New Bourne Elementary School Construction on Track

Construction continues on the new Bourne elementary school which will replace James F. Peebles Elementary School.

BOURNE – Construction on the new Bourne elementary school continues and a ceremony will be held next week to celebrate the placement of the last steel beam.

The topping out ceremony for the new $40 million facility will be held at James F. Peebles Elementary School on May 2 at 9:30 a.m.

The ceremony will include the placement of the last beam, along with the Scandinavian tradition of placing a tree on top.

Superintendent Steven Lamarche said the new school is on schedule and under budget.

We’ve had some concrete walls put up for around the gymnasium area and the cafeteria area and we are moving along quite well,” Lamarche said.

The new school will replace the Peebles school, which Lamarche said is no longer adequate.

“The innovativeness of Peebles Elementary School has certainly been outgrown for a number of years now but structurally there are some significant issues,” Lamarche said.

There are more than a dozen meters registering if any of the cracks in the building are expanding or contracting.

“There is no danger at this point in time and if there was we would certainly be reporting that out,” Lamarche said. “But it is something we have to monitor closely.”

Concept art for the new school being built in Bourne.

An annex in the back of the building has also been sinking for several years with plumbing and heating supply piping underneath.

“We haven’t demographically outgrown the building but innovation wise we have outgrown the building – and program wise,” Lamarche said.

The new school will house students from grades 3 through 5 and will be in the same complex with the middle and high schools.

“It’s going to be a modern school and is going to have some mixed materials,” Lamarche said. “The mixed materials are going to actually look like it is placed in the Cape Cod area.”

Design elements include slanted roofs, and views of the bridges.

It will also create on site for all students in town from grades 3 through 12.

“This is going to kind of a pinnacle building for that – an entrance to that 12-year experience for our students,” Lamarche said.

One main complex will help with traffic patterns in town and help parents who have students at multiple schools to travel to just one site for grades 3 through 12.

A name has not yet been chosen for the new facility. The School Committee will be tasked with coming up for a name for the school after the next election.

“One of their number 1 tasks moving forward is to either continue the name or change the name,” Lamarche said. “They are going to go through a process where there will look for community input and go from there.”

The school is expected to be completed sometime next summer to be ready for the 2019 school year.

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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