Salem Residents To Face Tax Override Vote To Fund $450M High School Building

SALEM, MA — Salem residents will likely be asked to pick up the tab for about half of a $450 million new high school — with the state paying the balance of the cost — through a property tax override that is expected to come before a citywide vote next spring.

According to a timeline presented to the City Council on Monday night, the Massachusetts State Building Association will vote on whether the state will pay for about half of the project in February, with the city override vote expected in May 2026 to fund a 30-year mortgage on the new school.

If the votes pass, construction on the new school could begin in late 2027, with the new school expected to open for the fall of 2030.

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The school is planned for the Highland Avenue-boarding area of the current campus, with construction ongoing as students attend school in the current building. Once the new building is complete, the former building will be torn down to make way for athletic fields.

"We think it's our turn," Superintendent Steve Zrike told the Committee of the Whole on Monday. "Our students deserve the best. This is our moment in Salem, as all the other local communities have had new high schools in the last decade or so.

"We're also a school on the move. This community needs to remember that we are investing in a school that is improving dramatically right now. Salem High School is one of the highest-performing gateway high schools in the state of Massachusetts."

Zrike said evidence of that is improved MCAS scores and Advanced Placement course offerings, with enrollment increasing from about 800 in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis to about 1,000 students currently.

He said all that could be at stake, however, without a modern facility that allows for classroom size improvements, expanded career and technical course offerings, better arts and music space, and a functional heating and cooling system compared to what was described as the current "energy hog."

"We have lost control literally of the building," Zrike said. "Not the students but the cooling and heating.

"The stakes are very high."

If the city chooses not to support the new school, renovation costs for the current building were estimated at $350 million over 30 years without any state matching funding. During that time, the district would run the risk of losing accreditation and student attrition because of the state of the building.

While Monday night's meeting was intended to be an informational update for the City Council, a large portion of the public comment centered around the Salem High School Building Committee's 9-4 vote against requiring a Project Labor Agreement that would establish terms and conditions of staffing with local labor unions.

Many of those who spoke, including some City Council members, pressed for a reconsideration of that vote.

Building Committee Co-Chair Rick Jones told the Council that the decision not to require the PLA was based on encouraging competition for bids through not restricting which developers could bid on the project.

"There are many questions that I get as a Councilor, who is on the School Building Committee, and also as a parent of a Salem Public Schools student," City Councilor Megan Stott said. "Who will be building it is not one of the questions that I get. I do get lots of questions about what are going to be the programs (offered). I get a lot of questions about safety. As a band parent, I get: 'Will the fieldhouse remain?' That's a big question. And is it true about the Salem Diner being added? That would be cool.

"But the two biggest questions I get are: 'When will it open? Will my students be able to be there?' And 'How much is it going to cost me?' And that is something that, as a Council and as a voting member of the School Building Committee, I always need to take into consideration. The 45,000 taxpaying residents of the city of Salem and what it means to them."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)