Waltham makes push for April 1 vote to expand school

Lorelai Magerkurth is a 9-year-old student at Waltham Elementary School. Although the school still is new and well-lighted, Lorelai spotted a problem: the noise.

As Waltham has grown crowded, the din has ratcheted up. That’s what happens when you cram more than two dozen children into a classroom.

“It was really crowded,” Lorelai said, “and it was really hard to learn.”

District officials are hoping Lorelai’s testimony wins votes Tuesday, when Utica-area voters report to the polls. Easing the space crunch will take an expansion of almost $10 million, and voters must agree to fund a 38-cent tax increase to fund it.

Hoping to rally voters, Waltham held an open house Thursday along with a late push to get voters to cast a “yes” ballot come Tuesday. About 20 spectators joined the tour, where Superintendent Kristi Eager said the problem wasn’t planning but rather, surprise developments, including COVID-19.

Eager said the centrally located school was designed with flexible classrooms, some fitted with partitions, to accommodate fluctuating class sizes.

“We planned for what we had and what we knew,” Eager said.

But the flexible floor plan wasn’t as helpful when the district had to adapt to a few societal trends that emerged. And these aren’t problems unique to Waltham – they’re nationwide issues:

• More special education students – The demand for special education is soaring, and Waltham’s special ed students swelled from seven to 45.
• More full-time staff: Waltham once had a part-time social worker and part-time speech pathologist. No more. Both professionals are needed full time.
• Pre-kindergarten: Two years ago, Waltham didn’t have a pre-kindergarten program. Legal and societal changes effectively force the district to have morning and afternoon pre-K sessions to accommodate dozens of little ones – and busing them off-site isn’t an option.

“It’s hard,” teacher Eric Bara said of the resulting logistics, “but we know of the importance of having a preschool.”

The upshot is that classrooms have grown more crowded. Waltham’s goal was to hold the student-teacher ratio to 24-to-1 before splitting a grade level into smaller class sizes. The space crunch has pushed class sizes to almost 30.

“When you’re cramming 29 kids in,” Eager said, “are you meeting their needs?”

Eager said her faculty has been dedicated – “Our teachers are rock stars” – but a long-term solution is needed to meet the new and still-evolving changes.

The proposed solution is an addition of 22,000 square feet that would include a new preschool wing, a junior high wing, a multipurpose room and more parking.

After months of discussion, Waltham voted in December to adopt a resolution seeking $9.96 million for a building addition to ease the Utica school’s space constraints.

The dollar figure might not be an easy sell come Tuesday. According to a Shaw Local projection to give a tax bill example, Utica Mayor David Stewart, who last year paid Waltham $1,636 (total tax bill: $4,246) faces an 11% jump to $1,814.

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Waltham School Superintendent Kristi Eager points on Thursday, March 27, 2025, to an area where the proposed addition would be built if it passes the referendum in Utica. (Scott Anderson)