TWO MEN on a lift work outside the protective winter enclosure that covers the new Wakefield Memorial High School currently under construction. (Mark Sardella Photo)

By NEIL ZOLOT

WAKEFIELD – School Department Facilities Director Tim O’Brien submitted $733,000 in requests for capital projects in Fiscal Year 2026 at the School Committee meeting Tuesday, January 7.

Of that total, $365,000 is designated as “critical to the district,” including $125,000 each for two-way radio replacement across the town and resurfacing of the Dolbeare Elementary School playground; $75,000 for grass and fencing for the Walton Elementary School playground and $40,000 for electrical service upgrades at the Doyle Elementary School.

O’Brien said new or upgraded two way radio will allow school to school communication “in the event you can’t use a cell phone.”

It will also be tied into the police and fire departments. “We’ll provide them with a piece of our system to make our schools as safe as they can be,” he added.

He also said the Dolbeare project is the last of all the elementary schools. A rubber surface will be installed. “It’ll be a nice way to end the process,” he feels.

Grass will be installed at Walton in part to reduce dust getting into the school as students return to the school from the current dusty area. “It poses a challenge for us cleaning the building and the children deserve a better play area,” he said.

The $40,000 for Doyle is so the electrical system can handle increased demand at the school.

O’Brien designates $350,000 to replace auditorium rigging equipment at the Galvin Middle School as “a priority, but less critical in nature.” He said the new equipment will “enhance the rentability of the space,” which is sometimes used by local orchestras and theatre groups. 

Fifteen thousand dollars are designated as a longer term priority, specifically modifying the elevator badge system at Galvin. “Anyone can use it now, but will enable us to limit use,” he said, referring to the numbers of people waiting for an elevator at certain times.

In additional discussion, Superintendent Doug Lyons said he and O’Brien are looking at if and how to site modular classrooms at the Doyle and/or Woodville Schools to house preschool children. He said they might resemble modular offices used by companies working on the new High School, but would be smaller. “We might scale it down for pricing,” he elaborated.

“We had to turn away families,” O’Brien added. “Doyle is bursting at the seams.”

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Later in the meeting, Lyons announced there will be two community forums on changing school day start times, as a follow up to one held in November. They are tentatively scheduled for January 16 and February 5. He, Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro and school principals will be present January 16 and teachers and other staff members February 5. “Everyone will have an opportunity to weigh in to give us input on how to make the best proposals we can,” he said.

He envisions three proposals for submission to the School Committee for a vote, two different start times and one for no change.

Wakefield Memorial High starts its classes at 7:30 a.m. followed by Galvin at 8 and the elementary schools at 8:30. In contrast Melrose and Stoneham high schools start their classes at 8:15, Reading at 8:30. Lyons pointed out changes at one school will affect the others, including transportation and after-school activities. One idea could be to flip the elementary school start of 8:30 and the high school time and leave the Middle School at 8, but Lyons acknowledged the difficulty of getting young children to school at 7:30.

Regardless he envisions changes in the schedule at the new High School due to configuration of the cafeterias for capacity, regardless of the start time. “The teacher contract will need to be renegotiated because the High School schedule is part of their contract,” Lyons said. “We recommend rolling this all into one process.”

The issue of later start times was first brought up by then-student Alexis Manzi at the School Committee meeting June 27, 2023. She said the later start times will decrease car accidents, relieve traffic congestion and give METCO students a later and easier travel schedule. She also quoted information from the American Academy of Pediatrics indicating High School students will can concentrate more if school starts later.

The November forum, held at Galvin, dealt with some of those issues.

School Committee member Eileen Colleran hopes the forums will allow the members and others “to see how this would affect the community.”

“People may have a sense this is a foregone conclusion, but that isn’t the case,” School Committee chairman Stephen Ingalls added.