Peabody Ready To Renew Push For New High School

PEABODY, MA — Peabody Superintendent Josh Vadala and School Committee member Beverly Ann Griffin Dunne both expressed hope and confidence that "this is our year for Peabody" when it comes to petitioning the state School Building Authority for inclusion into its funding program for a new high school.

After several years of failed bids, Vadala said he and Dunne have begun the process of submitting a statement of interest for a new school much earlier this year and intend to have it to the SBA well ahead of the April 14 deadline.

"We want to be proactive this time," Vadala said at Tuesday night's School Committee meeting.

Vadala said 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 our year for Peabody," Vadala said. "I think our kids deserve it. Our teachers deserve it. Our community deserves it. I am optimistic this year. I think, collectively as a community, we pull together for a lot of things, and it's really time we make a little bit of noise for Peabody High School getting into the program.

"I do think that a new school will be the crown jewel of a great school district."

A new Salem High School was one of the projects selected this past round for the program that provides substantial state reimbursements to reduce the burden of a new school building on city taxpayers. Once selected, Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said it will still be an additional five to seven years, at a minimum, before the new school is built and occupied in the neighboring city.

Dunne said as distressing as it has been to be rejected in the past — with some of the same facility concerns now going back decades — she also believes that "this is going to be the one to do it."

"I'm serious," she said. "I think this is going to get it done. We've got some more information about the needs of that building and how long things have existed. We're attacking different areas of the (statement of interest).

"We're going to maximize every possible piece of information that we have to get it before the SBA so they can see how necessary it really is to select Peabody for a new school."

(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.)