By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD – The School Department will end Fiscal 2023 with a $400,635 surplus, with plans to return that money to the town. “This is what we told the town we’d do,” School Business Administrator Christine Bufagna said at the School Committee meeting Tuesday, Aug. 8.
End of the year figures have an $834,000 surplus in accounts for contracted services, a $65 surplus in salaries, deficit of $529,000 in accounts for supplies and materials and other minor figures, resulting in a surplus of $306,046. Another $94,589 comes from transferring custodial fees for the Wakefield Academy before- and after-school programs to their revolving account. “We’re freeing up money and returning it to the town,” Bufagna said in reference to discussions at the March 28 School Committee meeting and May 15 Town Meeting.
In other items, Superintendent Doug Lyons reported Wakefield Academy will be wrapping up its summer Thursday, Aug. 17 after having served approximately 300 students.
He also reported on topics covered at the Administration Retreat in late July. “It was nice to have all the principals together,” he said. “We focused on our instructional strategy and drafted a new instructional strategy.”
Lyons also said school improvement plans were restructured to include goal attainment.
Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro reported that about 220 of 270 incoming Kindergarteners will be attending the Acceleration Academy or Early Literacy Academy, funded by a grant from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“Many of our Kindergarten and other teachers and staff work the program,” she said. “It is offered to every student new to WPS and entering Kindergarten in the fall. Students attend a week of the program in their home school and get a chance to meet their teachers and classmates and acclimate to their school. All of the lessons focus on early literacy skills and students also have a special built in to their day, either art or physical education.”
The School Committee also heard an update from Brian Black, of architecture firm Symmes Maini McKee Associates, about the new High School, including artist renditions of the new building. He reported detail design was completed in March and was submitted to the state School Building Authority August 1. “We expect approval, but are not waiting,” he said. “Design has moved on to the construction document phase.”
The illustrations showed outdoor learning spaces, indoor areas bathed in light and space for 45 more parking spaces. “It’s about using all available space to create learning environments and bringing in daylight and letting it filter through the school,” he said. “A connection to the outside is what we’re looking for and parking has been a big topic in conversation. Things are pointing in a good direction.”
He also said plans are underway to incorporate school symbols into walls and floors “to represent the culture of the school whether it’s a school seal or a logo or whatever the school wants to envision.”
School Committee member Stephen Ingalls asked that designs incorporate use of the building by the entire community.
“Although it’s a High School we’re using a fair portion as community space,” he said. “This is a community resource. It’s important to keep that part of the conversation.”
Work will start in the spring for a 2027 opening, followed by construction of a new athletic field and track. Black said $220,382,281 town share of the approximately $273 million project is still being followed, but “we’re still looking for ways to economize.”
Finally, Lyons announced the Wakefield Musical Summer Camp will present Suessical Thursday, August 10 at 7 p.m. at the Galvin Middle School.