Hammond School lease limbo hampers plans for after-school programs

The start of the new school year is less than three weeks away, and the community organizations that planned to replace the after-school programs once offered by the Boys and Girls Club of Wareham have encountered a roadblock: They have nowhere to go.

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater New Bedford abruptly closed its Wareham chapter on April 30, with about six weeks left of the school year. Since then, the Ethel E. Hammond School, which housed the program, has sat empty and remains at the center of a slow-moving legal dispute between the Club and the town.

Stop-gap after-school programs led by Shayla Tavares, who had been working as the de facto director of the Boys and Girls Club until its closure, were held at the Bridge Church of Onset for the remainder of the school year. 

This summer, Tavares has continued to offer programs for kids, establishing Onset Kidz Block. 

But with the 2021-2022 school year on the horizon, plans to replace the Boys and Girls Club are at a bit of a standstill. 

In late spring, four organizations — Community Youth Empowerment, the Wareham Tigers, Onset Kidz Block and the Bridge Church — proposed a centralized hub for community youth programs at the Ethel E. Hammond School as a replacement for the Boys and Girls Club. The church offered to help facilitate the group by establishing a nonprofit LLC called “the Hammond Community Youth and Education Center at the Bridge.”

But those plans require the use of the Hammond School.

The Hammond School lease

Currently, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater New Bedford is leasing the school located at 13 Highland Ave. from the town. The members of the Select Board affirmed their interest in breaking the lease at an Aug. 10 meeting.

Rob Mendes, executive director of the New Bedford chapter, said the organization had formally asked the town to terminate its lease earlier this summer for a number of reasons. Mendes, in conversation with Wareham Week, cited the impact of the pandemic on the Club.

According to Town Administrator Derek Sullivan, Mendes’ May 9 request to break the lease also cited the condition of the building as a primary reason.

Town Attorney Richard Bowen said that reason came as a surprise to the town, because the Boys and Girls Club was required to maintain the property. Bowen said the lease for the Hammond School was fairly standard in that the Boys and Girls Club was responsible for maintenance and utilities. 

Sullivan wrote in a May 14 response to Mendes that while the town could work with the Club, he disputed some of Mendes’ reasoning. He said that, per the lease agreement, the Club is responsible for maintenance of the property — making safety issues “a consequence of [the Club’s] failure to comply with the lease.”

He added that Mendes’ rationale was not sufficient grounds to break the lease, and noted Mendes had contemplated closing the branch in the past for other reasons — making the safety argument “[appear] disingenuous at best.”

Mendes sent a response to the town on Aug. 4. In it, he wrote that the Club was not saying the building “was inhabitable” or unusable, but rather did not meet the standards required by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He said finances and declining membership were the reasons behind the closure.

When speaking with Wareham Week on Aug. 6, Mendes said that left the decision up to the town. 

“At this point, it’s really out of our hands, and it’s unfortunate that the facility is sitting there idle,” Mendes said, adding that the Club has “vacated the premises.” Mendes said he has been contacted by entities in town about using the school, but until the lease is terminated it would be a liability issue to allow its use.

During an Aug. 10 Select Board meeting, Sullivan indicated that the town would begin the process of terminating the lease barring any objection from the board.

The board raised no objection.

Next, Sullivan said, “we will confer with legal and see how final negotiations go with the request to terminate the lease.”

If the lease is successfully terminated, the town will still need to go through a procurement process and put out a request for proposals to secure a new tenant for the Hammond School.

Future plans

At the moment, all plans to reuse the building — whether by the coalition of youth programs, the school district, or some other organization — are on hold indefinitely.

“We’re kind of in this holding pattern,” said Jared Chadwick, president of the Wareham Tigers. “We are ready, the second that lease is relinquished, to go to the town and say ‘hey, we’re here. Our four programs can take this over.’”

But, he said, there’s “really nothing we can do” until the lease is terminated.

“The school year’s about to start again, and there’s no place for these kids to go,” Chadwick said. “The Bridge Church is not big enough. So we’re about to lose everything — not only us, but Onset Kidz Block, CYE’s going to lose a place, the Bridge Church is going to lose a place and the Tigers are going to lose a place.”

He said that Tavares’ Onset Kidz Block summer program had a waiting list, and expected demand to increase during the school year. 

Mendes said that although memberships decreased during the pandemic, the Wareham chapter typically had about 120 members — and had the ability to accommodate more. On an average day, Mendes said that meant the Hammond School saw 70 to 80 kids a day. 

Chadwick noted that many families cannot afford the after-school care offered by the Gleason Family YMCA and said it was a “huge blow” to lose the Boys and Girls Club. 

Representatives from Onset Kidz Block, Community Youth Empowerment and The Bridge Church did not respond to Wareham Week’s requests for comment before deadline. 

Katherine Garofoli, director of the Onset Bay Center, said that last year the Center partnered with the Boys and Girls Club and the Wareham Public School’s Office of Beyond School Time to host each program two days a week and provide free outdoor enrichment programs. With the Club no longer in the picture, Garofoli said she expects to provide “much more in-depth programming with the Beyond School Time office.”    

The Onset Bay Center has secured funding from the Department of Education for after-school programs for the upcoming school year and for next summer’s program, she said.

Garofoli said she hopes to be a part of the conversation if and when a program emerges to replace the Club — “we want to be able to provide outdoor enrichment for those kids,” she said.

In May, Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood said school administrators were in the early stages of talks with the YMCA about a potential joint venture involving the Hammond School. At the time, she said there was also a discussion about expanding to include a preschool program at a location in Onset. 

Neither Shaver-Hood nor representatives from the Y responded to a request for comment before Wareham Week’s print deadline.