Salem High School Project Moves To Next Phase With Feasibility Study Invitation

SALEM, MA — Salem is one more step closer to a new high school after the Massachusetts School Building Authority invited the district to collaborate in conducting a feasibility study for the forthcoming project during its Wednesday meeting.

"The Feasibility Study will carefully examine potential solutions to the issues identified at the school's facility and will help us develop the most cost-effective plan to address those issues," state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said. "We look forward to partnering with these districts to move the potential projects forward."

The Salem High School project was one of five projects to advance to this stage along with Chicopee Barry Elementary, East Bridgewater Central Elementary, Franklin County Regional Vocational and Swansea Joseph Case Junior High.

"I was honored to speak to the board on behalf of our district about the importance of this transformative project that will shape education in Salem for generations to come," Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo.

Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said at the Salem High School School Building Committee meeting earlier this month that the state and district reached an agreement on an enrollment figure for the schools — which could ultimately affect the size of the new building — of 1,000 students if the school remains a grades 9-12 facility and 1,500 students if it expands to a 7-12 facility.

Salem High School's enrollment has risen from 798 students three years ago to 915 students this year.

"We pushed as much as we could to include the fact that we do have more kids accessing the building, young people accessing the building, than what our (current) enrollment is," Zrike said. "We hope that the trend continues. It would be a good problem to have for us to get to 1,000 students, which we hope we are on an upward trajectory toward.

"I certainly think we'll get there once people know there is a brand new building coming. I hope more and more students are choosing Salem High School, which we have seen that happening over the last few years."

Zike said advancing to the feasibility phase will allow the district to move forward toward selecting the project manager, otherwise known as the OPM, which will also allow the district to move forward on designer procurement.

Admission into the MSBA program allows Salem to receive matching funding and reimbursements to offset the cost of the new high school project.

The MSBA has approved 1,027 projects with more than $16.9 billion in reimbursements for school construction projects across the state since its inception.

(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.)