Residents voted on November 8 in favor of rebuilding and refurbishing the schools along with the bus garage. The process for construction begins immediately and if all goes well, the new building will open in three years. District administrators strongly believe that new facilities will not only benefit the students and staff but also the surrounding community. According to the District’s Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Dave Forrest, there are four steps to making this whole operation worthwhile.

“We have to select a construction manager, so we have to have someone that will represent us as we put this building up. We have to select an architect to design the buildings, and most importantly we need to sell bonds which takes about 90 days. We will not be able to do any of this until we sell the bonds—selling them is of high importance. . . . The fourth thing is programming . . . we are going to [ask] students, parents, community members, and our staff what they want in a new building,” Forrest said.

Forrest stated that communicating with the community is the most important step; the administration will update the Revere website frequently with the project’s development. A video camera stationed at the work site will record all of the progress made, from laying the dirt to putting the finishing touches on the facilities. Although there are many new features to the schools, the administration hopes to keep some of the sentimental features from the old buildings.

Still emphasizing the importance of the community in this process, Forrest plans to hear feedback from the community on other artifacts that the administration should salvage from the old buildings. The new facilities will lie adjacent to the old ones, so students will not be displaced during the process. Matthew Montgomery, superintendent of Revere local schools, describes that by not using the exact locations of the old facilities, the district saves millions of dollars.

“The facilities committee [is] comprised of Revere staff, and community members worked hard to develop a plan that did not displace students during the construction phases, which is really important. During the construction of both the high school and Bath, the students will stay in their current buildings and we will not have to rent trailers. . . we would have had to spend 5 million dollars on trailers which would have been money that we could not have used once the trailers are gone after those 3 years,” Montgomery said.

According to the Revere High School athletic director Tom McKinnon, building a new school on top of the practice fields will affect the athletic program greatly. McKinnon elaborated by saying that “displacing the sports teams will cause coaches to work closely together” to create new practice schedules, and giving each team even time will be challenging. Although the next few years of construction will create an obstacle, the athletics program is excited for the new practice fields and gyms.

Montgomery feels personally connected to the issue because his two kids attend Hillcrest Elementary School; he said watching it succeed was both “humbling and exciting.”

“Having my own family in the district solidified the importance of this issue and I could see first-hand what students were experiencing . . . so if anything it has made me more passionate about the issue and my plight to be a part of this successful process,” Montgomery said.

With 60% of the community approving the bond, the Revere administration, staff, and students are grateful and cannot wait to use the new facilities.