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Northeast MetroTech Vocational School has been planning to build a new state-of-the-art school (The Voke) for a long time. The site the NEMT Building Committee chose is on the forested hilltop of Wakefield’s ONLY forested CORE habitat.
In 2016, a pre-feasible study rejected the hilltop site because it was economically and logistically unsound. However, the NEMT Building committee again chose that same hilltop site on which to build the school.
There’s a lot wrong with this plan.
- The decision to build on the same rejected site was made by only a few people – there was no public participation.
- Unnecessary destruction flies in the face of federal and state environmental standards.
- There are two other viable building sites located right on vocational school land.
- Building on said site will cause irreparable damage to the environment by destroying a 14-acre forest, endangering wetlands and threatening endangered species.
- Safety and accessibility concerns have many Commissions on Disability worried that not everyone will be able to navigate the 1,100 foot ramp up and down the hillside or the many stairs.
- The 1/25/22 ballot sent to the 12 cities/towns did not mention the forested hilltop, the blasting and destruction of a 14-acre mature forest. This lack of transparency has taxpayers feeling deceived.
- The ballot was voted on by less than 3% of the voters in the 12 sending communities.
For further information, go to nemtforest.org.
The 12 sending cities/towns are Revere, Malden, Stoneham, Chelsea, Reading, North Reading, Saugus, Melrose, Winthrop, Winchester, Wakefield, Woburn which send their vocational students to the Voke for vocational and regular classes.
We request that the MSBA and the NEMT Building Committee do the right thing and work together to build our new school on one of the other available sites. Voters and taxpayers should have a choice as to where the new school should be built.
Submitted by Joy Pearson
Malden resident
