William Welch Elementary School students in Peabody, Mass., were met with a new atrium and classrooms April 24 as the first phase of extensive construction was completed on the building.
The roughly $33 million project broke ground last June and is slated to be completed in November 2023. Once it is fully open, besides the classrooms, it will feature a new nurse's facility, administration offices and a new media center. In addition, other upgrades to the school will include Lego walls and subject-centered breakout rooms.
The improvement project also will replace Welch Elementary's heating system and many classroom windows that have become clouded with age.
"It's just absolutely beautiful," said Beverley Griffin Dunne, a member of the school committee and a major proponent of the project. All four of her grown children once attended Welch.
"I'm thinking of all the things that students can do in school and finally seeing things that we wanted 25 years ago," she told the Salem News. "There's just so many things here now we would never have ever dreamt of."
The new atrium is painted blue in honor of the Welch School Wildcats and is accented with pops of green and natural wood. New skylights let streams of sun wash over students as they walk through the front of the school, a site that is now forever altered for the families who call it home, Griffin Dunne said.
"I never realized until this project the only color in this building was from the materials that the teachers put on the walls and the drawings of the kids," she recalled. "They've brightened it up so much. It was always a very bright and happy place, but to see it now, I just cannot imagine how much fun it must be to teach and work and go to school in a place like this."
Excellent Team of Pros Renovating Welch Elementary
The building was originally constructed in 1972 and is currently being renovated with the backing of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which is reimbursing the city of Peabody approximately 66 percent of the project's cost.
The design-builder team is made up of architect DiNisco Design Inc., with offices in Boston, Dore + Whittier, the Newburyport-based project manager, and Boston's Consigli Construction, the construction manager.
"We have a great construction team that has done a [wonderful] job as far as being mindful of this being an existing building that is fully occupied with students while construction is going on," said Christina Dell Angelo, a project manager with Dore + Whittier.
Construction on new classrooms for students in Pre-K through first grade, in addition to the new front entrance and office spaces, wrapped up over spring break, with those students finally getting to learn in the new space beginning the last week of April.
The rest of the classrooms and the new media center will be completed over the summer as part of the project's second phase, while renovations to the gymnasium will be done this fall under Phase Three. Students will have gym classes outside on Welch's field and playground while that construction progresses, Dell Angelo told the Salem news source.
Fourth- and fifth-graders were dispersed to other schools throughout Peabody this school year while construction was being performed at Welch Elementary. Fourth graders will return to the building in the fall, while students in fifth grade will return the following year, according to Welch Principal Michelle Massa.
"We have a very resilient staff and a very resilient group of kids," she explained. "Our students are amazing and they're just very thankful for the new building that's coming."
Mayor Wants Neighborhood Schools to Be ‘Community Centers'
Peabody finally built a new middle school building in 2016 and is pushing for a new high school through the MSBA. The city also plans to start making improvements to Center Elementary School this summer as part of a larger project that will mean closing that building for the 2024-25 school year.
"Financially, you're not always able to build brand-new schools, so we look for opportunities to do significant improvements to buildings to extend [their] life cycles," said Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt.
He joined Superintendent Josh Vadala and other Peabody school officials for a tour of Welch Elementary on April 24. The renovations, he noted, will not only benefit students at Welch, but its surrounding neighborhood as well.
"I'm a big believer in neighborhood elementary schools," Bettencourt said in speaking with the News. "It's neighborhood schools where you get to know your neighbors, get to know the people in your community. This is going to be more than just an elementary school. This is going to be a real community center."
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