The Beantown Bloggery

When I was in highschool, there were two highschools in my city. After my senior year, they decided to build a third one, just in time too - my graduating class was 1644 students. There were over 1800 of us before a bunch of folks turned 18 and dropped out of school. After building the third school, the average class-size dropped down to about 1000 - much more manageable.

When I saw the headline about Wellesley building a new highschool, I thought it was the same case. But it's not. They're building a new one to replace the existing highschool.

Wellesley voters yesterday overwhelmingly approved an $86.6 million debt exclusion to fund a $130 million new high school, the largest capital project in the town's history.

Babson said the project would move forward "right away," with a permit hearing tomorrow before the town's Zoning Board of Appeals. Babson said the ground-breaking could start as early as March 2010 and construction could be complete in late 2012.

So what's going to happen to the old highschool? I hope the land gets put to good use. Also, if I remember correctly, Newton is building a new school right now and it's costing over $200mm. $130 million might not be enough.