What are the town’s plans for the unused land if we consolidate multiple schools?
- The Town has established a Reuse Committee whose charge will be to review vacated Town buildings to determine if their reuse is appropriate. If school consolidation does happen, then the affected buildings will be evaluated by the Reuse Committee for their future use. The Town Manager would need to declare a property surplus for it to be sold for any development, and such a sale would need to be approved by the Select Board and Town Meeting. The Town Manager has indicated that he would not declare either of the schools involved in the consolidation plans as surplus.
If the Prek-K option is chosen, what is the plan for the North Intermediate School?Will there be upgrades made?
- If either a PreK-K option or Pre-K-3 option are chosen, the Town and the School Administration will need to prepare a long-term plan for the North Intermediate to extend its functional life. This would likely include system upgrades. Whether or not this would include more extensive renovations or changes to the educational program would be determined in future meetings.
If the Prek-3 option is chosen, what is the plan for the North Intermediate School? Will there be upgrades made?
- If either a PreK-K option or Pre-K-3 option are chosen, the Town and the School Administration will need to prepare a long-term plan for the North Intermediate to extend its functional life. This would likely include system upgrades. Whether or not this would include more extensive renovations or changes to the educational program would be determined in future meetings.
Why is there discussion surrounding having a high school sized gym as part of project? Is this necessary for school consolidation?
- If the Town decides to consolidate schools, the standard size gymnasium to provide services to the school is 6000 sf. A high school size gymnasium is 12,000 sf. With consolidation, the Town would no longer be operating the gymnasiums of the schools which would be vacated. The option to have a high school size gymnasium would help augment the loss in gymnasium space.
What is the cost to the Town to add an additional 6000 sf to the gymnasium, making it high school sized?
- Roughly $7,000,000 would not be covered by the MSBA and would be fully funded by the taxpayers.
Once a decision is made regarding the project on the North side of town that is associated with this project is it the case that this pathway of grades will be replicated on the West side of Town?
- While a timeline around making such a decision is not clear, it is reasonable to believe that, in the long term, the Town and the School Department will want a comparable education path for all elementary age students.
Is the Wildwood School Building Committee responsible for determining what happens for school building/renovation projects for the schools on the West side of Town? (i.e. Boutwell, Shawsheen and West Intermediate)?
- No. That decision does not fall to the authority of the Wildwood School Building Committee. Unless there is an MSBA project underway, the oversight and maintenance of the public schools in Town falls to the Town
What is the realistic scenario that the town can get another MSBA grant as soon as this project is done knowing that we already received the grant twice recently when some communities never get it?
- There is no rule that states a City or Town cannot be in the MSBA program for more than one school. The MSBA reviews all submissions and makes their decision to allow Districts into the program based on need. There is no way to know when or if a community will be invited into the program as it is based on what other communities submit their Statement of Interest and how the MSBA views the needs in that submission period.
- The process to enter the program is as follows which was pulled from the MSBA https://www.massschoolbuildings.org/
  - The MSBA opens their program for Statement of Interest for Core Programs in January of 2025.Although the Town of Wilmington is currently in the program, there is nothing that precludes the Town from submitting SOI's. There are communities currently that have more than one school in the program. The Massachusetts School Building Authority’s (the “MSBA's”) grant program is a non-entitlement, competitive program, and its grants are distributed by the MSBA Board of Directors based on need and urgency, as expressed by the district and validated by the MSBA. The MSBA completes an exhaustive review of available information regarding all districts that submit a Statement of Interest (“SOI”) for the Core Program each year. The goals of this review include:
Will the residents be asked to support the project as part of a Special Town Meeting or as part of the Annual Town Meeting? When will this Town Meeting be held?
- Based on the current timeline for the project, the project will likely go before the Town residents at a Special Town meeting, followed by a ballot question, either in the late Spring, or in late Summer of 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions