PEABODY — The mayor-appointed Higgins Building Committee is meeting this afternoon but won't take a vote on recommending any of the various options for fixing up the old middle school, Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt said.
City leaders met with officials from the Massachusetts School Building Authority on Monday, hoping to come home with solid answers on how much the different options will cost and how much the authority will pay.
"With a project this big, we want to make sure we have all of the information before we decide anything," Bettencourt said.
The three options to fix the 46-year-old building are: constructing an addition and renovating the existing school; building a new custom school designed specifically for Peabody's needs; or building a model school, based on an existing set of blueprints from a school that has already been built. Under each scenario, there are limits to what the MSBA will pay. The size of the proposed gym and auditorium and how much the MSBA is willing to contribute are hang-up points, the mayor said.
"We're still looking at a March vote," he said.
When the building committee does make a recommendation, a joint meeting of the City Council and School Committee will be held to go over the proposal.
The meeting is at 4 p.m. today at Kiley Brothers Memorial School, 21 Johnson St.
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