School Committee Coalesces Around New 6-8 Pollard Middle

November 19, 2025
• Ahead of an impending funding deadline and a town summit, members of the committee also signaled strong support for a 750-plus-seat auditorium for the new school at their meeting Tuesday.

With a possible seven options for the future of Pollard Middle School, members of the School Committee found consensus on two possibilities: a new build at the existing site or at the nearby DeFazio Field for sixth through eighth graders.

The various proposals include renovating the current building and reconstructing the school within its current space or at DeFazio, the latter of which would require a land swap with Park and Recreation, who owns part of that land parcel. There are also options to keep the middle school for grades 7 and 8 or bring in sixth graders, who now attend High Rock School.

Committee members said Pollard, as it sits now, would not serve the needs of three grade levels. All six members present said the school should be rebuilt.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that a new construction makes way more sense… Anything other than new construction does not make a lot of financial sense or really educational sense for the community,” member Michael Greis said.

“I think as we dug into the existing Pollard building, it’s very clear that the structural deficiencies there really do not support an addition/renovation,” Vice Chair Alisa Skatrud said, “and so I think a new building will be our bet.”

The project would cost upwards of $300 million. That would translate to a tax increase between $147 to $2,040 for the average Needham family, according to data shared by the schools.

Needham has until Dec. 18 to submit its preferred schematic report to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to secure funding for the project. Missing that deadline would result in a months-long delay and at least a 3-5% cost increase, which would equate to an additional $9-$15 million, approximately.

Needham Public Schools Superintendent Dan Gutekanst, who laid out the current plans Tuesday, said they expect to receive updated cost estimates on the project this week, which would include building demolition, traffic and other expenses.

After a townwide summit on the project in September, town boards and committees did not narrow down the seven possible options. Another all-boards summit, planned for Monday, could hone in on a specific concept for the school.

The Park and Recreation Commission, however, has strongly opposed a new build at DeFazio, given its expected impact on the fields and activities that take place there. Potential flooding and traffic also are concerns for that site.

“They’re proud of that field. They have invested in that, the community is invested in it,” Gutekanst said of Park and Recreation during the meeting. “It certainly is a jewel for the community.”

The Select Board, during September’s summit, also pushed back on the DeFazio proposals.

Members acknowledged the competing interests and consequences of a land swap, though they agreed the option shouldn’t be off the table. The loss of sports fields would only be temporary, member Matt Spengler said.

“My sense right now is that there are people that feel very, very strongly that DeFazio is the right site and people that feel very, very strongly that Pollard is the right site,” Skatrud said, “and there’s a lot of people in the middle that just want a new school.”

Delaying the current timeline, members stated, would result in increased cost and hurt students in the long run.

School Committee member Liz Lee said she favors “whichever pathway will be the most expedient.”

“Overall, my goal is to have the school built in a very timely manner,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for so long. This has come up again and again in the town, and it’s time for us to rebuild Pollard.”

After six years of work on Pollard’s future, Andrea Longo Carter said there’s a sense of urgency to conclude this stage of its planning. Prolonging the project “would just be a horrible, horrible loss for the community,” she said.

“I would be very disappointed and extremely frustrated if we pushed the timeline because people feel like they need to do more studying, do more analysis,” Longo Carter said. “I think that we’ve been studying this for such a long time. Eventually, you have to make the best decision you can with the available information you have, and I think we are long past being at that point.”

The committee remained steadfast in its commitment to a 750-seat auditorium at a new Pollard facility. ACT for Needham, a resident advocacy group, has pushed for such a space at the middle school. Theater organizations, including Needham Community Theatre and the Needham High School theater program, use Newman Elementary School’s auditorium for rehearsals and shows.

Current plans approach the project in two phases, bringing sixth graders into the building about 12-15 months after seventh and eighth graders.

The school population, with the added sixth graders, would increase from about 880 students to around 1,335. Greis said a highlight of the project has been the potential to fold in sixth graders.

“It’s not about the High Rock building,” he said. It’s about allowing these kids coming out of elementary to create a community in their first year.”

“I just want to make sure the community understands that seventh and eighth graders don’t have cooties,” Gutekanst said, “and that they can successfully integrate with sixth graders.”

Should the town meet its MSBA deadline next month, and should the MSBA approve the project next February afterward, the town could take a vote on a tax override in November 2026.