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UMass Donahue Institute presents Phase 1 enrollment study to guide Winchester facilities master plan
Summary
UMass Donahue Institute delivered a Phase 1 enrollment study for Winchester's facilities master plan; the report will inform school capacity planning and possible MSBA statement-of-interest decisions.
UMass Amherst's Donahue Institute presented the Phase 1 enrollment study for Winchester's facilities master plan during the School Committee's Feb. 27 meeting. Committee members described the report as a major milestone that will guide next steps in facilities assessment and potential school projects.
Christopher Nixon, who helped organize a joint meeting with the Elementary, Facilities and Planning Building Committee (EFPBC) and other town boards, said the report is being finalized with small visual adjustments to charts and that the written narrative is unchanged. "No change in reporting, no change in any of the sort of the written narrative in the report. It's just going to make it visually a little bit stronger," Nixon said.
School officials said the Phase 1 study completes the first step of a two-step master-planning process and will be provided to architectural teams for condition and facility assessments. The report will also inform whether Winchester should submit a Statement of Interest (SOI) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for a Morocco school replacement. Staff noted the district had previously submitted SOIs for Morocco and Lynch under several criteria — including future overcrowding based on enrollment studies and building condition — and that the new enrollment data will shape those decisions.
Committee members thanked the report authors and town staff who participated in data collection and a guided site tour. The committee said the study incorporated input from town planning, building and finance officials and that UMass staff offered to respond to written questions that were not addressed during the public presentation.
Next steps discussed included confirming school design capacities, reevaluating the remaining service life of modular classrooms (noting two modulars at Ambrose installed in 2009), and using the enrollment study to refine the district's Statement of Interest to MSBA if warranted.
Committee members asked staff to post the final report and presentation online once the final graphics are incorporated and to memorialize the Q&A so the public can see which answers came from UMass and which were district responses.
