The Peabody City Council recently authorized Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to partner with the authority and replace failing roofs at both South Memorial and West Memorial Elementary School. 

According to Mayor Ted Bettencourt, the city evaluates school buildings to try and identify the infrastructural areas with the greatest needs. This year, he said, members of the School Committee, the principals, and Vadala voted unanimously to identify the roofs at both South Memorial and West Memorial as areas that would benefit from the MSBA’s Accelerated Repair Program. 

“The South school is the oldest building in the city, but the roof has certainly been an issue for a number of years, as well as the West,” Bettencourt said. “Both projects will extend the life cycles of those buildings.”

Bettencourt said that the repair program had not been accepting applications for the past few years, and that it only recently started accepting submissions again. 

Bettencourt clarified that the motion was only to approve the submission of the application for the repair program. If the partnership is approved, the district would not be notified until fall at the earliest, and the City Council’s approval would be required to authorize it.

There were no questions from the councilors, and the motion carried 10-0.