School Building Committee Presents New Middle School's Plans

The School Building Committee updated the full School Committee and members of the public Thursday on the new middle school project.

Although the School Building Committee has been working in open session since it was formed in May 2010, Thursday’s meeting marked the first real meeting intended to educate the public on the specifics of the project, since the project’s schematic design was approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) in September.

“This is really exciting,” Jeanne Craigie, chairwoman of the School Building Committee and a School Committee member, said at Thursday’s meeting in the Stoneham High School library.

Public Awareness Campaign

Craigie added that in the coming months, the School Building Committee will be going around to different town boards and holding their own meetings to raise public awareness about the project.

If everything goes according to the committee’s plans, the project would be up for approval for state funding in January, go before Stoneham Town Meeting on Feb. 7 and then construction would begin the following winter, to be completed by August 2014, or one year and eight months later.

MSBA’s Role

The MSBA, the state body that has overseen school building construction since its inception by the Legislature in 2004, approved the committee’s preferred schematic design (the committee’s top choice of the nine options that were seriously considered), which has the new middle school being connected to Central School (80,000 square feet of new construction) and educating the district’s 775 students in grades 5-8. The schematic design, which was handed out at Thursday’s meeting, outlines the overall project, such as the number of classrooms, certain amenities and square feet, but it does not get into the “nitty-gritty” design elements. Those will come later.

The MSBA must approve a project in order for it to qualify for state reimbursements. In doing so, it can also place stipulations on a project. For instance, Stoneham’s schematic design was approved on the conditions that the new middle school would not have an auditorium, team locker rooms or a weight room and under the understanding that the district would go from four K-5 elementary schools to three K-4 elementary schools.

With Central School out of the equation, Superintendent Les Olson said, most likely, the other elementary school districts would just expand – instead of the district switching to a model that splits the schools by grade level (K-2 at one school, etc.). Elementary school class sizes would not increase, he said.

Estimated to Cost $40 Million

The state is expected to reimburse 55 percent of the estimated $40 million project. Therefore, the state would supply roughly $22 million, with Stoneham taxpayers picking up the rest of the tab.

Craigie added that the town would experience savings if the project goes through, as the district will have one less school. She also said there has been talk of having the district sell off a portion of the land (to the west of the property, where the current middle school is located) to help subsidize the project.

Educational Benefits

With the new middle school and restructuring of grades, Craigie said the district hopes it would be able to bring back “teams” at the middle school level and more enrichment programs, such as art, music, physical education and media/technology, at all grade levels, K-8.

Construction Challenges

During construction, middle school students would not have access to a gymnasium, according to the plans, and there would also be limited on site parking.

State Rep. Jason Lewis

State Rep. Jason Lewis attended the meeting and thanked the School Building Committee members for their hard work. He called the plans, “creative, innovative and efficient,” and said he strongly supports the project.