NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Greylock Elementary is filled with former students’ handprints and names but the students are long gone.

The building shut down in the spring due to poor building conditions. 

“Heating systems, HVAC, roofs, electric systems...those are the things that end up needing to be repaired when we think about an older school building and with Greylock being as old as it is it’s kind of reached the end of use,” North Adams Superintendent Barbara Malkas said.

The school was opened in 1953.

Malkas says several things led to the closure including flooding issues and outdated systems which are hard or can’t be repaired. The flat deteriorating roof is also leaking.  

“You can see where we’ve had some water damage." Malkas said. "End of spring, if we’ve had a snowy winter there’s a lot of melt from the roofs we can have a line of buckets here with water dripping in.”

North Adams Public Schools is looking to rebuild Greylock Elementary for grades pre-k through 2^nd for a project expected to cost around $65 million dollars. This new school project will be put to vote on October 8.

The state would be paying for $42 million, and voters will need to approve spending the remaining amount.

“Almost $20 million and that would be what they are going to vote on with regards to the debt exclusion which would be a 30-year pay down on the cost of the building project,” Malkas said.

If passed the school will be taken down and rebuilt with a projected opening date of 2027. If not, the school district will focus on the renovation needs at Brayton Elementary School which the superintendent says will eventually raise taxes either way.

“Taxes will eventually go up; I think the taxpayer decision on October 8 is really about how they want to spend their money. Do they want to spend their money on the new school building project that is being supported with a large state grant or do they want to take on the capital improvement needs of Brayton and have to pay for that over time,” Malkas said.