Council votes to hear more information on high school project in subcommittee

By Adam Swift

The City Council will take up further discussion of the future of a new Revere High School at its existing site at its next meeting of its ways and means subcommittee.

As of Monday night, the date of that meeting had yet to be set, although it is expected to take place prior to the next regular council meeting scheduled for Monday, April 24.

At the most recent council meeting this past Monday, April 3, administration officials were ready to make a presentation to update the council on the status of the high school building project, but Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto moved that the request from Mayor Brian Arrigo be moved to subcommittee without further discussion.

“This communication runs afoul of our rules of order,” said Zambuto. “It is also a violation of the open meeting law and it does not have sufficient backup. I request that it goes to committee without debate.”

Arrigo had sent a letter to the council, along with an attached presentation on the status and timetable for moving back to the current high school site, requesting that it be discussed Monday night. At the end of February, the council voted against moving forward with schematic design plans for a new high school on the Wonderland property.

Arrigo’s aide, Gianni Hill, said he did not see how the mayor’s request violated the open meeting law.

“You all received the communication from the mayor and it also said to please see the attached presentation, which was included,” said Hill. “That is what our project team is here to present you all with today, to provide that information on what the updated timeline looks like for the existing site, what that entails for the MSBA (the state’s school building authority). We owe them a response by their board meeting at the end of this month.”

Hill said the high school project building team was seeking to provide the information so it could get feedback from the council.

“The only motion that would be in order for the high school would be the bonding ability for the feasibility study at the existing site,” said Zambuto. “All I want is the backup for what’s required now that we are moving forward with the existing site, and that is the direction of the money to fund the study.”

Hill said he did not believe the issue should go to the ways and means subcommittee at this time, because a request for an appropriation is not currently on the table.

“We are very close, but we still need approval from the Revere School Committee for the existing site in order to actually move forward with funding for the feasibility study,” said Hill. “It would be a bit premature to ask the City Council to appropriate $2.3 million for the feasibility study without having the approval of the School Committee.”

Councillor-at-Large said he didn’t understand why the council was objecting to finding out more information about the status of the project.

“They said it was (about) the existing site,” Silvestri said. “Why would we object to hearing new information to move this process forward? We’ve been delaying and delaying and it just seems like more of a delay to me.”

The council voted 6-4 to move the issue to the ways and means subcommittee. Silvestri, Ira Novoselsky, Steven Morabito, and Council President Patrick Keefe voted against moving it to subcommittee. Ward 5 Councillor John Powers was absent from Monday night’s meeting.