City Council votes once again to delay funding for former EHS building renovations

Deal breaker: Eliot Family Resource Center and boxing club must find new locations

By Neil Zolot

They can’t seem to get it done. Once again, the City Council deferred on appropriating $72 million to renovate the old Everett High School on Broadway to accommodate 1,100 7th and 8th grade students to relieve overcrowding at the neighborhood Kindergarten-Grade 8 schools at their meeting Monday, September 9. The vote was 7-4 in favor of the appropriation, but the majority was overruled on procedural grounds. “Appropriations questions need 8 votes to pass,” City Clerk Sergio Cornelio informed the members. “It has failed.”

Councillors-at-Large John Hanlon and Katy Rogers and Ward 1 Councillor Wayne Matewsky, Ward 3 Councillor Anthony DiPierro, Ward 4 Councillor Holly Garcia and Ward 6 Councillor Peter Pietrantonio voted in favor while Councillors-at-Large Guerline Alcy Jabouin, Michael Marchese and Stephanie Smith and Council President Robert Van Campen voted against. A vote for reconsideration passed “to keep the item on the City Council agenda,” Van Campen explained.

The sticking point is the lack of plans for relocating current occupants in the building, including the Eliot Family Resource Center and a boxing club, among other things, or providing security between the tenants and the school. After about two hours of discussion, the Council approved a proposal by Van Campen to postpone approval until the administration “provides us with a detailed plan for relocation of Eliot and the boxing club. We don’t know the endgame for these uses. My concern is we’re going to vote on an incomplete plan.”

“No other community in Massachusetts has a Middle School building with a public gym and no safeguards,” Smith said, despite assurances from School Supt. William Hart to the contrary. “Kids need to feel safe without worrying who is in the area. A school should be a school.”

“People are not comfortable sending their kids to a school with mixed uses,” Garcia agreed.

Earlier in the meeting Hart said he would create “a secure environment so there’s no instance of people entering the school without proper procedures. I’m securing space so people on the other side of the door can’t get in,” but added that relocation of tenants “is not our work, but it’s clear they’ll have to move. We took footage we believe we’ll need, and where they move is not under my jurisdiction. Where they go is not a decision made by me.”

$10 million approved by the City Council to fix the roof will allow the tenants to stay there if it is not converted to an educational purpose.

“We have to be concerned about where these operations fly off,” Hanlon feels. “What will happen to these operations? Their kids are our students. They have to be where our families can get them. They have to be in the middle of Everett,” a reference to possibly relocating some functions at the unused Pope John High School, 888 Broadway, but with most of it facing Lafayette Street, or other places.

“The plan will require use of space occupied by Eliot for security and to provide contiguous space,” Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s Chief of Staff, Erin Deveney offered. “We believe Eliot provides vital services, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to find another location in the old High School. If it can be done in a reasonable way, we believe it would be prudent to keep those functions in another building.” (DeMaria was at the meeting, but did not speak.)

While acknowledging “we have a major crisis. We have kids in closets and hallways,” about overcrowding, in discussion Van Campen focused on the pitfalls of mixed use of the old High School. “The residents of Ward 5 have been clear to me,” he said. “They are concerned with repurposing the building for educational purposes and keeping the other uses, which can be disruptive. They want to see uses go to more appropriate locations. There are concerns people are using the boxing club with ankle bracelets,” a reference to monitoring devices based on criminal activity.

DeMaria asked him if he was referring to things like distributing backpacks to students as disruptive. After Van Campen answered yes, DeMaria said some of those activities could be done elsewhere.

Hart tried to head off discussion of Pope John by pointing out that the old High School provided more space than Pope John.

“The administration doesn’t have a proposal for Pope John,” Deveney added. “The information we’ve posited is to use the old High School for educational purposes.”

“Pope John is not before us,” Van Campen confirmed. “The plan before us is not perfect, but it’s the only one before us.”

Nevertheless, Pietrantonio talked about “putting Pope John into the mix. Someday we’ll have more overcrowding.”

He also said, “We still don’t know how it will be laid out,” in reference to the configuration of the old High School for classes.

Conceptual or partly realized plans are not unusual at this stage of development. “We’ll need to decide what the design will be for the space,” Deveney conceded. “The preliminary design is for what it could look like.”

“I’m not going to argue which is the right building, but we need a stand-alone school,” Smith concluded. “This proposal is not that. While the other uses are valuable, they’re not appropriate for a Middle School.”