Wellesley States Interest in Schofield School Renovations

By the end of the summer, Wellesley may know whether to expect repairs to the Schofield School next year.

At last night's Board of Selectmen meeting, the School Committee came to present statements of interest they intend to send to the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) for an accelerated project at the Schofield School, and for two others at the Hunnewell and Hardy Schools.

Both boards voted in favor of submitting all three statements of interest. 

The Schofield project will address some air quality issues which have been raised in the past, with changes to the heating and ventilation systems, and windows on the docket. 

"We know there’s still more work to be done to address not just air quality but some learning environment issues there," explained School Superintendent David Lussier. 

He added that the accelerated process would allow them to "leapfrog" the MSBA's procurement process, which could allow the town to start construction in the summer of 2014. Should the town hear back by the end of the summer, the renovations could be an issue for the fall Special Town Meeting.

Officials said it would be like the process for updating the High School. 

For the Hardy and Hunnewell schools, there are a number of repairs which will need to be made. The process for those two repairs may be slower, no dates were mentioned for them.

The deadline for submitting these statements of interest is April 10. Before the documents can be submitted, they require approval from both the Board of Selectmen and School Committee, as well as minutes from the meetings of both.