On November 17th, Wayland residents will be asked to vote on the following question: “Shall the Town of Wayland be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition two-and-one-half, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued in order to expand and modernize Wayland High School?”
On the next night, November 18th, Wayland residents will again be asked to vote: “Shall the Town appropriate the sum of $70.8 million dollars to be expended under the direction of the High School Building Committee for design, construction and other related expenses to expand and modernize Wayland High School?”
We urge every resident to step up and vote “Yes.”
The shortcomings of the facility at Wayland High School have been the subject of discussion, study and debate for many years now, by many committees. Our committee has been working on the problem for nearly six years, through the long suspension of the state’s funding program for school building.
That program has at last come back, retooled and with funding. We are delighted to have obtained the state’s approval for our proposed project, and their grant award of $25 million. This reduces Wayland’s share of the remaining project phases to $45.1 million.
We understand that this represents a burdensome tax increase for many Wayland residents, and we did not arrive at that figure without a lot of hard work and agonizing debate. The current facility is compromising the quality of our educational program, and the risk to the health and safety of students and staff increases every year. We don’t have the option of doing nothing.
We studied the alternatives carefully. After the 2005 Design proposal did not pass, we added new members to our committee and took a fresh look at the problem. This spring, we conducted an Educational Planning and Visioning effort that challenged assumptions about education in the next century, and laid out a concept for spaces that is flexible and robust enough for change. We did not accept our educators’ requests without question. We trimmed and cut and compared their requests to other schools and to the state guidelines.
Next, we looked to our architects, HMFH Associates, and our owner’s project manager, KV Associates, to determine how to build the vision in the most efficient, cost effective manner. Again, we did not accept their recommendations without challenge. We carefully scrutinized their estimating assumptions and reduced the budget significantly below their initial figures.
The Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) also took a close and careful close look at the project proposal, and compared it to other high school projects they are funding. On September 30, they voted their support of the project: $25 million. Wayland has 120 days to approve the project and accept the grant. If the vote does not pass, the money is gone. State aid for a future, alternative project will be at a lower rate, and behind 100 other projects already in the pipeline.
Please join us in voting “yes” for this project. We are unanimously confident that the result will deliver the educational results that Wayland has come to expect, at the lowest possible cost.
For more information, please plan on attending the public forum on Thursday, November 12th at 7:30 pm in the large hearing room in the Town Building. If you would like to walk through the buildings, a tour of Wayland High School is scheduled for Sunday, November 15th at 2:00 pm starting in front of the main entrance to the administration building. We also welcome you to contact any of us or visit our website at www.waylandschoolcommittee.org/whs/hsbc/Web_Pages/Index.html.
The Wayland High School Building Committee
Lea Anderson
Josh Bekenstein
Dianne Bladon
Brian Chase
Jim Howard
Fred Knight
David Lash
Mary Lentz
Joe Lewin
Cindy Lombardo
Eric Sheffels
Jennifer Steel
