Scituate: Town Meeting to decide on school feasibility study

To build or not to build, that’s the question residents will grapple with at Scituate Town Meeting Tuesday night.

Town Meeting will decide whether green light spending $750,000 for a feasibility study on whether to renovate Gates Intermediate School or build a new one.

The meeting comes as an organized group of parents point out serious flaws with the existing century-old building, such as not enough sprinklers, windows and automatic fire doors that don’t work, decades-old additions that are rife with problems, and poor handicap access.

The study as the first step toward obtaining funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, with the goal of the state picking up about 40 percent of the tab of a renovation or rebuild.

Funding for the study would come from existing revenue sources within the town of Scituate, but residents could face higher taxes if the project is approved.