$71m Wayland High project clears first big test

By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent

  Voters in Wayland overwhelmingly approved a property tax override ballot question Tuesday that may lead to the construction of a new $71 million high school in the western suburb.

It is one of several multi-million dollar expenditures facing voters around the region over the next several weeks. Rockland voters approved a tax hike over the weekend.

In Wayland, voters approved the town's share of the project, $45.1 million. The vote came about a year after neighboring Sudbury casually proposed absorbing Wayland High School students into Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School as an idea for cost-savings.

The 2602-1115 tally, in favor of a new, state-of-the-art high school for Wayland students, still requires a 2/3 vote Wednesday night at a special town meeting, which starts at 7:30 at the current high school’s field house. See fact sheet here.

The Wednesday session is expected to be a contentious one as voters will decide the fate of the high school proposal as well as that of the embattled Wayland Town Center project, a multimillion-dollar shopping and condo complex which has been under debate for several years.