PEABODY — Center School Elementary families gathered at the Higgins Middle School auditorium to learn the status of the renovation project.
Mayor Ted Bettencourt recently confirmed the school will reopen in the fall as scheduled, something that was up in the air due to concerns with delayed shipments of materials which have now been alleviated.
“The reason I made the decision a few weeks ago was because of the electrical panel, which is front and center to this whole project,” Bettencourt said. “Now we have that being delivered at a much earlier time. I do not see or anticipate any way that the school doesn’t open. I feel really good about that.”
Wednesday night’s meeting was the first public forum dedicated to answering questions about the project since the start of the school year and is part of the city’s effort to keep the process transparent.
Results from a survey sent to Center School parents in December were presented, with 93% agreeing the transition to their new assigned school was positive, 95% agreeing the communication at the new school is clear and informative, 83% agreeing the transportation to the new school is helpful, and 95% agreeing the school year has been positive.
“I really want to highlight this and say thank you to our parents. It was not easy for you to move your child to another school,” Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala said. “We said at the last meeting, ‘Our kids are resilient, but they’re also going to respond to how we are.’ The fact that 95% of them are having a good year is a credit to you and to all of them.”
Bettencourt and Vadala led the conversation with the public, which included concerns about which school their kids will go to next year, frustrations with the integrated preschool program currently at the Center School annex, and questions about redistricting.
Vadala explained how new districts for neighborhoods currently assigned to the Center School may need to be reassigned, and a redistricting committee is currently looking at different possibilities.
Emphasized throughout the meeting was how the district would work with families to get their kids into the school they prefer, with all children who were previously at Center School having a guaranteed spot if they want to return.
Center School families will also have first priority for open enrollment, but transportation will not be provided. This means that if they choose a school that isn’t the Center School and isn’t their assigned school, individual bussing won’t be available.
“We are trying to make individual phone calls, we’re trying to be proactive to talk to people to get them thinking,” Vadala said. “We’re not making any decisions tonight, tomorrow. This is going to be a very thoughtful decision for each of your families.”
Frustrations over the preschool’s move from the John E. McCarthy Elementary School to the Center School were voiced throughout the forum by multiple audience members.
Audience members expressed their wish to move their preschoolers back to the McCarthy School and questioned why it was moved to the Center School.
Vadala explained how the Center School is centrally located in the city and the annex has allowed for a unified preschool program in one space.
“What is your plan going forward for the rest of the schools in the district so that this doesn’t happen again?” a parent of children in the preschool said. “What is the plan so these communities don’t get broken up and we have to decide where to go?”
“Once I became mayor, I built [Higgins Middle School]. The next building we felt needed to be addressed was the Welch School. Then we went to the high school next.” Bettencourt responded. “I can’t account for what happened before me. We’re systematically going through each school… in the last 14 years, we’ve been making real change and real difference.”
Another parent reported how her foster child with cerebral palsy in the preschool has had multiple illnesses at the school and requested an independent investigation of the air quality in the building should be completed, something Bettencourt said is a good idea.
Leakage in the annex roof caused by ice dams around skylights bending the flashing on the roof, something that has since been fixed, aggravated concerns about the condition of the building.
“The Center School is safe. We would not put students in places that are not safe.” Vadala said. “We have a lot more information up on the website now; there was a full report from the health department… We want you to feel safe, and we want your kids to feel safe.”
Others conveyed frustration with transparency and a lack of communication throughout the project’s development.
“You’re 100% right, I’m going to take personal responsibility here. When the old facilities director left, and we brought in somebody new, we did fall behind a bit,” Bettencourt said. “I should have let people know, and I’m sorry about that.”
For the future, Bettencourt plans to release a full report on the project’s progress thus far, its timeframe, and the budget in the coming weeks.
“We wanted to have this meeting because we wanted to hear from you. Some of it has been tough to hear; these are difficult positions for us to be in to try to make the right decision; we always try to,” Bettencourt said. “But, we wanted to hear from all of you to try to figure out what we need to be focusing on in the next few weeks here.”
