When Parker moved to 49 Antietam Street in September, 2000, we were excited about the improvements over our original building: an old military spy training facility that lacked a gym, cafeteria, and even windows. But we also knew from the start that trying to squeeze a 370 student middle/high school into an old elementary school building would leave us short of space.

In the ensuing years, Parker’s faculty has been enormously resourceful. Offices were turned to classrooms, storage closets into offices, and storage moved to the hallways or teachers’ cars and homes. Hallway floors and the parking lot are used as breakout classroom space. Some rooms are triple booked—holding at the same time a regular class, a second class using the computers, and teachers working at their desks during their planning time.

None of these solutions, however, are appropriate or viable on a permanent basis, and for the past six years, Parker’s administration and Board of Trustees has been searching for an affordable solution to our pressing need for classroom space. Today we are delighted to announce that we have found one.

The Wachusett Regional School District is selling Parker a two-story classroom addition containing 14 classrooms. The modular construction of the unit enables it to be disassembled at Wachusett, transported to Parker, and reassembled here. The addition is just a few years old and has some large science labs. The quality of the classroom space is superior to that in our current building.

Our preliminary cost estimates call for a total budget of $2 million, one quarter of what these classrooms would have cost to build new. If all goes as planned, they should be ready for occupancy by December of 2007. Construction work will begin at Parker once the students have left for summer vacation.