Crews Begin To Evaluate Waltham High School Project Site

WALTHAM, MA — There's about to be a bit of activity on the Stigmatine property as crews start evaluating and mapping it to transform it into a high school. If you noticed anyone already walking around the property this week, field mapping started on April 8 and was expected to last only about three days. Next week crews will begin testing storm water infiltration and testing for Radon, which they said will take about two weeks to finish. The week of April 22 crews will begin to bore into the ground and analyze the ground.

In February, the Massachusetts School Building Authority gave the green light to Waltham to begin the Schematic Design phase of the $381 million high school building project across the street at the Stigmatine property.

The project has been long in coming - and not without critics.

For years, the superintendent's office has been beating the drum about a need for an upgrade to the high school in order to accommodate increased enrollment and deteriorating building conditions.

The current high school building is 449,700 square feet and was built in 1968, with additions made in 1998 and 2002. Between mechanical, electrical and window issues at the school as enrollment has increased, the district estimated it would cost some $135.6 million to renovate the current building without making any accommodations for larger enrollments. The district estimated that in order to renovate the building with additions, while students were still using the building it would cost about $366 million.

After back and forth between the school district and the city council about a site, the MSBA imposed a timeline for the city if it wanted to get money from the state to help pay for any of it.

The MSBA partners with communities to help financially support the design and construction of projects.

The City Council and the School Committee voted to go with the School Department's preferred location at the Stigmatine property, because of the size.

The School Department likes that it would allow for a campus school that would work well with the new education plan. Building on that site would also allow the district to use the old high school building for other programs if it needed to.

When it became clear that the religious order that owned the property was not interested in selling it to the city, a number of city council members had at first voted against taking the property. With a deadline looming eventually, last year the city council voted to take the site by eminent domain.

Previously on Patch:

• Stigmatines To Waltham: No Surveyors On Our Property (Aug. 2018)
• Residents Camp Out At Waltham City Hall For Latest On High School ( June 2018)
• Waltham High School At Stigmatine?: Possibility Edges Forward(May 2018)
• Waltham Residents Rally At City Hall With Message About Stigmatine (Feb. 28, 2018)
• Waltham Mayor Lays Out Case For Stigmatine (Sept. 28, 2017)
• City Council Denies Eminent Domain Taking of Stigmatine (May 23, 2017)
• Stigmatine Official: 'Our Property Is Not For Sale' (May 18, 2017)
• Mayor McCarthy: Why I Didn't Speak At The Stigmatine Meeting(May 17, 2017)
• Waltham City Council Committee Rejects Eminent Domain (May 15, 2017)
• Waltham Mayor Requests Eminent Domain of Stigmatine (Feb. 2017)
• Community Meetings On New High School At Stigmatines Begin
• State Board Gives Green Light To Waltham High School Next

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).