Somerville students will go to new temporary school as Winter Hill remains closed

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Some families in Somerville are frustrated trying to figure out how their children will get to a new, temporary school location on the first day of school Wednesday.

The Winter Hill Community Innovation K-8 School was forced to shut down in June after concrete fell onto a stairwell, and now the building still isn’t safe enough for kids to re-enter.

“There’s no easy way to come here, walking took us almost an hour,” said Susie Johnston, who has two grandchildren who attend Winter Hill.

Grades 1-8 will now go to school at the Edgerly Education Center about a mile away from Winter Hill.

Susie Johnston says that the extra distance is a bit too far for her grandchildren to walk now, and her daughter isn’t able to drive them to school.

“The biggest stressor of course is her children’s safety you know to and from school,” said Johnston.

Somerville School leaders say there will be a shuttle bus from Winter Hill to the new location, but only some students are eligible.

For others, the new location isn’t so bad.

“For us, it’s pretty convenient because it’s still about the same 10-minute walk here so I have a big luxury of that,” said Tim Armstrong, who has a daughter attending Winter Hill.

School leaders have been working around the clock to get the new building ready for students.

Just outside you’ll see brand new crosswalks, speed humps and fencing to make the area safer for the many families who will now be walking here.

“I think they must have sped that up for the school year starting because people would be commuting here from other neighborhoods,” said Cassie Walston, whose son attends Winter Hill.

“We were here just a few days ago driving by and this place was in shambles and today there’s beautiful colored paint on the blacktop, there’s Adirondack chairs it’s very inviting,” said Johnston.

Families were able to tour the new location Tuesday and were overall impressed, but many wonder what will happen to their old school building and how long it’ll be until it finally reopens.

“They’ve had so many chances to fix it and they just haven’t put the money and resources into it so now it’s like it needs to get done now,” said Walston.

Somerville School leaders say they have secured additional shuttle bus service from Winter Hill to the new location for eligible students, and it will be up and running by the week of September 11th.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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