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The new Avery School would cost the average Dedham homeowner $66 per year in property taxes over the next 21 years, the leader of the School Building Rehabilitation Committee said last night.
Andy Lawlor told the School Committee that, should the $23.37 million project be approved in a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion property tax override, it would cost $16 per $100,000 of assessed value on a residential property over the coming two decades.
The average Dedham home is valued at $412,000.
“For that homeowner, they would have to pay, over the next 21 years, about $1,385,” which works out to about $66 per year, or $5.50 per month, Lawlor said.
The School Committee later voted 6-0 to accept an $11.09 million grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the new school. Dedham’s share of the project cost is currently $12.27 million, though the town could receive two more percentage points in reimbursement funding from the state.
The three-story, 61,000-square-foot Avery would be built on 5½ acres by Pottery Lane in East Dedham, replacing an 88-year-old building on High Street that Lawlor called “educationally obsolete.”
On Nov. 16 special Town Meeting will consider an article to fund the school’s construction. If approved, the project would then need to be OK’d by voters in a townwide special election.
If all goes according to plan the school could open by March 2012, Lawlor said last night.
The Avery project would include a renovation of the high school’s practice athletic field next door, Lawlor said. That field would be reseeded and reloamed, and reduced to 240 feet, or 80 feet smaller.
If special Town Meeting approves the Avery, it would also be presented with another article for a separate project to renovate the high school’s track and field complex. The School Committee voted 6-0 to give its preliminary approval for that project, estimated at $4.29 million, with the understanding that the final price tag could be lower.
The project would include a turf field for football, soccer, lacrosse and field hockey games; a full-size 6-lane track with an 8-lane straightaway; bleachers for about 1,500 people; renovated restrooms and a concession stand.
The components and costs are still fluid, but as of now the project would cost $7.06 per $100,000 of assessed value on a home, or $29.12 per year for the average Dedham house over the next 16 years, according to a presentation School Committee member Thomas Ryan gave to his board. The average homeowner would thus pay $466 in all.
If the new Avery and track and field complex are indeed constructed, the town would eventually have a united school “campus” that would include the East Dedham elementary school, the athletic fields, Dedham High School, and finally Dedham Middle School further down Whiting Avenue.
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
