Watertown has three new or renovated elementary schools and in 2026 the new high school will open, but Watertown Middle School has not been significantly changed since the 1990s. The City has multiple options for how to renovate the school on Waverley Avenue, City Manager George Proakis said, but one of the more compelling ones is time sensitive.
Proakis posed the question of how to deal with the Middle School, and several others, to the City Council during his Fiscal Year 2026 Preliminary Budget presentation because he said it could impact how the budget is created.
The preliminary budget figure for the City is $214,668,761, and currently there is a shortfall of $335,895 to reach that number, Proakis said. The deficit will be made up either with additional revenues or cutting the overall budget. The figure includes a 2.5 percent increase to municipal department budgets, and a 3.5 percent increase in the education budget, plus $100,000 to help launch the universal PreK program.
Future of the Middle School
Proakis brought up Watertown Middle School as one of a handful of projects that are in the City’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, but do not yet have funding earmarked for the work. Other projects include the Senior Center/Recreation complex, the East End Fire Station, a staging area for Department of Public Works projects, and implementing the Watertown Square Area Plan.
Currently, the Capital Improvement Plan has $10 million in projects to keep the Middle School running, but Proakis added, “with this we will finish with a school that is still not ideal for educational purposes.”
At the same time, Watertown has a unique opportunity with the modular school right next door to do a large-scale renovation of the Middle School that could provide temporary space for middle schoolers during a construction project.
“The only way to do this without costing us another $10 million, $20 million, $30 million is essentially to do this before our high school contractor packs up and removes the modular school in April 2026,” Proakis said. “Because if we did this between April ’26 and say early ’27, end of ’27 or maybe early ’28, it slows down the rebuilding of our beautiful Moxley Field — which I am 100 percent committed to doing when we are done with the modulars — but what it would do is give us a one-time chance to address anything in the Middle School that needs to be addressed and built without students in the main educational portion of the building. Which would be very difficult if we packed up our swing space, take it away, and don’t have it and then decide 3, 5, 7 years from now that what we really should do is a gut (renovation) at the middle school and we have no place to put the kids.”
Proakis spoke with the City’s architectural consultant, who came up with estimates for different options for modernizing the Middle School. A full teardown and rebuild would cost $132 million. Doing basic repairs and upgrades to meet building codes would cost $76.7 million but would not substantially change the building. A gut renovation and modernization would cost $127.8 million. Another option is to tear down the 1922 portion of the school, and do basic renovations to the rest of the school, which would cost an estimated $12o.7 million.
The option of replacing the 1922 portion and updating the 1998 section of the school would cost about $84.8 million, Proakis said. That option would require a temporary space for students for likely 15 to 18 months or possibly 24 months, and the modular classrooms at Moxley Field could be used.
“It’s not much more than basic repair and code number,” he said. “The downside is we remove the historic building on the site. The upside of that is, from an educational capacity perspective, it is a substantial improvement to the school building that at the quality level to the high school and other elementary schools we have done to date.”
City Council President Mark Sideris added that there is a potential for making the new portion of the Middle School Net Zero energy (with the school creating enough energy to power the building) and LEED Platinum, just like the new elementary schools and new high school.
At the same time, Proakis said he is committed to do the work without going to voters for a debt exclusion to raise taxes to pay for the work, as was done with the other school projects. The City is paying off the bonds taken out to pay for the construction of the High School, as well as the three elementary schools, so he does not believe Watertown could afford the $132 million for a brand new Middle School without a debt exclusion.
Proakis said he seeks guidance from the City Council for which direction to move in on the Middle School.
“Prioritization of these items is not something that I as City Manager feel is appropriate for me to do on my own,” He said. “This requires guidance and direction from the City Council.”
To help them make a decision, Proakis provided Councilors with some questions to consider for the middle school and the other unfunded projects: the Senior Center, the East End Fire Station, the DPW staging area, and implementing the Watertown Square Area Plan.
The one with the tightest deadline is whether to move toward the option where the 1922 section of WMS is replaced and upgrade the rest of the building, or whether to continue with the original plan to do $10 million in repairs.
Sideris said he would schedule a meeting for the City Council to discuss the questions, but it will have to fit within the schedule of meetings on the Watertown Square Zoning. The next Watertown Square meeting is Thursday Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. in City Hall, which Sideris described as a working session for the Council and Planning Board, and if time they will take public comment. If there is not time, public comment will be taken at the next meeting. Future tentative dates include Oct. 29 and 30.
The full set of questions for City Councilors to consider can be seen below in the slide from the City Manager’s Preliminary Budget Overview presentation.
See all the slides from the Fiscal Year 2026 Preliminary Budget Overview by clicking here.