FAQs

How would 3A impact our schools?

If Hamilton and Wenham residents approve the consolidated school project, the cherished and historically significant Winthrop School WILL BE DEMOLISHED, and the 14-acre site will open up to 3A development. 3A will bring 1,100 market rate rentals and state zoning control forever, exhaust infrastructure, raise taxes, 15 units per acre, no minimum number of residents. Add a proposed $142M consolidated school and its accompanying 12% real estate tax increase, 3A is a disaster. 3A will render the consolidated school obsolete. No financial analyses have been done by our Financial Committees on what 3A will mean to our budgets and tax rate. The consolidated school fills every bit of the lot at Cutler. There is no room or money for more additions. Students will be added to current classrooms to overflowing capacity.

What about Winthrop School?

If Hamilton and Wenham residents vote to approve the consolidated school project, the cherished and historically significant Winthrop School WILL BE DEMOLISHED, and the 14-acre site will be open to MBTA 3A development. All three of our small neighborhood schools are important to us, but especially the historically significant Winthrop School. It is shortsighted for the Town of Hamilton to let this architectural landmark end up as debris in a landfill. Most importantly, Winthrop will be demolished at Hamilton and Wenham taxpayers’ expense with large scale retail/commercial/residential development imminent. This is an immediate expense to the Hamilton and Wenham taxpayers that no one is talking about. Save Winthrop!

What about Buker School?

With a consolidated school Wenham will lose its only elementary school. Buker boasts consistently higher academic metrics of all three of our elementary schools and it is the best maintained. It is also the only school located in Wenham. An enormous PK-K. With a consolidated elementary school in Hamilton, Buker would become PK-K for 125+ of our youngest children. This would mean 7-8 kindergarten classes in one school, which is far from ideal. There’s no way our littlest learners will get the same attention as they do now with only 2-3 Kindergarten classrooms in our small neighborhood schools. Small children learn social behaviors by observing and modeling the older children around them. This clustered PK-K group will lack the opportunity to learn from older kids. In addition, family units will be separated and will miss out on the amazing opportunity to attend the same neighborhood school as their older siblings. Walking to school together and knowing that big brother or sister is in the same building is a bond that cannot be duplicated.

How would the project be funded?

There is no such thing as free money. Whether they call it funds from MSBA or reimbursement from the state, ALL the money to fund the $142M consolidated school is coming from the very same pocket: YOURS! 100% And that’s not all. Next year we face a $2M override to pay the just-signed Teacher Union contracts, plus likely town operating budget overrides in both Hamilton and Wenham. And we are already paying for the Turf Fields. We are not sitting on the financial cliff. We’ve gone over the edge. We are now in financial free fall. Most residents of HW don’t even know it. Why? Because as was stated at multiple School Committee meetings, when you bring both a consolidated school vote and a Prop 2½ override to Town Meeting, historically they both fail. So, the folks who put things up to vote at Town Meeting will have the school vote this year and hope you won’t notice when Prop 2½ overrides come up next year. And we’ll just hope nothing else breaks, needs fixing or replacing, because we’ve left no extra money anywhere to pay for it.

How would increased taxes affect our residents facing food insecurity?

In 2024 our neighborhood food pantry ACORD served 56% more people facing food insecurity than it did in 2023. That means 1 in every 10 Hamilton families and 1 in every 12 Wenham families. Children in Hamilton and Wenham are going to bed hungry. Increased taxes will only make this inhumane situation worse for these children and their families.