Here’s the TAB’s story and below is the official release for today’s announcement.
Mayor Warren today announced the City of Newton’s intent to purchase the Aquinas School and property located on Jackson Road in Nonantum/Newton Corner for $15,750,000. The purchase is contingent upon approval of the Board of Aldermen and School Committee.
If approved, the acquisition would enable the City of Newton to consolidate its preschool program into one site while providing a renovated, new site for the Lincoln Eliot School. The current Lincoln Eliot School would become swing space following the completion of the Cabot School in 2019, which will allow the Horace Mann School to move into the newly renovated Carr School. The current Horace Mann building will be used for youth programming and an intergenerational community center.
“The intent to purchase the Aquinas property is an exciting development that will help us to address the needs of our community well into the future with a solution that is both cost-effective and efficient. I look forward to working with the Board of Aldermen, the School Committee, and the Newton community as we move forward,” Mayor Warren said.
“I’m extremely pleased the city has taken steps to acquire this parcel. The Ward One Aldermen have been consistently talking to Mayor Warren and his staff about this important piece of property in our ward. This acquisition and its components present a number of exciting opportunities for our educational system. I’m really looking forward to working with the Mayor, my colleagues on the Board, the School Committee and School Department on what’s next for our community,” Board President Scott Lennon said.
“This is very exciting news for the entire Newton community, and represents an especially wonderful opportunity for our school system. We can now move more students into much better facilities earlier and in a more efficient way than we originally thought possible. We are grateful for the strategic vision that the Mayor’s office has shown and for the opportunity to so significantly benefit our schools and community for years to come,” School Committee Chairman Matt Hills said.
“The acquisition of Aquinas is an incredible development for our system. I am grateful for the support of Mayor Warren and his team as the continued progress we are making on our school facilities will make a difference for Newton students for generations to come,” Superintendent David Fleishman said.
Long overdue.
The only question is if we can get a good deal on the property or will Aquinas rip us off. The property has been on the market for what seems close to a decade, I would imagine that they are pretty desperate.
I believe based on the release that they already locked it up for $15.75M. Although the asking price was not easily found, it appears that it was somewhere between $18.5M and $20M. Seems like a fair deal was struck.
It was $18 million back in 2010.
I don’t think that the Sisters of St. Joseph are either desperate or likely to “rip us off”. They were specifically seeking a buyer whose plans would co-exist well with their other two schools on the property, and so we’re waiting for the right buyer. This will be good for them and good for Newton.
This is a very good deal for the schools as it achieves a number of objectives:
1. Consolidation of the Pre-K, which currently is split into two locations.
2. Increasing school capacity north of the Pike, assuming that the new Lincoln-Eliot school will be in the range 400-425, which would increase capacity by about 100, which would relieve overcrowding at Lincoln-Eliot and Horace Mann.
3. Blocking the threat of a 40B residential development which would have flooded Lincoln-Eliot with additional students.
The neighborhood around Aquinas lobbied the Mayor heavily in 2012 to purchase Aquinas and this will make them very happy.
The price is a good deal and it would be great to see part of the $40M from the last operating override designated for school facilities, applied to the Aquinas purchase. That would leave plenty of money for a smaller scale expansion of Zervas to 400-425 students.
The net result should be to provide overcrowding relief and facility improvement north of the Pike as well as in the center of the city.
The goal of sustaining our neighborhood school model would be well served by this purchase and scaling back the Zervas mega school project.
@tomsheff: Call me overly trusting, but I don’t think these folks are out to rip off the City of Newton. This looks like a wonderful deal for Newton, and I hope the sellers feel it’s wonderful from their viewpoint, too.
Tom, you’ve really crossed a line. The Sisters of St. Joseph held out for the right buyer for many years. This is not being overly trusting. If there’s any part of the Catholic Church you can trust, it’s the women.
This, along with the increased capacity on the southside of the city, places the elementary schools on track to have 21st century facilities that adequately address the increase in elementary population.
Jane,
Everytime I speak, I “cross a line” whether I agree with you or not. I am sure by saying that, I just “crossed another line”.
People have different agenda’s. I am sure the good sister’s of Aquinas wouldn’t intentionally try to rip us off, but sometimes when people have 2 different agendas someone doesn’t get what they want/need. Shoot me for caring about the details. Commenting on here has become truly ridiculous.
Oh no, did I cross another line???
I guess I should have said: Sisters of St. Joseph and not Sisters of Aquinas… sorry.
@Tom – Besides people’s reaction to you suggesting that nuns would try to rip us off, they would likely react better to your questions if you first read the article and didn’t ask things that were already answered in the post you were commenting on.
The price is in the FIRST PARAGRAPH of this post. Why are you wasting our time suggesting the city won’t get a decent price when the info is right there?
This is a great deal for everyone. It’s a no brainer for the BOA and SC too overwhelmingly approve it. Several forward thinking BOA and SC members have been suggesting this happen for years, as were many community activists.
Nobody could have predicted that the first deal the Nuns had would fall through, although it appears to be our fortune that it did. Fate? Divine intervention? Whatever the case, credit should go to the Mayor and his team for acting on the renewed opportunity.
Paul – It’s really nothing personal. Greg deleted my posts when I changed email addresses and forgot to update it on V14, and he knows me! I actually appreciate that the V14 crew keeps tabs on things. It would not be good for the community for this to become a variation of the comment section of Boston.com.
@Greg
Please stop deleting my posts. If you’ve got something to say privately, feel free to do so.