By Seth Daniel
As several new schools came online in Everett over the past few years, Supt. Fred Foresteire said many on the School Committee and at City Hall felt it wasn’t right for the Parlin School students to not also have a rehabilitated school – and so they did something about it.
In fact, when Parlin students return to school next Tuesday, Aug. 29, they will find a brand new gymnasium and auditorium to go along with improvements made last year. It is the third year of wholesale renovations to the Broadway school in what is a four-year plan.
“Really what happened here is we built all the new schools, and we’re in the process of planning to build another new school, and people felt that the students of the Parlin School shouldn’t have anything less than other students at the other new schools,” said Supt. Fred Foresteire. “So, the School Committee, the Mayor and the City Council started a capital improvement project with the Parlin School three or four years ago…This year, they’ve completely renovated the auditorium, gymnasium and we built four new student bathrooms so there is a boys and girls room on each floor.”
Foresteire said it will be an exciting time for the kids at the Parlin to walk into such major changes this year. He said having the bathrooms will be a particularly welcome change.
“Before, if you were on the second floor and needed to use the bathroom, you had to go downstairs,” he said. “It was time consuming and a waste of time and now they will have these facilities on each floor.”
In addition, crews renovated stairwells and hallways – with the entirety of this year’s project bringing things much closer to finality.
In previous years, there was a new roof put on, the brickwork was re-pointed, masonry was fixed, windows were replaced, the cafeteria was rebuilt, the library renovated and air conditioning was put in. Additionally, there were new walkways put in outside and a great amount of aesthetic improvements to the exterior as well.
This year, crews focused on the inside of the school, and produced a wonderful new gym and auditorium that Foresteire said is going to be an exciting change for students and staff.
Foresteire said next year they will refinish all of the classroom floors, and that will complete the project.
“That will bring the building up to really what we want to see,” he said. “It’s really coming along and something we’re proud of. Right from Broadway when you walk in, everything will be new. And this year, we’ve made some significant progress on this project.”
Foresteire said the School Committee recognized the need, and everyone else bought into the idea, from Mayor Carlo DeMaria on down.
He said Councilor Peter Napolitano was instrumental in guiding and advocating for the project as well.
He also said the cooperation on making the investment in the Parlin School spoke to the bigger story of how everyone in Everett is rowing in the same direction.
“The bottom line is the cooperation between the mayor and City Council and the School Committee is evidence of the progress here and why we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “We don’t need to go back to the old days. Things are going too well.”