SAUGUS — Northeast Metro Tech is on its way to building a new school.
The Wakefield building, which is more than 50 years old, requires capital and maintenance improvements.
The school has been invited to participate in a new feasibility study for the project by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), a quasi-independent government authority that helps fund the construction of school buildings, to explore solutions for its problems.
A project manager and designer will be chosen to study the building. Once that’s completed, the school will apply for the agency’s building project reimbursement grant program.
The MSBA will reimburse Northeast for 71.84 percent of the costs associated with the new building. The remainder will be paid by the cities and towns in the school district and mortgaged over a 30-year period. The burden will be distributed based on enrollment from each community the previous year.
The school has about 1,250 students from Saugus, Chelsea, Malden, Melrose, North Reading, Reading, Revere, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winchester, Winthrop and Woburn. After a vocational exploratory program in grade nine, students select from 17 programs. Students select a career path that leads to a certificate of vocational proficiency and a high school diploma.
Of the 292 students who graduated from the school last year, 55 were from Saugus. This was more than in any of the other communities. The school typically has a waiting list of 400 to 800 students, said school committee chairwoman Deborah Davis.
“This new school will allow us to keep turning out the best vocational students in the state, and I dare say, the country,” she said.
The district first considered the project when an analysis of the building called for a complete replacement of all mechanical systems and electrical systems, along with a full code and regulations update, said Superintendent David DiBarri.
According to the study, the building would also require modernization to comply with state regulations for size and program demands, and more special education accommodations and better designated public meeting areas.
“We are thrilled to have been invited by the MSBA into the feasibility study phase for our building project,” said DiBarri. “Our hope is that we will be able to construct a new building that will better meet the demands of 21st century learning.”
This is the second school serving Saugus residents involved in a major building project with the MSBA. Residents overwhelmingly supported a debt exclusion in June, approving $160 million for a grades six through 12 middle-high school. The MSBA will reimburse the town 57.7 percent of eligible approved project costs, or about $64 million.
Separate from the MSBA program, a $25 million district-wide master plan will restructure the district to include an upper elementary building for pre-K through grade two at the Veterans Memorial Elementary School.
