Published in the October 26, 2018 edition
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — A team from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) visited Wakefield Memorial High School on Tuesday, Oct. 16, to conduct a “senior site study” of the school. The visit was the next step after the town submitted a Statement of Interest (SOI) last spring. The SOI is the first critical step in the MSBA’s program to partially fund the construction, renovation, addition or repair of municipally owned school facilities.
Superintendent Douglas Lyons reported on the visit at this week’s School Committee meeting. He said that the six-member MSBA team included two engineering consultants and the visit began with a two-hour meeting with local school officials to review and answer questions related to the SOI.
Lyons said that the engineers were especially concerned about the state of the science labs and how the condition of the school is impacting educational programming, including how it changes when students move from the state-of-the-art Galvin Middle School to the high school.
He reported that the MSBA team asked about the high school’s accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Lyons noted that the school has been on “warning” status for the past seven years due to the condition of the physical plant. He said that there was concern that, at the current rate of deterioration, the school could move from “warning” to “probationary” status.
The last NEASC accreditation visit was Sept. 28. Lyons said that he expects to receive that report soon. He said that during their accreditation visit, NEASC officials stressed that any negative accreditation status was not due to the efforts of the teachers and that the teaching and learning was the best it could be given the condition of the school.
After their meeting on Oct. 16, the MSBA team toured the high school “top to bottom,” Lyons said. He said that they noted things like sand bags by the gym door to stop water from coming in.
“They got a sense of how much we are doing to make the facility work,” Lyons said, adding that there was also a question of how long things could continue.
Lyons said that he expects the MSBA report in December or January.
“If we are selected to move forward in the process,” Lyons said, “we will move to the eligibility phase and will be asked to complete a feasibility study with an architectural and engineering firm.”
School Committee member Christopher Callanan noted that town funding for such a feasibility study would have to be approved by Town Meeting.
