Here’s what qualifies as breaking news in Swampscott these days: School superintendent supports building a new school.
That’s the takeaway from Wednesday’s Page 1 story, in which Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis was forced to defend herself from complaints allegedly filed with the State Ethics Commission over an email she sent to district families encouraging them to visit a web site — swampscottsaysyes.org — which lays out the case for a new K-4 elementary school.
The new school would be built at a cost of approximately $98 million, of which the town would be responsible for about 65 percent, with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) funding the balance.
There is no shortage of naysayers — or should we say no-sayers — in the town, and everyone is certainly entitled to an opinion. There are those who may be unwilling to spend the $1 per day that the new school would cost the median, single-family taxpayer. And there is always the NIMBY factor, with some residents of the Stanley School area, where the new school would be constructed, not wanting to disturb their apparently bucolic neighborhood.
How could any right-minded individual, however, not expect Angelakis to be 100 percent in favor of a project for which she has been advocating since Town Meeting voted down a similar proposal in 2014? A project that, if it once again fails to garner enough support, kicks the town to the back of the MSBA-funding bus, if not to the curb.
Could Angelakis have worded her email so that it was more informative than an endorsement? Certainly, and she has to be well aware of that by now. We suspect the superintendent has gained an education in just how far some are willing to go to defeat this project, making it critical for those who are in favor of the new school to offer as much accurate information as possible.
In its last evaluation of the superintendent, the Swampscott School Committee gave Angelakis an overall “exemplary” evaluation, based on her demonstrated ability to guide the district and serve as the leading advocate for students and families. We maintain that her zeal for a project she deems critical in order for the district to provide 21st-century learning opportunities is exactly why she is considered an exemplary leader and one whose ethics have never been in question.
