News
Wayland
Community
Connect
WaylandeNews
Wayland eNews provides news and information to Wayland residents. We welcome editorial exchange; present your views at our Discussion Forum!
To stay informed of news, events, and town deadlines around Wayland, sign up for our email newsletter
Our list is spam-free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Wayland High School Selected by MSBA for Pilot Assessment
On June 14th Dr. Gary Burton was notified by Joseph Buckley, Chief Engineer for the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), that a Facilities and Maintenance Assessment of Wayland High School will begin on June 20th. Wayland has been identified as one of 18 towns to participate in a pilot assessment. According to the MSBA, “As part of our new approach to prioritizing the many requests for funding which it has received, the MSBA will conduct a Facilities and Maintenance Assessment of the schools in your district as part of the evaluation process for the Statement of Interest submitted for Wayland High School.”
The MSBA will send a team of people who will begin by touring every school facility in town. They will then move to Wayland High School where they will work on examining the buildings, site, previous studies, maintenance records, and energy use. After assessing the information, the authority will determine whether Wayland High School meets the state's funding priorities through a rating system.
The notification of the assessment follows a visit by three MSBA officials to see first hand the conditions of overcrowding at Wayland High School. They were led on a tour by Principal Charlie Ruopp, Superintendent Gary Burton, and High School Building Committee Chairman Lea Anderson. MSBA Outreach Coordinator Matthew Donovan explained that many schools have cited overcrowding as an issue in their Statements of Interest. The MSBA is interested in comparing conditions across applicants for state funding.
Ruopp, Burton and Anderson spent an hour conducting a tour of the facility and highlighting the most crowded spaces. The MSBA officials said that they were there to see the sizes of classrooms and common spaces and to understand steps that the school system has taken to remediate overcrowding. In addition to showing the small classrooms, science labs, auditorium, lunch room, and locker rooms, Ruopp pointed out the modular science labs, the conversion of the staff dining room to student dining, and the conversion of the reference centers to classrooms or storage rooms, as only some of the evidence of overcrowding.
Anderson pointed out that the Wayland High School facility is overcrowded by MSBA standards - even for a school with much lower enrollment. She also cited changes in the educational program and participation rates since the sixties. Donovan remarked that Wayland is very well prepared to proceed after years of studying the facility.
The HSBC will hold its next meeting on Thursday, June 28th at 8:00 pm in the School Committee Conference Room in the Town Building. The community is welcome to attend.