Gill School Committee Appoints New Member, Advances $60,000 Hillcrest Floor Request

GILL -- September 6, 2022, Gill-Montague School Committee appoints new member, votes to request $60,000 for Hillcrest floor overruns. The committee voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Christina Marcolo, an educational publishing employee at McGraw-Hill, to fill a vacant Gill seat on the board. Business and Operations Director Joann Bleyer reported that the Hillcrest Elementary floor project came in at just under $309,000 against a $295,000 town allocation, with a problematic subfloor driving the gap; the committee voted 7-0 to seek roughly $60,000 at Montague's October 13 special town meeting to cover the overrun and carpet 13 classrooms left unfinished. The committee also approved an accounts payable warrant of $248,893.36 and heard that the district was accepted into a three-year DESE-partnered Culturally Responsive Practices Leadership Academy run by consultancy Blackprint Inc. Superintendent Brian briefed the committee on plans to file a statement of interest with the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 2023 for a potential new elementary school, possibly built as an addition to Sheffield Elementary, with state reimbursement projected at 75 to 80 percent of construction costs.