Issue: High School Building Project   NPS Online Home


Summary
On April 11, 2000, Superintendent Jeffrey Young recommended a comprehensive High School Building Project to the Newton School Committee, which it accepted unanimously on May 8 and passed on to the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen for necessary funding approvals.   To begin project design and management, $5.7M  was approved by the Board of Aldermen on August 14 and reaffirmed on September 18.  The citizens of Newton were asked to uphold this vote in a special election on November 7, and they did so in overwhelming numbers (see Certified Ballot Results).  On April 17, 2001, the Board of Aldermen voted to bond the $89M project by a vote of 23-0.
In November of 2002, Mayor David Cohen put the Newton North portion of the project on hold pending the report of the Newton North High School Citizens' Task Force, due May 15, 2003.  See the NNHS Renovations page for further information.

The High School Building Project has three main objectives:
To replace outdated building systems at both Newton North and Newton South
To ease increasing overcrowding at both schools
To add much-needed technology and communications infrastructure enhancements to both high schools, in order to adequately serve teachers, students, and parents in the 21st century

Documents, Data and Activity (most recent items listed first, by date of posting)
Note: There may be other documents that pertain to this subject.  See Document Library for complete index of documents archived on NPS Online.
(11/21/02) Project Update
(10/24/02) Project Update
(4/23/02) Project Update
(2/20/02) Project Update
(1/28/02) Project Update
(11/13/01) Project Update
(10/12/01) Project Update
(4/17/01) Board of Aldermen vote on bonding the High School Project; passes 23-0 (Ald. Mansfield absent).  A proposal made by Ald. Michael Lipof — to hire an outside auditor to oversee the project — is committed to the Finance and Public Facilities Committees for further discussion.
(2/20/01) DRA Architects present preliminary plans for Newton South construction to Board of Aldermen
(12/30/00) Certified Ballot Results  (11/7 Referendum)
(10/27/00) Mayor's Debt Funding Proposal for the project

How you can participate in the process

Follow the issue closely via this page (bookmark it now!), local media reports, and School Committee meetings
Attend public meetings
Express your views directly to the Newton School Committee