By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — Improvements over the summer to the grounds at the Walton School, a new rug in the Galvin Middle School auditorium, progress on the Galvin Solar Project and new electrical systems at the Doyle and Greenwood schools were the highlights of School Department Facilities Director Tim O’Brien’s report during the School Committee video-conference meeting Thursday, September 25.
“We’re really excited about what we ended up with,” he said about 15,000 square feet of new Black Beauty sod at Walton. “This is my 5th school year and it’s something we’ve talked about my entire tenure. It looks like a golf course and a nice one at that.”
The work included a new irrigation system.
“This is not a bandaid fix,” O’Brien feels. ”It’s a complete replacement. It’s legacy grass and should be here a long time. It helps inside the building because students won’t be dragging that much dust and dirt into the school and it gives our students a respectable place to play. The new play structure that abuts it is like icing on the cake.”
He continued the carpet in the Galvin auditorium “had not aged well” and was replaced by one paid for, in part, by a revolving count of funds from rental events there. “We replaced it with a high quality one that looks beautiful,” O’Brien said. “Rental money allows us to pursue these projects. We’re able to reinvest that money, which is something I love to do.”
The Galvin Solar Project is almost ready to go, but needs one more piece of equipment. “We’re at the end of the road,” O’Brien said. “The materials have all been installed and they’re ready to do a shutdown to connect things so we can start to generate electricity.”
Last November, in a fall session, Town Meeting appropriated $571,812 to install solar panels on the roof. The equipment will consist of 874 solar panels, which the Town will own, in a web that captures solar power to transform it into sustainable energy. The current estimates to recoup the cost is 4 years. “This building was built solar ready,” Town Council Chairman Michael McLane said before the vote. “It doesn’t mean some work won’t have to be done, but this is a great place to start this project,” a reference to a long term effort to wean town facilities off fossil fuels.
The $572,812 is mingled with $204,600 in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $200,000 from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department to fund the $976,412 project.
New electric 600 amp services were installed at the Doyle and Greenwood Schools.
There is also a new computer system which allows O’Brien, the School Department as a whole and other departments to keep track of projects. “It’s a better way for us to keep track of the work,” O’Brien explained. “It gives our staff a tool to see what’s happening.”
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In her report Wakefield Memorial High Student Representative Maya Palic said the new policy prohibiting students having cell phones with them during the day is having a generally positive effect. “At first it was hard,” she admitted. “It’s definitely been an adjustment for seniors because we’d been used to having our phones since freshman year, but everyone I’ve spoken to is in favor of it. It’s making us more motivated and teachers don’t have to deal with students having cell phones in class.”
She added freshmen are adjusting more easily, especially since they experienced the phone in a pouch policy while in Middle School.
After discussion and consideration over the summer the School Committee approved the new policy in August, in part to comply with the new policy in Massachusetts Senate bill 2561, which a Senate press release describes as “An Act to promote student learning and mental health, which requires all public school districts to adopt cell phone-free school policies by fall 2026.”
The bill and local policy also include provisions for “reasonable exceptions to the rule will be made for students who need their personal devices for treating medical conditions, off-campus travel requirements, Individual Education Plans (IEPs) or to accommodate a disability. Districts must ensure that students and caregivers have at least one method of communication during school hours and that students and families can communicate during emergency situations.”
In June, high school principal Amy Mcleod proposed a policy in which cell phones would be “off and away” in a bag or locker during the school day, except when used for educational purposes and available to students at lunch, but not in passing time.