I The Frank Kelley Roast - Wilmington Town Crier
I The Frank Kelley Roast - Wilmington Town Crier
I The Frank Kelley Roast - Wilmington Town Crier
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MIDDLESEX EAST appearing in Dairy Times - Chronicle (Reading, Woburn, Winchester, burlington, Wakehetd),<br />
lynnneld Villager, No Reading Transcript, <strong>Wilmington</strong> & Tewksbury <strong>Town</strong> <strong>Crier</strong>, Stoneham Independent WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY, AUGUST 10,11, 2005-PAGE SS-3<br />
$68M Woburn<br />
Memorial H.S.<br />
on schedule<br />
-Opening eyed for 2006<br />
By PATRICK BLAIS<br />
WOBURN - <strong>The</strong> last day of classes normally carries<br />
a school district through an almost unnatural summer<br />
calm, but the city's school administration spent these<br />
past few months in frenzied activity.<br />
Overseeing the construction of the new Woburn Me-<br />
morial High School, prepping ior the elimination of<br />
one-bus route at a busy elementary school, and search-<br />
ing for a fix to a facility's leaky roof - and all while<br />
gearing up for a multi-building construction project -<br />
this summer has been anything but quiet for local edu-<br />
cation and city officials.<br />
According to the city's School Building Committee,<br />
the $68 million construction project at the New Woburn<br />
Memorial High School remains on schedule and within<br />
budget, despite some suggestions to the contrary.<br />
Giving an overall assessment of the construction ac-<br />
tivity thus far at the new high school site, Brook Tri-<br />
vas, the city's representative from Tappe Architects,<br />
concluded that the progress at the facility couldn't be<br />
better.<br />
"Big picture, we're doing just about as well as we<br />
could be at this point," Trivas announced at a recent<br />
School Building Committee meeting.<br />
According to Municipal Building Consultant Presi-<br />
dent Patrick Saitta, a contractor hired as the new<br />
WMHS construction manager, he has never seen a<br />
building project hover so tightlv to its budeet schedule.<br />
- North Reading<br />
Looking back, first year<br />
of Batchelder School<br />
relocation a success<br />
By MARYANNE SOUCY<br />
In the summer of 2004, the<br />
NORTH READING - <strong>The</strong><br />
old Batchelder School was<br />
first year of the two-year<br />
emptied and transported to<br />
relocation of North Reading's<br />
the Central School in Stone-<br />
Batchelder School communiham,<br />
which is North Reading<br />
ty is history* and in less than<br />
is leasing for the duration of<br />
a month students, faculty and<br />
the construction process.<br />
parents will return for the In order to avoid confustart<br />
of another term.<br />
sion, the school also took it's<br />
Looking back, it's pleasname<br />
along with it during the<br />
move, turning the rented<br />
antly surprising that the reloschool<br />
building into the Batcation<br />
process went on without<br />
a hitch, despite what many<br />
chelder School in Stoneham.<br />
had anticipated.<br />
Teachers, parents and<br />
In fact, at a recent North<br />
school department staff all<br />
Reading School Committee<br />
pitched-in to make the move<br />
meeting, it was noted that of<br />
possible. Principal Sean<br />
all five schools in town, it was<br />
Killeen scheduled a commuthe<br />
Batchelder School that was<br />
nity day for parent volunteers<br />
"heard from the least" throuwho<br />
gave the classrooms a<br />
ghout the 2004-2005 school year<br />
fresh coat of paint.<br />
and most would agree that<br />
In addition to the parents,<br />
that's a-good thing.<br />
the community day proved a<br />
After years of delay and<br />
huge success largely through<br />
controversy, North Reading the efforts of Moynihan Lumvoted<br />
$18.5 million for a total ber, which donated the paint,<br />
renovation, reconstruction and along with Goddard's Paintexpansion<br />
of the Batchelder ing Service, which donated the<br />
School, the town's oldest which man-power.<br />
is located in the center of<br />
Last year's smooth transitown.<br />
tion was a credit to all, ac-<br />
Due to the massive scope<br />
cording to Venezia. And now,<br />
of the work, it was necessary<br />
with the school community<br />
to vacate the school for two settled in to the temporary<br />
full years while construction<br />
facility, he anticipates a seccrews<br />
construct the new and<br />
ond successful year.<br />
improved Batchelder School<br />
<strong>The</strong> adjustment to the temthe<br />
original location.<br />
porary school building was<br />
"Looking back, this has<br />
aided, according to Killeen,<br />
been a huge success," said by the fact that the students en-<br />
School Committee Chairman joy the gymnasium and other<br />
Gerald Venezia.<br />
facilities at the Stoneham<br />
Winchester from SS-2<br />
that Could be used.<br />
School Committee Chair-<br />
man Kathleen Bo,die said,<br />
"We could be in a situation<br />
where you might want to<br />
build a new hign school, but<br />
there is just no place to put<br />
it."<br />
If a new high school is<br />
in Winchester and around<br />
the state have reached the<br />
end of their useful life. In<br />
addition, the typical re-<br />
sponse to Proposition 2 1/2<br />
was to defer building main-<br />
tenance.<br />
If <strong>Town</strong> Meeting votes to<br />
fund the demographic<br />
study, .geologic analysis<br />
and feasibility study then<br />
not a possibility then an ar- each will proceed and a de-<br />
chitect could draw up plans tailed timeline will be de-<br />
for renovation of the exist- veloped for the completion<br />
ing building. of the next elementary<br />
If the decision is to reno- school and for a new or<br />
vate the high school other renovated high school,<br />
choices are likely to follow.<br />
Will it be possible to reno-<br />
vate the school while stu-<br />
dents are in the building? If<br />
not — where will the stu-<br />
dents go during renovation?<br />
Other questions need to<br />
be answered such a cost<br />
analysis of new construc-<br />
tion versus renovation, and<br />
how long would a major<br />
renovation take as opposed<br />
to'putting up a new build-<br />
ing.<br />
"It's a huge decision for<br />
the town," Marini said at<br />
the School Committee meet-<br />
ing. Marini said, as other ad-<br />
ministrators have pointed<br />
out in the past; it is a com-<br />
bination of factors that has<br />
led the town to face such<br />
expensive problems. Basi-<br />
cally, many of the buildings<br />
Elaborating on that claim, Saitta pointed to the fact<br />
that as of this July, the city has spent about half of the<br />
funding allocated for the estimated $68.4 million pro-<br />
ject. Mirroring that figure, the new WMHS currently<br />
stands about 52 percent complete, meeting the con-<br />
struction timetable for a 2006 opening date.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> high school at this point is 52 percent com-<br />
plete. We conclude that it's on schedule and at<br />
budget," said Saitta.<br />
As the giant hulk of a building continues to fit more<br />
and more of its« components together for a 2006 opening<br />
date, Woburn Mayor John Curran happily acknowl-<br />
edged the city's receipt of a $10.9 million reimburse-<br />
ment check from the Massachusetts School Building<br />
Authority (MSBA) for the district's completion of<br />
three previous school construction projects.<br />
Utilizing the funds to pay off the city's short-term<br />
debt and part of the bonds taken out for the work, the<br />
Mayor and school officials continue developing an am-<br />
bitious plan to commence a multi-school construction<br />
project once the MSBA lifts its moratorium on new de-<br />
velopments.<br />
"We wouldn't move ahead until then [the official re-<br />
instatement of the SBA program]," the Mayor said af-<br />
ter pitching the plan to several of the state agency's<br />
officials. "But if we're able to secure funding from<br />
other sources, that will be a way for us to move ahead.<br />
And we're looking at all the options. Our biggest con-<br />
cern right know is that construction prices keep grow-<br />
ing."<br />
AjBbording to School Committee member Joseph<br />
CrotyleyTtoho sits on the Resource Utilization subcom-<br />
mittee — and thus meets regularly with city and<br />
school officials on the district's parity plan — the pro-<br />
posal to build multiple schools at once seems the best<br />
way to achieve equality among Woburn's aging<br />
schools.<br />
With the parity plan aimed at finding the quickest<br />
and least expensive way to replace the aging infra-<br />
structure at the six remaining elementary schools, the<br />
reasons for that quest was underscored by news of a<br />
leaky roof at the Wyman Elementary School.<br />
Opting against an expensive capital project, school<br />
officials decided this summer to repair the slate roof<br />
through an inexpensive patch-up job.<br />
Admitting that the temporary fix isn't the ideal way<br />
to deal with the problem — which has resulted in wa-<br />
ter collecting in-between some of the school's walls —<br />
School Committee member Joseph Crowley explained<br />
that the city simply can't afford a complete roof over-<br />
haul.<br />
"Basically, all we can do at this point is patch it up<br />
and try to get through this year. So we're going to<br />
grind it out and see if the mayor can get a couple<br />
bucks for us," Crowley said.<br />
"It's very aggravating," added the School Commit-<br />
tee member, an outspoken opponent of annual "patch-<br />
work" repairs instead of "fix-all" capital projects that<br />
solve the problem once and for all. "You're just<br />
throwing money away. But you also need to make<br />
sure that tiles aren't going to fall on anybody or that<br />
mold isn't going to grow."<br />
Discovering water damage in-between several of<br />
the aging school's walls last spring, school mainte-<br />
nance crews originally feared that the festering mois-<br />
ture had led to the growth of mold.<br />
However, during the School Committee's last meet-<br />
ing of the 2005 school year, Business Manager Joe Elia<br />
announced that environmental testing of the area had<br />
revealed some rot, but no mold development.<br />
With his hands already full with the Wyman roof,<br />
Elia is similarly dealing with the elimination of a bus<br />
route from the elementary school this upcoming school<br />
year.<br />
Running a "dry run" to observe the school corn-<br />
mute's traffic flow in the area without the bus, police<br />
and school officials were encouraged by the exercise.<br />
According to the Business Manager, traffic patterns<br />
at the local school flowed well during the practice test,<br />
which was scheduled to identify potential problems<br />
with the increased vehicular flow at the building's<br />
drop-off and pick-up zones before next year's school<br />
year.<br />
school building, which is<br />
quite the improvemenl over<br />
their former school<br />
Killeen also explained that<br />
the Stoneham community has<br />
been very welcoming I" the<br />
out-of-town students staff<br />
, and families.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Batchelder communi-<br />
ty has even done its part to<br />
make their bus drivers feel<br />
appreciated due to the extra<br />
distance they drive on a daily<br />
basis - the school designated<br />
a special day to recognized<br />
the bus drivers.<br />
Although everyone involved<br />
has gone all-out to make the<br />
move a success, Venezia assu-<br />
red parents that it's all just<br />
temporary.»<br />
Anyone who has driven<br />
through the center of North<br />
Reading recently can see that<br />
the construction project is<br />
progressing rapidly and to<br />
date, the project remains on-<br />
track for a completion in 2006<br />
- just in time for the begin-<br />
ning of the 2005-2007 school<br />
year<br />
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However, Elia also noted that the smooth running<br />
exercise could have been due to the presence of police<br />
officers, who scrutinized the traffic patterns along<br />
with school officials in the morning and afternoon<br />
hours.<br />
"It went okay," Elia recalled. "I think when people<br />
saw all the police up there, they may have tended to<br />
not do what they normally would have."<br />
"But when school comes back in session, we'll make<br />
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