Salem committee reviews draft educational plan, space summary for new high school and readies MSBA submission

On Feb. 24, 2025, the Salem School Committee examined a draft educational plan and a four-page space summary that will accompany a preliminary design program (PDP) submittal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a proposed new Salem High School.

The documents, prepared by the district's project management team and design consultant Perkins and Will, outline programmatic goals tied to the district's Portrait of a Graduate and include detailed room-by-room net floor areas. Margaret Wood, a project management team member, said the educational program is intended to be “both aspirational and particular” and to show “how the district aspires to teach, how to teach, and how a new building might facilitate that.”

Why it matters: The draft lays out the district's priorities for career and technical education (CTE), performing arts, science labs, inclusive student supports and flexible teaching spaces, and establishes a baseline size for a new facility. Brooke Trivers of Perkins and Will described the current draft as a “compressed slide of the very lengthy … program” and said the draft shows roughly 280,000 square feet of net usable space;…