Stratton Elementary teachers and staff are busy preparing students new temporary home. Some 400 students will be housed in 28 trailers for the 2016-2017 school year. They have been leased by the town for roughly three million dollars in order to keep children on-site. A lack of space at other schools would have otherwise spread the children out among three different schools in town.
This will be the first major renovation to the school since its opening in 1960. Voters approved the funding, as part of a package to update all elementary schools during a proposition 2 ½ override vote in 2005. Stratton is the final elementary school to be updated as part of that plan. The town of Arlington is now faced with a growing student population affecting all schools, particularly the elementary and middle schools. A debt exclusion vote in June approved an addition to Thompson Elementary school, re-opening of the former Gibbs School for sixth graders and a feasibility study for a new high school.
For more information on costs and plans and enrollment projections visit:
www.arlington.k12.ma.us/administration/facilitiesenrollment/ or www.arlingtonma.gov/town-governance/all-boards-and-committees/school-enrollment-task-force
