern diesel unit, Casper said, “basically that’s a car engine from the 1970s that we’re relying on.”
Most of the electrical distribution is from the 1970s, with some from the 1950s. The building has no sprinkler system and is, according to the presentation, “the only large school in the town that does not have a sprinkler system.” It is not fully accessible, and it has asbestos flooring and pipe wrap.
Casper said the town has not ignored the building. It has already installed a new roof at around $3 million, a new fire-alarm system at about $1.5 million, a security vestibule, and an appropriated, in-design window replacement at about $1.8 million.
“We haven’t been ignoring the middle school,” Casper said.
The town’s working preference is to renovate rather than replace the building. Casper said it has “good bones,” and the aim is “to sort of reuse the middle school and not, you know, tear it down, put it in a landfill and build an extraordinarily expensive new building.” He also said that is not a decision, because “it’s not reasonable to decide what is feasible before you have even done a feasibility study.”
Construction vote is projected around Fall 2030
Casper used the recent elementary-school project as a template for the likely timeline, while warning that “None of these are hard years, hard dates.”
The rough sequence is: Statement of Interest in 2026; MSBA due diligence and possible selection at the end of 2026; an eligibility period starting in the first half of 2027; a roughly 270-day Module 1 process to form the School Building Committee and build the educational profile; a ~May 2027 Town Meeting vote to fund a feasibility study; a ~Fall 2030 Town Meeting vote for construction funding, when a debt exclusion would be needed; construction starting around Fall 2031; and completion around 2033.
That makes the feasibility study the only likely money question before the larger borrowing vote. Casper did not price it. The elementary-school feasibility study cost about $750,000 to $900,000, but Casper said “things are way more expensive” now and declined to “pin down exactly what that number is today.”
Warrant lists $75 million in FY29
The Annual Town Meeting warrant’s capital plan, in Appendix A, lists a $75 million debt exclusion in FY29 for the middle-school project. FY29 ends in June 2029, which implies a vote around 2028, about two years earlier than Casper’s Fall 2030 timeline.
The difference is between a capital-planning table and the MSBA process Casper described. The warrant puts the debt exclusion on the capital plan. The April 8 timeline points to a later construction vote if the project advances through the state pipeline.
The $75 million figure is also a planning placeholder for the town’s share, not a cost estimate presented on April 8. Casper said, “I can’t tell you exactly what the project scope is, and we don’t have a cost estimate.”
The only comparison he gave was the elementary school: “160,000 square feet … cost us $100 million,” bid five or six years ago, and “a brand new middle school would certainly cost … well more than that.” The warrant also assumes about $41.3 million in state grant money for the project. That is the warrant’s inferred MSBA reimbursement, not a committed figure.
High School HVAC is a separate $20 million item
The capital plan also includes a $20 million High School HVAC project in FY31, with about $100,000 of planning money this year. It is a different building and a different question. The warrant shows no state-grant offset for it.
The MSBA has a separate accelerated-repair program that can fund HVAC work. Casper said the program is now “exclusively funding heat pump projects” toward electrification. But the town is not counting on that money here, partly because the MSBA discourages accelerated-repair applications when a core-program project is “looming.”
Budget projection shows FY29 pressure
The possible school borrowing would land as the town’s operating budget is already tightening. Town Administrator Nick Connors, with Finance Director Patrick Luddy, presented a five-year projection on April 8 showing the town’s excess levy capacity, or remaining room under the 2½% ceiling, running out by FY29, with a deficit “just under 500” thousand dollars.
A board member said, “very technically, if everything was right in 2029, we’d actually need an override.” Connors confirmed that, while stressing the figure is “a snapshot” refreshed roughly quarterly. Another board member said, “there is no crystal ball in town hall.”
Taken together, the 2029–2031 period could include a possible FY29 operating override, a ~Fall 2030 middle-school debt exclusion tied to the warrant’s ~$75 million planning figure, and an FY31 High School HVAC debt exclusion of about $20 million. They would be separate questions with different mechanisms.
The town’s existing high-school debt rolls off around 2035 and is gone in FY36, which would free capacity around the time new middle-school payments could arrive.
For now, no middle-school debt exclusion is on the ballot. The April vote only asked the state to consider the building for the MSBA process.
Sources: April 8, 2026 Select Board meeting (F9gmYU1kcoQ) — Casper/Calichman Statement of Interest presentation, the authorizing vote, and the Connors/Luddy five-year projection. March 27, 2026 candidates’ debate (NZltd0P5RMw) and April 8 candidates’ forum (QZ3QRj8dgeA). The warrant’s Appendix A capital funding table is the source for the $75M/FY29 and $20M/FY31 debt-exclusion lines. Prior coverage: 2026-05-13_fy29-override.md. Names and roles verified against data/people/ and the capital-improvement committee roster; “Casper” spelling per assignment, as the facilities director has no person file in the corpus.