Construction began in late June to add a new wing onto Wilmington Middle School in Massachusetts to accommodate the students and faculty who were displaced by the closure of the school system's Wildwood Early Childhood Center last winter.
Wildwood students are currently split between Woburn Street Elementary School, Shawsheen Elementary School and the West Intermediate School due to the closure of the aging building in late 2022 after an oil leak was discovered.
Wilmington Public Schools Superintendent Glenn Brand told the district's school committee during its June 28 meeting that construction to create age-appropriate facilities for preschool through second grade students had begun the week before at the middle school in the hopes of having the section of the building ready to host those grades this fall.
The work to build the new Wildwood Early Childhood Center is expected to be completed on the new space by Aug. 25, but Brand acknowledged the possibility of construction delays, and the chance that the work is not completely finished by the first day of school.
"In the worst-case scenario, if that restroom facility is not ready to go at the very beginning of school, we can come up with an interim plan to support the Wildwood student use of restroom facilities in the middle school," Brand told the Lowell Sun, adding that he felt confident that this would not end up being an issue.
In addition to the restroom facilities, construction also is being done to make an age-appropriate playground outside of the school for the Wildwood youngsters.
Costs for New Addition Approved by Town, Voters
The renovations to fit some of the Wildwood students in the middle school are being funded in part by the town of Wilmington after it was approved at a municipal meeting on April 29.
Local voters also gave their stamp of approval to an article appropriating $545,359 to the renovation project, which was about half of the originally estimated cost, according to the Sun.
The drop in price was due to the fact outside funding sources had been found for the playground and because plumbing hookups had been located in the middle school building that made it cheaper to build the new bathrooms, the newspaper reported July 6.
School and town officials also are exploring potential projects that would consolidate Wilmington's schools into fewer buildings and possibly shift some grades into different buildings to save on the mounting costs of maintaining all of the existing aged buildings.
Wilmington to Soon Have Busy Multi-School Campus
Once the Early Childhood Center students move into the middle school, the Wilmington Public Schools campus on Carter Lane will be host to four learning communities in three buildings: the other three are the Boutwell Early Childhood Center, Wilmington Middle School and West Intermediate School. As a result, the area will be densely populated during school days, and Brand said that parking will be a logistical challenge to be addressed.
"We are really going to be straining the parking availability there on the Carter Lane campus, so we are going to have to be very mindful of this moving forward during this interim time period — mindful in the sense of making sure we are not having more than one event going on that brings in a larger crowd during the school day," he said in his remarks to the Lowell Sun. "It is going to be tight on that campus."
Brand also noted that at the request of Wilmington Public Schools Committee member Jay Samaha, all four schools will have staggered start times so as to not overwhelm the area with traffic by having students and faculty arriving at once on a single street.
With these plans, and the Wildwood Early Childhood Center having to operate out of a new space this fall, he asked for patience in the beginning days of the upcoming fall semester.
"I think we can also all appreciate that the first couple of weeks of the school year will be a little bumpy," he said. "We are undertaking, obviously, a fairly massive change to our operations with the start time change. I am sure that will be felt on the campus at Carter Lane."
Today's top stories
