State funding moves closer for Higgins
Salem News
By Stacie N. Galang
Staff Writer
PEABODY — Higgins Middle School was one of 11 schools moved forward in the state's school building process last week.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority Board, which oversees school capital projects, voted Friday to move the renovation project one step closer to funding.
"It's a positive step forward," Mayor Michael Bonfanti said yesterday. "We're committed to improving the Higgins School facility."
Matt Donovan, the building authority's chief of staff, agreed with the mayor that the board's decision makes the Peabody project a little more likely to receive state assistance.
"There's still some work that needs to be done," he said.
The state received 423 submissions for funding from 162 different school districts, according to a press release from the building authority. Projects that move forward in the grant process "represent the neediest of the schools," the release said.
In November, city officials learned Peabody did not make the first cut but continued to make their case to the state. Their persistence paid off.
The mayor said the groundwork for last week's status change had been laid months earlier when Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry of Peabody and city officials, including Bonfanti and Superintendent C. Milton Burnett, met with authority Executive Director Katherine Craven and her staff.
Bonfanti said city officials argued that rehabilitating the middle school, the largest in the state, would save the state and taxpayers millions of dollars. He said they sold state officials on the city's success overhauling Peabody High rather than razing it and erecting a new one.
"They obviously liked what we had to say," the mayor said.
He said state officials were concerned about the vocational portion of the campus but divided it from the project.
The mayor said some critics would object to renovating the aging middle school instead of building a new facility. He reasoned that the improvements were more affordable for the city in the long run.
"We're not going to please everybody," he said. "In today's world, we have to think differently, and we can't afford (a new school)."
Sean Fitzgerald, Bonfanti's chief of staff, said the mayor would convene an informal group of key players in coming weeks to plan the city's next move. Fitzgerald helped prepare and submit the grant to the state.
The city will eventually need to hire a project manager to prepare a feasibility study. The state will accept new rounds of grants through Nov. 15, according to its Web site.
