Construction begins on new middle school in Weymouth, Mass.

The Weymouth (Mass.) school district has broken ground on a $164.2 million middle school.

Wicked Local Weymouth reports that the new Maria Weston Chapman Middle School will replace an existing building that opened in 1963.

Over its lifetime, the campus and has served as a high school, a vocational-technical school, and a middle school.

The replacement school will accommodate 1,470 students in grades 6 to 8. It’s expected to be completed in September 2022.

State Sen. Patrick O’Connor says efforts to construct a new Chapman School have been going on for a long time. He says the legislature persuaded the Massachusetts School Building Authority to provide Weymouth $57 million in reimbursement for the project.