WAKEFIELD — The Town Council has called a Special Town Meeting for Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 9 a.m. at the Wakefield Memorial High Field House.
The Town Council will receive all petitions which are addressed to them in writing, and which request the submission of a particular subject matter to the Special Town Meeting, and which are filed by:
1. Any elected Town officer including a member of a multiple member body;
2. Any appointed multiple member body acting by a majority of its members;
3. Any 100 registered voters; and
4. Any other person, persons or Town agency as may be authorized by by-law.
All petitions received at the Town Administrator’s office from any of the foregoing persons on or before 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 will be included in the warrant for the Special Town Meeting.
At least one of the topics expected to be debated at the January 28 Special Town Meeting will be whether participants want to see a new $274 million, state-of-the-art flagship high school built on Farm Street. If Special Town Meeting says yes, the proposal will move to a townwide vote, anticipated to be sometime in March.
After being rejected for three years in a row, the town learned in December of 2019 that the MSBA Board of Directors had voted to invite Wakefield Memorial High School into the MSBA’s Eligibility Period. The MSBA partners with Massachusetts communities to support the design and construction of educationally-appropriate, flexible, sustainable and cost-effective public school facilities.
In November 2020, Town Meeting voted 200-1 to approve $2 million for a feasibility study for the reconstruction of the high school.
In the spring of 2021, project management firm LeftField was chosen by the Permanent Building Committee to serve as Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) for the WMHS building project. An OPM works as a consultant on behalf of the town through the completion of the project and must be completely independent from the designer, general contractor and any sub-contractors involved in the project at all times.
In August of 2021, the firm of Symmes, Maini & McKee Associates, Inc. (SMMA) of Boston was selected as the designer for the new Wakefield Memorial High School Building Project.
BOND Building was selected in August 2022 as the construction firm that will build a proposed new Wakefield Memorial High School.
In October, new cost estimates placed the total project cost at $273.7 million, up from earlier estimates of $220 million.
Taxpayers are expected to be responsible for about $208 million of the total cost of the project.
