As part of the Town Election in Stoughton on April 8, 2025, voters approved a ballot question to fund a new elementary school building in town. We are excited that this affirmative vote officially gives the green light for a new elementary school to be built. This project will help transform elementary education here in Stoughton and gives the town access to more than $47 million in grant funding from the state.
We want to thank all of the residents who came out to vote, and especially thank the many volunteers who spent time championing this project. We also want to acknowledge and thank the Massachusetts School Building Authority for giving the town a second opportunity to approve this project after the vote failed last June.
The new elementary school will be located off Park St. and will be built for approximately 600 students, allowing the district to reduce the number of elementary school buildings from the current number of five to four (the new building, along with the Dawe, Gibbons, and Hansen). The Wilkins will be repurposed as a preschool and district offices, allowing the aging Jones School building to be closed and turned back over to the town. Additionally, the current South School property will be turned back over to the town. As we go from five elementary buildings to four, we will go through a process to redistrict and redraw the neighborhood boundary lines for each elementary school.
This project not only addresses the physical deficiencies of the current South School building, but also reduces overcrowding in all of our elementary schools thanks to there being more space available in the new building and through redistricting efforts. More students will have access to 21st century educational spaces and we will be able to restore library spaces at each school, add STEM spaces, and create more in-district programming for all schools.
Over the course of the next several months, the project team will prepare for the start of construction, including hiring a construction team. Construction is expected to begin next year, with a new building ready to open in the fall of 2028.
We will share further details about the next steps for this project in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more, please visit the project’s website.
Original post from April 8, 2025:
We want to thank the voters of Stoughton for supporting the new elementary school building project! As part of the April 8, 2025 Town Election in Stoughton, voters approved a ballot question to fund a new elementary school building in town. The ballot question passed 2824 to 2208, based on official results from the Town Clerk's Office.