Woburn plans 5th new school

If Woburn can requisition a parkland site and clean up its environmental contamination, the city could be well on its way toward its fifth new school since 2001.

Of course the looming dark cloud of a state funding crisis could throw the whole project into jeopardy, but if all these obstacles can be overcome, construction could begin within three or four years.

For a new Goodyear Elementary School to be built, city and school officials must persuade the Woburn Recreation Commission to give up part of Leland Park for 200 to 250 K-5 students.

That location is contaminated with oil, lead, and other hazardous materials, so it needs to be cleaned up before the school can be built.

The Goodyear School Building Committee also needs the state budget to hold out long enough for the Massachusetts School Building Authority to help fund the facility, which could cost $20 million.

"The whole community here is behind the idea that the Goodyear School needs to be replaced," said Joseph Crowley, Woburn School Committee chairman. "It is just old. It is obsolete."

The nine-person Goodyear committee doesn't want to build the new school on the current site because there isn't space to house the students during the two-year construction process, Crowley said.

Leland Park, about a quarter-mile away on Central Street, is the preferred site.

"The only thing that is really controversial about the new school plan is to have it on a piece of Leland Park," Woburn Mayor Thomas McLaughlin said.

For Leland Park to be used, the recreation board would have to agree with a land swap that would make the old Goodyear School site part of the parks system. The old school would be demolished.

The commission hasn't taken up the issue yet but could have it resolved by the end of the year, recreation director Rory Lindstrom said.

The next Recreation Commission meeting is Nov. 6. If the commission agrees to the land swap, the old school's parcel of land must be a suitable alternative for the park.

"Whatever we have on Leland, we would like to see on the new site," Lindstrom said.

The Goodyear School Building Committee met for the first time Sept. 29, when McLaughlin pointed out the need to clean the Leland Park site of all environmental contamination.

The site has oil, lead, and contamination from other hazardous materials, but it does not pose an immediate danger to the users of the park, according to the report on the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection website.

The DEP was first notified of the contamination Aug. 31, 2007.

The Leland cleanup is in its second phase, where the site needs a comprehensive analysis to determine impacts on public health, welfare, and the environment. Weston & Sampson Engineering in Peabody has been hired to do the work, according to the DEP website.

If complete, the Goodyear Elementary School - named for Woburn native Charles Goodyear, who perfected a method of vulcanizing rubber that is used to make tires - would be the newest school after Woburn Memorial High School was completed in 2006.

Like Goodyear, the high school was old and in need of rebuilding.

"It is gorgeous. We are very proud of our new school," Crowley said of the high school.

The new wave of Woburn schools started in 2001 when a larger Reeves Elementary School was built to accommodate an overcrowded school population, Crowley said. That was followed by the replacement of the rundown Shamrock Elementary School and then the new Malcolm White Elementary School, which is near the high school.

The Woburn system has 12 schools: the high school, two middle schools, and nine elementary schools.

To build the new Goodyear, city and school officials hope the Massachusetts School Building Authority can match at least 50 percent of the cost.

The project could cost between $15 million and $19 million, McLaughlin said, although a better estimate won't be available until the design plans are in place.

"We are not at the point where we are talking about money, but we are getting there," said Carrie Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

The authority agrees with Woburn's assessment for a new elementary school and has given the city a feasibility invitation, which is part of the long process to get state funding, Sullivan said.

On Dec. 8, the Goodyear committee will meet with the state project manager review panel to go over the application for the school construction project manager.

When it comes time for state funding, the school building agency can offer anywhere between 40 and 80 percent of the projected costs, based on its formula for school construction aid. McLaughlin said the city will have no trouble fronting its portion of the expenses.

"The city can handle it without having to go to the taxpayers for an additional override," Crowley said.

Brad Kane can be reached at brad.j.kane@gmail.com.