Reading to erect brand new elementary school, new senior center

If you can measure a community’s morale compass by considering how its people treat local children and the elderly, Reading is certainly the place to be.

Last week, Reading’s citizenry certainly proved its willingness to take care of the town’s most vulnerable populations by agreeing to borrow roughly $158 million to construct a brand new elementary school off of Charles Street and an intergenerational center on Symonds Way that will primarily serve local senior citizens. The simultaneous construction of both new complexes will certainly come at a pretty steep cost to local residents, as based upon estimates prepared by town leaders, the typical homeowner in town will fork over around $18,304 over the next 20 years to pay for the projects.

Despite that tab, both debt exclusion questions, which were featured on a special election ballot on May 13, enjoyed broad citizen support. Based upon election results provided by Reading Town Clerk Laura Gemme, the proposed $130 million Killam School project - the more expensive undertaking - passed by more than a 3-to-1 margin at the polls last week.

“Thanks to everyone’s hard work and the voters of Reading, our community is finally getting the Killam they deserve! Thank you!” responded members of “Yes for Killam”, a political action committee formed to advocate for the new education facility, in a social media message posted right after the election results were posted.

With citizens in six of the community’s seven voting precincts also backing plans to erect a new 3-story Reading Center for Active Living by the Burbank Ice Arena, the estimated $27.9 million debt exclusion for the senior center also passed in a much closer 2,578-to-2,307 vote.

Reacting to the news on Monday night, Reading Council on Aging member Karen Pinette literally broke out a bottle of champagne to celebrate the big victory at the polls a week prior.

“This a wonderful opportunity that we have in front of us,” Reading’s Elder/Human Services Administrator Chris Kowaleski would later state during this week’s meeting in the existing senior center facility off of Pleasant Street. “It’s a great time to think outside the box and what we are capable of doing. It’s a great opportunity for older adults.”

Killam School

Hoping to brake ground on the project in August of 2026, town officials plan on erecting a new-three story school behind the existing Killam building on the Haverhill Street side of the site. The new 122,941 square feet facility, which is being designed for a student enrollment of up to 455 K-5 students, will also include a pre-school wing with room for the district’s entire early childhood education program.

Situated on a 7.28-acre parcel of land off of Charles Street, the existing Killam School was first erected back in 1969 and is the only elementary school in Reading that was not replaced during a wave of new construction projects over the past 30 years.

Originally designed to house around 368 students, town officials back in 2016 erected two modular classroom units on the property in order to address overcrowding in the building, which is now home to more than 400 pupils.

The genesis of the building project is largely rooted in the findings of a 2018 study released by Gienapp Architects, which was hired by the town to examine how best to modernize the school district and address reoccurring overcrowding problems in education facilities across the community. At the time, Reading had procured at least nine other modular classroom units and placed them at four of Reading’s five elementary school properties in an attempt to free up classroom space and expand special education and early childhood education programming.

In an initial report first released in the fall of 2019, the Danvers-based architectural firm presented nine different options, with overall price tags that ranged between $52 million and $128 million, for alleviating classroom space shortages.

Two of those proposals called for constructing a new Killam Elementary School on the existing Charles Street property. Ultimately, the district informally sanctioned a plan which calls for the construction of a new two-story elementary school capable of housing between 660 and 725 students. To free up space at other buildings, around 115-students from across the district would then be redistricted to the new Killam.

Town leaders than began asking for help from the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA), the state agency that has steered some $14 billion to cities and towns across the state defray to costs of renovating or building new schools.

“Because it is an older building there have not been replacements, additions, or renovations since 1969 to the boilers, classroom windows, electrical system, fire suppression system, plumbing, and handicap accessibility. For the last three years, Killam has had to have bottled drinking water in lieu of tap water because of higher amounts of lead and copper in the tap water than is permitted by law,” in an initial 2021 statement-of-interest submitted to the MSBA explained.

In 2022, the community celebrated the opportunity to partner with the MSBA and begin exploring options for renovating or replacing the existing 57,000 square foot building. The state agency has since agreed to contribute as much as $44.2 million towards the project.

ReCAL project

Town leaders have been pushing for a new senior center since at least 2017, when a team from UMass Boston’s Gerontology Institute declared the existing Pleasant Street Center building, which was erected back in 1883, as woefully inadequate and incapable of meeting the town’s future needs.

After original plans to erect a new intergenerational center at the old Walgreen’s Pharmacy site in Reading Center collapsed in March of 2023 due to stalemated land acquisition talks with the Haven Street property’s landlord, the Select Board charged the Reading Center for Active Living Committee (ReCALC) with commissioning a study to explore alternative locations.

Last spring, that advisory group endorsed a proposal to construct an intergenerational center on a 15-acre parcel of land off of Symonds Way by the Burbank Ice Arena. Reading’s Council on Aging and Select Board soon followed suit and came to an identical conclusion.

With project designer BH&A estimating the construction project will cost $27.9 million, the new two-story Reading Center for Active Living will contain roughly 28,000 square feet of space and include various gaming, arts and crafts and other program spaces. The facility would also be anchored by a large gymnasium featuring an elevated walking track.

The intergenerational center, which would cater to both teens and seniors, will also include a full kitchen, a large multi-purpose room that could used for functions, a fitness room, several small program spaces, and a series of offices for town staff.