Somerville School Panel Votes 10-0 to Focus on 925-Student Sycamore Designs

School Committee · Meeting of March 23, 2026

Somerville's School Building Committee voted 10-0 to narrow the Winter Hill school design options to four, all at 115 Sycamore Street. The March 23 special meeting produced a unanimous vote advancing a base repair code upgrade, a 925-student addition-renovation (Option 1B), and two new 925-student construction options (2B and 4) into the Preferred Schematic Report phase, while effectively shelving the Trump Field site options and the smaller 690-student designs. Preliminary cost estimates presented by project manager Sean of PMA range from roughly $83 million for a code upgrade to approximately $193.5 million for the largest new construction scenario.

A survey-based evaluation matrix completed by eight respondents consistently ranked the two Sycamore 925-student options highest across 16 criteria. The committee declined to vote on approving the full Preliminary Design Program document, as members had not yet received it; that vote was pushed to April 6 to allow time for review.

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Source: the School Committee meeting of March 23, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.