Visioning Event For New High School Oct. 1

Revere Superintendent Dianne Kelly is inviting Revere residents to participate and share their ideas on how to guide the future Visioning Team as it sets sail on a historic course to bring a new high school to the city.

The ‘Visioning’ meeting will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the Revere High School cafeteria from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

“We are hoping to have a large turnout at this first visioning session which will shape the future work,” said Kelly. “We will be forming a smaller Visioning Team of about 50 people that will be responsible for actual reporting to Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) during the design and build process.”

Kelly said Revere Schools wants that smaller group of 50 to be representative of the entire city with members from all wards, parents of elementary-aged kids through high school-aged kids,  local business owners, teachers and even some students. 

“But this first meeting on Oct. 1 is about taking in ideas from all participants to guide the future work of the Visioning Team,” she said.

The Visioning Team, said Kelly, will really be the team that decides what programs should be included at a new high school.

“Should we have things like a biotechnology program or a culinary arts program or a hospitality program (at the new high school) for our students?” said Kelly. “(We need to ask) what will that instruction look like and how do we build classrooms that support the kind of instruction that we want to see? Also, what other considerations should be included in the design of this building so it is accessible to the community outside of school hours.”

Kelly said she anticipates Revere Schools will enter the feasibility period around February 2020.

“That’s really when we will start having discussions with the MSBA,” said Kelly. “We are almost a full two years away from entering the design phase so we want to have all the decisions made in those two years. We really want to scope out what it is this city wants included in a new high school.”

Kelly added that she hopes to brief the School Committee each month on the progress made trying to build a new high school here during her regular Superintendent’s Report.

Last year Revere Public Schools cleared a major hurdle during a MSBA board meeting. At that meeting the MSBA board voted to invite Revere and ten other school districts that filed Statements of Interest (SOI) this year to take part in the eligibility process that could ultimately lead to for grant money to build new high school here.

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