Tewksbury Select Board Renames Town Hall, Backs $205 Million School Plan

TEWKSBURY — March 23, 2026 — Tewksbury Select Board unanimously renamed Town Hall and advanced a $205 million school facilities plan at its March 23 meeting. The board voted 5-0 to rename the 1919 building the Tewksbury Memorial Town Hall at the request of Town Historian Nancy Reed, who documented the structure's origins as a World War I veterans' memorial. Doug Roberts of JCJ Architecture presented six master plan options for aging school buildings and recommended Option 2 — closing Dewing and Heath Brook elementary schools and building a new pre-K-through-grade-one facility — at an estimated $205 million, with Tewksbury's share roughly $123 million under MSBA cost-sharing. A Statement of Interest must be filed with the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 17. Town Manager John Curran drew a sharp line on a separate $405,650 request from Shawsheen Valley Technical High School, saying the district "had mismanaged funds" and should not be asking member towns to cover a feasibility study that was supposed to come from retained earnings; the board voted 5-0 to take no action on the article, leaving it for Town Meeting voters on May 4. The Trahan School lease extension passed 4-1, with Board Member James F. Mackey III dissenting.