The Salem City Council opened 2026 on Thursday, January 8 by voting 11 to 0 for first passage of a $447,385,518 bond order to pay for a new Salem High School at 77 Willson Street, and sent it with the order for a May 5 special election to the Committee on Administration and Finance. The bond order covers design, demolition of the existing building, furnishing and equipping the school and site work, for a building meant to serve as a school for at least 50 years.
Under the order, any grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority cannot exceed the lesser of 73.89 percent of eligible, approved costs or the maximum grant the authority sets, and the borrowing authorized is reduced by whatever the state agrees to pay. Costs above the grant are the city’s alone. The council gave the bond second and final passage on January 22, and in February the MSBA approved a $208 million grant, according to the Salem News.
The May 5 question
Mayor Dominick Pangallo’s election order calls a special municipal election on Tuesday, May 5 on a single question: whether to exempt the debt on the high school bonds from the limits of Proposition 2 1/2. A yes vote lets property taxes rise above the levy limit to pay the principal and interest; a no vote does not. Polls run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the usual precinct locations, with Ward 3 voting at Salem High School itself. A separate $29,540 appropriation covers poll workers and clerk overtime. Voters approved the question on May 5 by an unofficial 4,133 to 3,068, according to the Salem News.
Also at the meeting
- A $325,000 bond order for reconstruction and repairs at the North Street fire station received first passage, 11 to 0.
- Michael Fabiano was appointed assistant building commissioner, and the mayor’s reappointments of department heads and board members for the new term were received.
- $30,000 was appropriated for retirement stabilization and $6,000 for Public Services burials, and the council accepted donations to the police department and $2,325 to Veterans Services.
- Five traffic ordinances from the prior year received second and final passage, and hearings were ordered on National Grid conduits on Jefferson Avenue and a joint pole.
The minutes are here.
