SALEM— Last Friday, The Salem High Building Committee voted unanimously for the new Salem High School of 365,000 square feet of entirely new construction with an estimated 30-month construction period for $455 million.
The committee has been considering four high school redesign options all aimed at addressing the inadequacies of the current building.
The four redesign options before the committee included a limited project focused on making the existing building code compliant, a renovation of the existing building, a renovation with an addition to the building, or the construction of an entirely new building.
Of the four options, the selected new building scheme entails the shortest construction time and is considered by the committee to be the least disruptive to the students in the building, as the 30 months of construction will occur in one phase.
Other than the code compliance option, the construction of an entirely new building is less expensive than the other options, with the renovation option expected to cost $460 million and the addition-renovation costing $482 million. The code compliance option, however, does not meet the educational program needs for the school and improve spaces for arts, athletics, and career technical education (CTE).
The selected option will reduce the building’s footprint from roughly 411,000 to 365,000 square feet while increasing its height to four stories. It also provides space for a new auditorium, new media center, CTE spaces, academic classrooms, special education and nursing and health.
The existing field house will be demolished for a new one of comparable size, with an included indoor walking track. The design also includes plans for the creation of two new soccer-lacrosse fields, in addition to overlapping baseball-softball fields, and new tennis-pickleball courts.
The school’s traffic pattern has also been addressed by moving the parent drop off to front of the new building while having the bus drop off on the other side, around the fields.
During the construction period, the Salerno Center will be demolished and the Auto & CTE program will be temporarily relocated to another part of the school, along with at least 13 other classrooms. Temporary classrooms will be built in the existing high School for use during construction.
This construction option will significantly improve on the school’s current global warming potential (GWP) of 82.5 million by bringing it down to 35.7 million GWP, although of the four design options, it contributes the most to global warming. However, the new construction will allow for the viability of the future construction of a geothermal wellfield, which would significantly reduce the building’s carbon footprint and improve energy use.
Parking spaces will be maintained at 386 (including 10 ADA spaces), with an additional 70 spaces for Horace Mann Laboratory School.
The committee will now be engaging in further detailed designs and planning before submitting the design vote to the Massachusetts School Building Association by the June 27 deadline.
In 2026, Salem residents will vote on the approval of funding for the project. Assuming a vote to approve the project, construction would likely commence in 2028 and be completed in 2030, according to Mayor Dominick Pangallo.
For more information on the project, visit sites.google.com/salemk12.org/shs-building-committee
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202