Community Invited to Tour Hubble Middle School

A tour of Hubble Middle School will be conducted at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 14 to give members of the public a first hand look at the conditions that led the Board of Education to vote for the construction of a replacement school in another location.

Representatives of Legat Architects and the Administration will lead the tour, pointing out deficiencies in the building and commenting on the costs of repairing areas that currently do not meet the requirements of the state school code.  The tour will last one hour and be followed by a regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting, during which a discussion will be held on various issues related to the construction of a new middle school.

The Board voted in January 2004 to build a new middle school in the southwest part of the District to replace Hubble.  That decision followed several years of discussion regarding the future of the building and the costs of renovating or replacing the aging school.  After a lengthy review, the Board agreed it was in the best long-term interest of the District to build a new school and locate it in an area closer to the homes of most of the students who currently attend Hubble.

Since then, the Board, Administration and a committee of parents and community  members have been meeting to develop a plan to implement the Board’s decision, but those plans have stalled due to the absence of an identified site for the new school.  The committee will meet again on December 6 to continue its discussion and look for consensus on how the Board should proceed with addressing the Hubble facility problem.

Should land become available, the Board will discuss the timing of a referendum to raise money to build the new school.  In the alternative, a referendum would also be needed to fund the renovation of the existing building to the same standard as other District 200 schools.