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Architects tell Wachusett committee buildings need $55M-plus in urgent repairs, district urged to work with towns
Summary
Architects and CMRPC presented a districtwide facilities assessment identifying Glenwood Elementary masonry failure, widespread paving and roofing issues, and high-school lighting and auto-shop hazards. The consultants estimated top-five urgent repairs at roughly $55.5 million and urged town-district collaboration and strategic phasing.
Architects from Kenap (presented by Imelda Barnhurst) told the Wachusett Regional School District Committee that many school buildings show urgent deterioration that will require phased, costly repairs or replacements.
Barnhurst said the team visited buildings in April and May 2025 and ranked schools using safety risk, severity of deterioration, number of issues and urgency. "The school that had the highest priority based on our findings was the Glenwood Elementary School," she said, citing masonry deterioration that in places had already detached from the facade. "This could happen at any of this any of this masonry," she warned, noting the work would require destructive investigation and careful reconstruction.
Barnhurst outlined five districtwide urgent conditions: (1) masonry failure at Glenwood, (2) ailing roofing at multiple schools, (3) extensive pavement and site-work problems, (4) high-school lighting-control obsolescence and (5) roofing/envelope problems at Thomas Prince K–8. She said the lighting-control system at the high school was effectively obsolete because the original vendor went bankrupt, leaving parts unavailable.
The team provided rough order-of-magnitude costs tied to the top five urgent items: about $6.5 million for Glenwood masonry work, more than $18 million to replace or modernize lighting controls at the high school, roughly $1 million to remediate the auto-shop floor hole, about $24 million districtwide for paving/site repairs and just over $5 million for envelope repairs at Thomas Prince — a combined top-five total the consultants estimated at about $55.5 million.
Superintendent Jim Riley said some projects are already in the district capital plan or scheduled for bids (playground work, paving and an automotive-shop floor remediation), and he emphasized the need to coordinate larger projects with member towns and consider MassSchoolBuildingAuthority (MSBA) partnerships for major replacements. "We have to partner with our towns for this work," Riley said, noting district-owned buildings and town-owned buildings will require aligned planning and funding timetables.
Committee members asked for more documentation and follow-up. Barnhurst said the team will deliver a full written report and slide photos; the district agreed to make the materials available to members and town officials. The panel recommended using the report as a starting point to prioritize projects, pursue funding options and phase work over multiple years to spread costs and reduce disruption.
The architects emphasized the difference between repairs (localized fixes), renovation/maintenance (system replacements), additions and full replacement, and urged immediate attention to the items they flagged as creating safety or significant operational risk.
