Waltham High School Project Edges Forward, Plan Heads To Council

WALTHAM, MA — The city took another step toward building a new high school on the Stigmatine property this week. On July 1, the school committee and the school building community approved the Schematic Design to be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority with a total budget of $377 million. The city is expected to have to pay for about $262 million of that, after an MSBA grant.

"Happy to see it moving forward," said Mayor Jeannette McCarthy in an email to Patch.

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 an upgrade in education plan 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. The current state of the high school falls below standards, and raises the prospect that the city could lose accreditation of its high school over the next few years.

"This is an exciting opportunity," former School Superintendent Drew Echelson told Patch regarding the project previously." The new opportunities that will be provided to students as a result of this building, I think, are really going to be on par with the opportunities available to students in some of the stronger systems in the Commonwealth."

The total budget was reported to be $377,219,720, although the city is planning to lower that number by about $4.5 million or by as much as $5.25 million. The MSBA, which helps schools pay for building projects via grant money, is expected to grant Waltham $114,761,278 - a little more than 30 percent of the total cost.

That still leaves about $262,458,442 for the city - ie, taxpayers- to pay, plus however much money in potential interest, should the project be funded through installments via a bond over multiple years.

The Waltham City Council will need to approve the whole project before the MSBA meets August 28 to fund the nearly $118 million grant.

The 7 1 19 Schematic Design Presentation outlines possible ways to save money on the project, including letting there be a bit of an incline at the school so as not to have to blast so much rock. Another way to save funds is not to build tennis courts, the proposal notes:

Check out more school documents.

After back and forth between the school district and the city council about where to build or rebuild a high school that would meet standards, the MSBA, which helps pay for school building projects, imposed a timeline for the city if it wanted to get money from the state to help pay for any of it.

The City Council and the School Committee voted to go with the School Department's preferred location at the Stigmatine property, in large part because of the size of the property - it's 43 acres. The city-owned Fernald property was a strong contender but fell out as an option once environmental issues became clear. >> Read more about recent environmental issues there: Oil Spill on Fernald Highlights Environmental Issues

When it became clear that the religious order that owned the property on Lexington Street was not interested in selling it to the city, a number of city council members at first voted against taking the property. With a deadline looming last year the city council reversed course and voted to take the Stigmatine property by eminent domain.

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. Then, in April the school began to survey the property, after going to court to get a judge to allow it. In May, a judge ordered the handful of residents of the property to move by the end of June.

Previously:

Stigmatines Must Move By June 30 For Waltham High School:

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).