When Will the New Higgins Middle School Open?

Parents have begun dealing with the new traffic pattern during early site preparation work related to a new Higgins Middle School, but there are still years to go before students will begin taking class in the new school.

At this part of the project, organizers are completing construction documents now, which is estimated to last into April. The early site preparation work should stretch to the end of the school year.

Once that is done, the building construction will begin. That should last two years from July 2014 until June 2016.

School officials expect the students will enter the new middle school in the fall of 2016 and the old Higgins will be demolished.

Once the building construction is done in June 2016, work will begin on the fields construction. That is expected to last from July 2016 until April 2017.

What all this means is that construction will be an ongoing theme at Higgins Middle School for the next three years, but the reward at the end is a new state-of-the-art school. 

The Peabody City Council last year approved a $92.6 million bond to build the new Higgins Middle School. Mayor Ted Bettencourt and other local officials said last year that the city will likely only spend about $50 million of that amount, but the Massachusetts School Building Authority requires the full project amount to be authorized. The MSBA is paying up to $43.7 million for the project.

You can find more information about the project here.