Vote YES for a New EES

To the Editor,

We are writing in support of the Essex Elementary School Building project, and we plan to vote YES at the town meeting on 11/17/26 and then again at the polls on 12/10/26!

Drawing on Caroline’s experience as a former School Committee member and co-chair of the Memorial School Building project, and Mark’s as a former Finance Committee member, we trust the Essex School Building Committee’s process with the MSBA, which mirrors the process used for Memorial School.

The Essex Elementary School project has long been part of the district’s overall capital plan.  Essex previously supported both school building projects in Manchester—the middle/high school and Memorial School.  Essex Elementary is the final school building project in that plan.

The overall cost of the project is $95.3 million which is a daunting number. However, the district is going to receive roughly $21 million in grants from the MSBA and the remaining $74.3 million will be split between Manchester and Essex per the regional agreement.  Manchester’s share of the apportionment would be 66.64% or $49.5 million, and Essex’s share would be 33.26% or $24.8 million.

A no vote puts the district at risk for losing the $21 million in grants.  We are hoping to have learned lessons from our neighboring towns (Ipswich and Hamilton Wenham) who failed to support similar projects and lost out on many millions of dollars.

Even though we are no longer parents of a student in the district, we both strongly believe in the importance of maintaining a strong district for our communities, and believe this project is needed to do so.