As students return, new middle school nears completion
The second phase was scheduled for completion by September 12, but crews hit a snag in April when they found asbestos.
Crews are putting the finishing touches on the Ellen Garrison Building at Acton Middle School.
As students start their first full year there, officials acknowledge it may take a month longer than expected to finish new athletic fields. The school’s much-debated name was also up for discussion again at last week’s School Committee meeting.
“We’re in the late phases of wrapping that project up,” schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter told the panel.
The Ellen Garrison Building opened in late February as students consolidated from the old Sanborn and Peabody Schools. Workers demolished Sanborn to make way for new sports fields.
The project’s second phase — including new fields — was scheduled for completion by September 12, but crews hit a snag in April when they found asbestos that required abatement.
Builders from CTA Construction asked for more time, citing the asbestos and officials’ late decision to add a field irrigation system. CTA also argued asbestos removal affected the greenery planting schedule, project managers said at a July building committee meeting.
(Vincent Miller of LiRo Hill — the firm hired to oversee construction — said this claim is debatable. Colleague Ian Parks said earlier summer planting plans “didn’t really work with the planting seasons” anyway and that crews should wait until the fall.)
The middle school building committee agreed to punt the project deadline to October 15. The extension offers $3,000 for every day beyond September 12 needed to reach “substantial completion” and could cost up to $99,000.
Hunter said officials expect the extra time will suffice and that they won’t need another change.
Though it is a delay, the possible $99,000 charge pales in comparison with the overall project cost, an official said. “Call it $100,000 on a $100 million project,” Select Board Chair and building committee member Mark Howell told colleagues.
Sidewalk and lockers
The CMS auditorium, which wasn’t ready for the school’s ribbon cutting, was due to open in time for a staff meeting on Monday, officials said.
Crews tore up and replaced a deteriorating section of sidewalk in front of the school this summer. Officials said the new walk failed, in part, because of snow removal and road salt. CTA ended up sharing the $133,000 replacement cost with the town because its crews were responsible for curing and protecting the path, building committee minutes show.
Smaller-than-envisioned lockers for sixth graders sparked questions last fall. Last week, Hunter said through a spokesperson that they’ve been “adequate to meet some of their intended goals” and that officials don’t plan to revisit the matter.
Parks said crews will seed the new fields in late September; they’ll be ready to use in about a year.
As of a building committee meeting last week, CMS project managers said they still had contingency cash to cover overages.
Restoring Ellen Garrison
More than a year after the School Committee backed “The Ellen Garrison Building at Acton Middle School,” newly elected member Michael Williams noted that this year’s student handbook mentioned only “Acton Middle School.”
Hunter said the school’s legal name omits Garrison, a Civil War-era educator and abolitionist, and that the handbook is a legal document. “I thought it made sense to align the names,” she said.
Williams, who pushed to recognize Garrison at the school, asked to include her name in the handbook, and officials obliged.
Hunter separately pledged in her list of goals for the 2025-26 school year to “create and implement [an] action plan to integrate Ellen Garrison into the fabric of Acton Middle School.”
