Officials, Parents Discuss New Wyman/Hurld School

The Communications & Curriculum Sub Committee and the Wyman PTO met Wednesday to talk about a new Wyman/Hurld Elementary School project.

Although the project is in it's early stages, CCSC Chairman Denis Russell urged the Wyman PTO to get the ball moving now on this city project, tentatively scheduled for a 2016-17 completion.

“These are difficult, yet exciting times. The was the first school to get an overhaul, and there are a lot of people vying for state and federal money now,” said Russell to the Wyman PTO. “It's to everyone's advantage in this to get moving quickly.”

Russell explained that the best intentions for the Wyman PTO are to join forces with the Hurld PTO,  in order to make more of a clatter and get the slow wheels of local government moving in their direction.

The impetus for this merging of the two schools comes from the fact that the and Schools are old facilities, both structurally, and in terms of latest technology advances in the classroom. It is the CCSC's and the Wyman PTO's feeling that this could lead to a disadvantage for future students.

Before the meeting, Russell and fellow CCSC Member Margarette Masotta were led by Wyman Principal Paul McQuilkin through the Wyman to assess its current state, something they will doing at the Hurld School in the upcoming weeks.

Russell and Masotta thought the school to be in overall good shape structurally, Russell applauding the janitorial staff personally for the cleanliness of such an old building. However, a few minor details were raised by the CCSC:

• There was some graffiti on the back of the school that should be removed.
• The old heating system, if damaged, will be hard to fix because the parts used are out-dated.
• The gymnasium floor is quite old and cracking, and the gym sound system is missing two speakers.
• There was a concern expressed over dim lighting in the art gallery wing.
• Concern about missing rails in a cross-section of the stairwell, and also a concern that the stairwell railings were too low.

The CCSC was also slightly concerned there were no computers in the library and that the 50 or so Pentium 3's are 6 to 8 years out-dated.

“These are old, but they'll work for grammar school needs,” said Russell. However, Russell expressed that for the 212 students at the Wyman, the ratio of one computer for every four students was “strong.”

Overall, the CCSC was impressed with the structural integrity and flood mitigation of the old building, citing the only minor problem was less than an inch of rain water in the boiler room that sometimes occurs during major storms. Russell recommended the possibility of installing a sub-pump to quickly correct this on rainy days.

The CCSC later explained their findings to the PTO, being clear that the school was in ample working order, yet, expressed that now is the time to think about the future and a way to combined the old Wyman and Hurld Schools into one, modern facility.