RTA Calls for Vote on High School Site Study

By Adam Swift

The Revere Teachers Association is requesting that the City Council take action to approve funding to study the feasibility of building a new high school on the site of the current school at its April 24 meeting.

In February, the council voted against moving forward with submitting schematic plans to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a new school at the Wonderland site.

Councilor-at-Large Gerry Visconti said it is likely there will be a communication at the April 24 meeting from the city asking for the council to approve the funding for schematic design at the current high school site.

At its April 3 meeting, the City Council voted to take up discussion of the future of the new high school on the current site at a future ways and means subcommittee meeting. But Visconti said there hasn’t been a ways and means committee meeting called, since the Wonderland site is off the table and the School Committee has already voted to move back to exploring the current high school site as the location for a new school.

The statement issued by the RTA on April 17 urges the council to waste no time in voting to approve the money for the school site study.

“The council has an obligation to the community to keep a high-school project moving forward,” the RTA statement reads. “Conducting a feasibility study of building a new school at the existing Revere High site is imperative for the city to still be eligible for funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. 

“Securing significant funding from the state to address this urgent municipal need is the most prudent way to pay for the project.”

The RTA statement goes on to say that a new high school is necessary regardless of how it gets paid for.

During the February vote against the Wonderland site, several councillors stated they were concerned about the escalating costs of the project and a lack of a concrete plan on how the city could afford to pay for a new high school.

“(T)he construction of a new high school must be viewed as part of a larger plan to meet the needs of students now and into the future,” the RTA stated. “Overcrowding is a problem in our other schools. Staffing and programs will need to keep pace with our students’ needs.

“In deciding that the Wonderland site was not suitable to use for a new Revere High School, councilors indicated that they believe the site may have better strategic uses,” the RTA statement continued. “The Revere Teachers Association expects the City Council to apply the same type of long-term strategic thinking when it comes to supporting public education in our city.”

At the April 3 council meeting, mayoral aide Gianni Hill estimated the study for the current site would cost about $2.3 million.

However, incoming Acting Mayor Patrick Keefe said he is concerned about spending more than $2 million when he still believes Wonderland is the preferable site for a new high school.

“As a City Councilor and member of the School Building Committee, I have made it clear that building a new high school is the top priority for the future of our city,” Keefe said. “There was a diligent process that took place to select the best possible site for a new high school, and Wonderland is the only viable site that takes into consideration the City’s imminent need for a new middle school in the coming years as well. The neighborhood surrounding the current site has been strongly opposed to a new high school project with over five years of intensely phased construction and disturbance in the neighborhood. I am concerned about spending another $2.3 million of taxpayer money to repeat the feasibility study and end up in a similar predicament in several months with increased construction costs.

“However, I do believe it is important to consider the current site if that is the will of the City Council and School Committee, and I will not be an obstruction to the process.”