School board: Curley land should be kept as future school site

SAUGUS – The School Committee issued their official statement on the Curley property, remaining firm that the land should be used for a proposed school site.The committee readied a statement to send to Town Meeting members in preparation for the Special Town Meeting set for Monday, Jan. 27, where a warrant article will ask members whether they want the 63.3 acre property off Walnut Street to be given to the Cemetery Commission to be converted into a cemetery. At their meeting Thursday, the committee voted unanimously to keep the language drafted in the statement with the addition of a last line added by Chairman Wendy Reed.According to the statement, the property was taken in 1970 for municipal and/or school use, with the land survey designating 25 acres to be used for a proposed school site, and that property has since “been a part of all school capital plans until then.”?It would not be prudent for the town to allow a permanent cemetery use without first studying and planning for future school needs especially since the town does not own another lot that could accommodate a new school,” reads the statement.Reed added the last line, “The School Committee adopted a Master Plan for schools in 1998 that was revised in 2002 to address school space/need issues. A recent attempt to update that plan was not funded by Town Meeting.”In the town election Nov. 5, residents expressed an interest in converting the property into a cemetery by a slim 51.11 percent majority on a non-binding ballot question. The Board of Selectmen voted to put it on the first Town Meeting warrant after that election, because, as Selectman Maureen Dever said, “The voters did speak.”The cemetery proposal was also voted down at a previous Town Meeting vote in March 2011.Cemetery Commission Director Dennis Gould said that if the article does not pass at Town Meeting, he will petition to get a binding question on the next election ballot.