Salem To Examine Having Grades 7-12 In New High School Project

SALEM, MA — Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said a consideration to make the forthcoming new high school a grade 7-12 facility is one of the things on the table as the city moves from the "eligibility" to "feasibility" phase in the new school building project process.

The state School Building Authority approved matching funding for a new Salem High School last year in a process that Zrike said at the time would take between seven and 10 years to come to fruition.

"Once we move into feasibility then we'll be in the process of selecting a project manager to help us examine the different potential designs for the building," Zrike said on Wednesday. "We will be looking and exploring a (grade) 7-to-12 facility and a 9-to-12 facility based on the feedback that we have received during the master facilities planning.

"No decisions have been made but they'll look at the feasibility of those two configurations at the Salem High School site. The Building Committee will have to consider those two proposals and ultimately make a decision about which direction they want to go in."

Zrike said the process is "far away from shovels in the ground" and that it is still in the assessment phase of what is desired in a new facility.

The School Building Committee on Tuesday toured the current facility as a means to drill home exactly why a new facility has been such a priority among district leadership.

"We had an opportunity to take a tour of the facility and learn about all the problematic things in the building," he said. "Issues with heating, cooling, space issues, issues with broken down (infrastructure and equipment), the facility being outdated, antiquated for the kinds of learning that we want to do.

"We took about an hour tour, which only scratched the surface of the challenge the building faces just to make sure folks understood the need for a new building at Salem High School."

Zrike said the district is awaiting state SBA confirmation that it has complied with all the requirements of the initial phase of securing funding for feasibility, the documentation requirements about planned programming, and enrollment certification to fully move into the "feasibility" phase of the project.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)