Wayland High School - New High School

New High School

While the school would not see any substantial changes until the early 2010s, planning began several years earlier. In late 2001, the Town of Wayland signed Dore & Whittier Architects to come up with concepts for a larger, modern high school. However, in 2003, The State of Massachusetts announced that it would put a moratorium on its state building assistance program. With state funding uncertain, the vote to proceed with the schematic designs for the Dore and Whittier proposals was defeated at a Town Meeting In April 2003, and the firm withdrew from the project.

In late 2003, the town signed HMFH architects to draft their own proposals of a modernized high school, and the High School Building Committee (HSBC) was formed . By 2004, HMFH's selected design scheme for the High School showed a new classroom building, new cafeteria, auditorium, and administration spaces, as well as a renovated Field House. A special election ballot proposing additional funds for the project was rejected by Wayland voters in January 2005, by a margin of 2645 to 2005, but passed in a later meeting when a larger majority of the town was made aware it was up for a vote. Those in favor of a new high school claim that the student body is continuing to grow and will soon be too large for the existing buildings, as evidenced by the modular classrooms already in use prior to the move to the new school. This claim is countered by those opposing the new school who say that the argument runs contrary to publicly available enrollment figures for all grades which indicated that the largest years were students born from 1990 to 1992. Also, many claimed that with state funding still not in place at the time, the project would have been a heavy financial burden on taxpayers. Some hold that if the proposal for a new school had been initiated in time to be ready for these students it might have been looked on more favorably. Though 70.8% of Wayland residents do not have children in the public school system, a survey conducted by the High School Building Committee in June 2005 found that 64.5% of respondents thought that the current high school facilities were inadequate, but 68.2% thought that the overall proposed price ($57 million) of building a new high school was too high.

In 2007, the High School Building Committee once again began pursuing a high school project. With the promise of the State of Massachusetts reimbursing 40% of the cost of a project, Wayland developed a proposal (all new construction with renovated field house) that meet the guidelines in accordance with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). On November 17, 2009, voters overwhelmingly approved the high school project (70% in favor), and again at the Town Meeting the following night (1481 in favor, 95 opposed). Construction on the new school began on June 22, 2010. The switch between the old high school and the new one occurred on January 3, 2012. By the end of the day on February 23, 2012, the entire old campus, with the exception of the field house, had been demolished.