Wrentham voters will face a significant decision at Town Meeting June 1: whether to fund a new Roderick Elementary School. Two votes — one at Town Meeting, one on a separate ballot — are required before the project can move forward.

Why Now?

The existing Roderick School is nearly 60 years old. Built in 1968 and expanded in 1988, the building has problems that go well beyond cosmetic wear.

According to the Schematic Design Report prepared by project architects TSKP Studios and project managers The Vertex Companies, the mechanical and electrical systems are outdated, inefficient, and need to be replaced. 

Phil Jordan, chair of the School Building Committee, put the stakes plainly. If the heating system fails in the middle of winter, he said, the town would be forced to rent temporary modular classrooms for all students and staff while paying emergency repair costs on a 60-year-old system — with no reserve fund to draw from, and no state reimbursement available. That kind of unplanned event would require an immediate override to cover the costs.

Security is another concern. The Schematic Design Report describes several vulnerabilities in the current building. Some classrooms have exterior doors original to the 1968 construction — wood doors that are warped, difficult to lock, and out of compliance with current safety standards. Some classrooms also have single-pane windows that are easy to break. The building’s layout has two major entrances with many more single exterior doors, complicating the ability to control and monitor access. The new building is designed around a single secure main entrance with a controlled vestibule.

The roof, windows, and fire code compliance also need attention. According to Superintendent Allan Cameron, a renovation would require addressing all of these issues — at an estimated cost of approximately $70 million, with no state funding for that work.

Jordan framed the broader choice this way: even if voters choose to do nothing, that will not hold property taxes steady. The question, he said, is not whether to spend money on Wrentham’s schools — it is how.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) — the state agency that helps communities fund school construction — reviewed the project and selected Wrentham for state funding assistance. The MSBA voted in October 2025 to approve the town’s plan to proceed with a new school.

New Building vs. Renovation — Why Not Just Fix What’s There?

A renovation-only approach is not eligible for MSBA funding. The state would pay nothing toward a renovation, leaving Wrentham to cover the entire cost.

Project consultants Vertex and TSKP Studios developed estimates for both options. According to Cameron, the renovation estimate totaled approximately $70 million — including $55 million for code upgrades, $1 million to demolish the adjacent Vogel building, and between $10 million and $15 million for asbestos and PCB remediation and major capital replacements such as the roof and heating system.

The new building is estimated to cost $106.55 million in total. The MSBA’s anticipated reimbursement rate is 54.33 percent, according to the Schematic Design Report. That rate was earned in part by the town’s maintenance record and the building’s planned energy-efficiency features.

Town Manager Mike King said the town’s share of the project is $56 million. He estimated the cost to the average Wrentham homeowner at $627 per year in additional property taxes.

Both the School Building Committee and the School Committee voted unanimously to pursue new construction.

How Will the Town Pay 

for It?

The project would be funded through a debt exclusion — a temporary increase in property tax that expires when the borrowing is paid off. A debt exclusion requires a two-thirds majority to pass at Town Meeting.

Town Meeting on June 1 will take up the vote. If it passes, a separate ballot vote on the borrowing is planned for June 15.

How Does This Fit With Other Town Borrowing?

King outlined how the Roderick project fits with Wrentham’s other major capital obligations.

Two large prior projects — the Town Hall and the Public Safety building — have already been paid off. Wrentham’s portion of the King Philip Regional High School project will be paid off by the end of the current fiscal year, in June 2026. Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School debt is being paid down and roughly replaces the KP payment in the budget.

Two other projects will also appear on the Town Meeting warrant but will not require a debt exclusion or additional taxes. The Department of Public Works building will be funded through the general fund operating budget and the Water Enterprise Fund. The Rice Complex build-out will be funded using one-time free cash reserves. The Rice Complex project is described in more detail in the related article in this issue.

What Will Be Built — and What Happens to the 

Old Buildings?

The new Roderick School will be built on the current playground and a softball field to the south of the existing building. The school is designed for 595 students in grades three through six.

As part of the project, third grade — currently housed at Delaney School — will move to the new Roderick. That shift will open eight classrooms at Delaney, allowing the district to expand its prekindergarten program. It will also enable the district to vacate and demolish the Vogel building, constructed in 1936, which has multiple structural problems making most of it unusable.

Demolition of the Vogel building is included in the base project, though the Schematic Design Report lists it as a pricing alternate that could be removed if costs need to be reduced.

Because the new school is built on an adjacent site, students can remain in the existing Roderick throughout construction. Only after they move into the new building will the old Roderick be demolished. The Schematic Design Report notes that a renovation approach would have required displacing students during construction — a disruption the new-building approach avoids entirely.

The new school’s design includes geothermal heating and cooling systems and is targeting LEED Silver certification. The Schematic Design Report says the building is expected to use at least 20 percent less energy than the current code requires, and the roof is designed to accommodate solar panels if the town chooses to add them separately.

What About the 

Ball Fields?

One softball field behind Roderick will be displaced by the new building. The Recreation Department has plans to relocate that field to the Rice Complex. Other fields behind Roderick will not be permanently affected, though they will be unavailable during construction. A separate article in this issue covers the Rice Complex project.

The Schematic Design Report also identifies a possible traffic signal at the South Street (Route 1A)/Randall Road intersection as an optional add-alternate. That intersection is expected to see increased traffic when the new Roderick School opens.

Upcoming Forums

The School Building Committee has scheduled several community forums before the June 1 Town Meeting vote including:

Tuesday, May 6: Community forum at Fiske Library, 11 a.m.

Wednesday, May 21: Virtual community forum at 7 p.m.

A group of Wrentham residents and parents has formed the Roderick School Project Special Ballot Committee to help inform voters ahead of the vote. The committee can be found on Facebook by searching “Roderick School Project Special Ballot Committee” or https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578660720537.

Jordan encouraged residents with doubts or questions not to wait. The building committee has addressed many questions at prior public meetings, he said, and these forums are an opportunity for skeptics in particular to get their questions answered before voting. Voters, he said, should consider the proposal with full information.

More information is available at the district’s project website: wrentham.k12.ma.us/subsites/Roderick-School-Building-Project.