WILMINGTON, MA – The Town of Wilmington has established a Facility Master Plan Committee to establish a long-term strategy for investing in, expanding, decommissioning and rebuilding municipal buildings.
The town’s efforts are being assisted by a professional team of facility planners, architects, engineers and cost estimators from The Cecil Group, a Boston-based planning firm.
The Wilmington School Committee met with the representatives from the firm, including founder Steven Cecil, at its meeting last week.
Prior to meeting with the Committee, the Cecil Group went through each of the district’s six lower schools with architects and engineers to conduct a benchmark analysis against the state’s current building standards for schools. The team also went room-by-room with each principal to better understand the school’s programmatic needs.
The planners determined that space is tight in each school and, based on a close examination of the town’s growth rate and school enrollment projections, the student population is likely to remain relatively steady in both the near term and long term. Cecil also stressed that the schools were “aged” and several were not in “good contemporary conditions.”
Cecil presented the School Committee with 8 potential options for upgrading the school facilities in Wilmington, potentially over the next 10-20 years, asking Committee members to select the 2 or 3 options they most prefer. Cecil said they put “everything on the table,” aside from the High School and Middle School.
The size of the schools was a key consideration for Cecil when creating the options.
“All of Wilmington’s [6 lower] schools are below scale of what we’d plan today… We’re looking for a sweet spot of 400-600 student per school, where a massive amount of efficiencies would be realized,” said Cecil, pointing to savings in utilities and the consolidation of large spaces like gymnasiums and cafeterias.
Decreasing the number of transitions students must make to new schools was also a factor.
“Wilmington students currently undergo a lot of movement and a lot of changes – after Kindergarten, after Grade 3 and after Grade 5,” said Cecil. “Educational research says transition isn’t great for students and have several negative effects on them.”
According to Cecil, if the district were starting from scratch, it would want larger school buildings and fewer transitions, based on well-established educational research and theories, plus common sense logic.
Cecil also stressed the importance of each school’s geographic location and recognized sensitivity around the “neighborhood identity” associated with each school.
The 8 options presented were:
Option 1 calls for just cosmetic improvements to all six lower existing schools.
Option 2 calls for three PreK-Grade 5 schools. In this scenario, the Boutwell, Wildwood, Woburn Street, and West would close. A new PreK-Grade 5 school would be built on the Wildwood site. The Shawheen and North would receive major additions and become PreK-Grade 5 schools.
Option 3 calls for four PreK-Grade 5 schools. In this scenario, Boutwell, Wildwood, and Woburn Street would close. A new preK-Grade 5 school would be built on Wildwood site. The North and West would receive major additions and become PreK-Grade 5 schools. The Shawsheen would receive a renovation and minor addition and become a PreK-Grade 5 school.
Option 4 calls for two Grades 1-5 schools, while improving the 2 existing PreK-K early childhood centers. In this scenario, the Shawsheen and North would close. The Woburn Street and West would receive major additions and become Grade 1-5 schools.
Option 5 calls for three Grades 1-5 schools, while improving the 2 existing PreK-K early childhood centers. In this scenario, the West would close. The Shawsheen and North would receive additions and become Grade 1-5 schools. The Woburn Street would receive a renovation and minor addition, and become a Grade 1-5 school.
Option 6 calls for three Grades 1-5 schools, while creating one PreK-K early childhood center. In this scenario, the Boutwell and Wildwood would close. The Shawsheen, North and West would receive additions and become Grade 1-5 schools. The Woburn Street would receive renovations and become the early childhood center for PreK & K students.
Option 7 calls for renovations and/or additions at all 6 lower existing schools to meet current education standards.
Option 8 calls for three K-Grade 5 schools, with one early childhood center just for PreK. In this scenario, the Boutwell, Wildwood, and Woburn Street would close. A new K-Grade 5 school would be built on the Wildwood site. The North and West would receive major additions and become K-Grade 5 schools. The Shawsheen would be repurposed to an early childhood center for PreK students.
School Superintendent Mary DeLai supported consolidating the number of PreK-Grade 5 schools to reach the 400-600 student “sweet spot,” which she argued will allow for greater operational efficiencies, an increase in cross-grade level collaboration, and an overall better educational program.
DeLai also wished to minimize student transitions and stressed that having two early childhood centers “doesn’t make a lot of sense.” As a result, DeLai signaled support for Options 2, 3, 6 and 8.
School Committee member Ginny Bonish agreed with DeLai that little long-term investment should be made in the Boutwell and Wildwood buildings. Bonish said she’d prefer Option 8 (one PreK and three K-Grade 5 schools).
School Committee Chair Julie Broussard shared the sentiments of DeLai and Bonish, saying she preferred Option 6 (one PreK/K school and three Grade 1-5 schools).
No formal vote was taken and a consensus wasn’t clearly formed among all committee members, but the Cecil Group representatives noted this was just beginning of the conversation and additional comments were welcome over the coming weeks.
“Let us know what’s good for the town and its identity, and what’s good for its educational structure, and then we’ll take care of the details,” said Cecil.
“I’d love to see all the school needs addressed in the next 10 years, but I realize there are other community needs,” Superintendent DeLai cautioned the Committee. “I don’t know if I’ll be here to see these facilities built, but I hope I can plant the seeds.”
Watch the School Committee meeting, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, below. Discussion on the Facility Master Plan begins at the 42-minute mark and lasts about 90 minutes:
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