Inside Stoneham High, Relief and A Look Toward Future

There was no Gronk-like end zone spike on the fifth floor of 40 Broad Street in Boston Wednesday morning. The row of Stoneham officials in the Massachusetts School Building Authority meeting room listened as the board approved Stoneham High School along with 11 other school building projects. Smiles were enough to indicate that after five years of falling short, funds for a new high school were finally approved by the MSBA.

"I felt relief," said principal Donna Cargill. "I felt like finally we had an opportunity to start a process that we had been envisioning for quite some time.

"It was exciting news. It was a great process to go through each year. Working with MSBA has been wonderful but we've had two different superintendents work really hard on proposing what our needs are and sharing those needs and sharing how we believe we could move students to a different level in the future if our facility was different. So not having to do that again will be nice. We'll be able to move forward. It doesn't feel like groundhog day anymore."

Cargill arrived back at the high school Wednesday just in time for the afternoon announcements. A little after 12:45 p.m., the students heard the news.

"Students were excited. I think they were a little confused. I think we need to sequence the timing of everything once it's more clearly defined and what they can expect moving from year to year. That's going to take some time but once that's done I think it will be helpful to them."

Many of the current students already understand school construction projects after going through the building of the new middle school. They already know a new school isn't going to happen overnight.

"Some of the students here lived through the construction at the middle school so I think they understand that it's a multi-year process. So they know the parking lot isn't going to be torn up tomorrow or that we'll have a new wing by June. They understand that for a while they won't see an immediate change. It's all in the planning and preparation phases. Then we start to move step by step."

The high school staff didn't need the afternoon announcements. Through email and twitter, they had already received the good news.

"The staff was very excited. I just think it gave them hope," said Cargill. "They've been waiting a long time. They were excited and very positive about it."

Cargill celebrated Wednesday night by attending the school's winter concert. December has been good to Stoneham, starting with a Super Bowl title and including a new school and a new Town Administrator.

"It's a nice run," said Cargill. "It is nice to have the gift of this opportunity and the hope. It's the perfect season for it, which is how I hope to express it to parents when I communicate with them."

Photo of Stoneham officials at MSBA board meeting by Bob Holmes