Haverhill opens six-classroom modular building at JG Whittier, officials say

Principal Higginbotham told the Haverhill School Committee that JG Whittier has opened a six-classroom modular building and that the structure is a fully inspected building, not temporary trailers. “It is a building. There was, for quite a while, a misconception that these are trailers, but it's not,” Principal Higginbotham said.

The new facility, officials said, contains six identical classrooms, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms, a staff restroom and custodial closet, two means of egress and accessibility features including an aluminum stair and a ramp. Inside the classrooms, teachers have whiteboards and smart boards and flexible seating arrangements; students carry a visible RFID card (in a travel pouch) for door access and staff use mechanical keys and ID cards at access panels. The building is monitored by a two-way hallway camera and was cleared by building, health and fire inspectors before occupancy.

District leaders said the new rooms relieved severe overcrowding at the school. Principal Higginbotham described how the additional rooms allowed the school to restore the library to instructional use, give technology and health teachers their own classrooms and provide a full-size classroom for the multilingual program. “By having the seventh grades out to the new building, free up those six classrooms, we're then able to get our library back,” he said.

Committee members who toured the facility praised the space. Attorney Magliaccetti said the addition was “a long time coming” and recalled overcrowding at the school years ago: “My 2 oldest children went to JG Whittier ... and it was overcrowded then.” Committee members and parents also noted cleaner bathrooms, water refill stations and a calmer environment inside the main building.

Committee member Miss Lola Mann asked about supervision between the two buildings; Higginbotham said staff use a rotation model and the security guard makes regular sweeps. “For the first few weeks ... one of us was outside pretty much all day long, and we would rotate and and take turns,” he said, describing a team approach involving assistant principals, the student success coordinator and the security guard.

The committee discussed remaining work: permanent fencing around the modular wing and continuing facilities proposals. Facilities staff told members the RFP for a permanent fence is out and the temporary fencing will stay until installation.

The committee did not take any formal vote related to the modular building during this segment; the presentation was an informational update.

The committee and attendees said they plan follow-up visits and the district said it will continue to monitor access procedures and student transitions between buildings.