Essex School Building Committee Narrows Project Sites to Two, Advances Six Design Alternatives

ESSEX — November 20, 2025 — Manchester Essex Regional School District eliminates Apple Street as a candidate site for the Essex Elementary School project, leaving two sites and six design alternatives under study. At a community forum Thursday at Essex Elementary, Superintendent Pam Boder and the project team from owner's project manager Doran Whittier and design firm JCJ Architecture announced that the Essex School Building Committee had formally voted out Apple Street following negative community feedback at the first meeting, citing proximity to a transfer station, inadequate road access, and unknown costs tied to former agricultural use. The six remaining alternatives — ranging from a code-upgrade-only renovation to a consolidated 515-student K-5 school at Manchester Memorial — will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in January 2026 following a school building committee vote on January 6. A projected K-5 school for 250 students at the Essex site would run just under 74,000 square feet, comparable to Memorial's 77,000 square feet, though architect Jim Lopasta cautioned that post-pandemic construction cost increases make direct cost comparisons with the Memorial project unreliable. The 515-student consolidation option, which would require regional agreement amendments and town meeting votes in both Essex and Manchester, drew resistance from residents and a measured but pointed signal from school building committee co-chair Teresa Whitman: "The school committee is not inclined to make a move on that right now."