'Our Time Is Coming' For A New Peabody Veterans High School: Mayor

PEABODY, MA — Citing an accreditation warning for facilities insufficient for learning, and building deficiencies that range from leaky ceilings to inadequate security and unsafe water quality, the Peabody School Committee got City Council approval to once again apply for state funding for a new Peabody Veterans Memorial High School on Thursday night.

"I think all of you know the importance of this project and the real hope that we can partner with (Massachusetts School Building Authority) and begin this process," Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt to the City Council Finance Subcommittee. "I have reason for optimism. But I've been optimistic in the past and we haven't been invited in yet. But I do have optimism here with this submission

"I do believe we are getting to the point where our time is coming."

The City Council also voted to approve the creation of a stabilization fund to go toward the new school.

Superintendent Josh Vadala told the School Committee in January that the high school continues to be under "warning status" from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges because of the school's age and condition and that "we would definitely be in danger of losing our accreditation" if the district was not seen as being in active pursuit of a new building.

"This is the second time that we've noted 'Priority 3' because of the fact that we are on warning status from NEASC and the warning status pertains only to the physical building — not to the programs or the education being provided," School Committee member Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne said. "It's just that they recognize that the building is inadequate and it just isn't able to provide what the students really need for current times."

The application to the SBA includes a litany of issues with the failing high school that included insufficient bathrooms, HVAC problems, broken or non-functioning lighting in classrooms, hallways and parking lots, accessibility problems, unsafe water quality, inadequate security, leaking ceilings and out-of-date classrooms and laboratories.

This is at least the fifth time that Peabody has applied to the SBA for funding that would offset a majority of the cost of the design and construction of a new high school.

"Dr. Vadala and I have been working on this every single week since January when they opened the (application) time period," Dunne said. "We've been going line by line putting in more and more information to make it a more powerful application.

"One of the things that happen is that the deficiencies of the building actually help to add to the information that goes into that report because so many of the systems continue to break down. So, hopefully, the SBA will agree that we do need a new building."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)