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This is Jenna Barry at Medford Public Library in Medford, Massachusetts. The date is December 5, 2024. I'm here with former Mayor Michael McGlynn to talk about the renovation of the schools in the 90s or rebuilding of the schools, I suppose, yeah. It was a It was

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a very large project. It when a community builds a school. They built a school and then they have a plan that 4 or 5 years down the road they'll look at another school. We went after 6 schools at once. For elementary. In middle. And um It

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was a, we had, we had at least 20 different committees. Every aspect of everything. Because a few years before that, there was a plan that was put forth. And it was about building a school in Playstead Park. Now everybody loves Playstead Park. Came out against it.

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And when I got elected mayor, I sat down Roy Belson, the superintendent of school, uh, he was at that time he wasn't superintendent, but. Oh yes, she was by. 99 Um, Roy Uh, and I said, let's have. The public tell us what they want. We had

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no less. That 150 public meetings so everyone would have an opportunity and I kept telling them if you don't take the time to tell us how you feel, don't come up at the end and tell us you're against the project it's too late we're moving forward.

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And Um, we looked around at a lot of different places. Some of them were easy. Roberts is the Roberts. Brooks is a Brooks, you know, you got the sites right there you're gonna do it. But we had 3 middle schools. What would we do? With the

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middle schools. And we decided Why not Put the middle schools together. Because of the law in the 1960s that the legislature had enacted with uh Massachusetts School Building Authority. It said if in fact. A community was active in the desegregation. Of schools that had a plan

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on the books. They would become the priority and be entitled to 90% reimbursement. That was back in the 60s, but My father was on the school committee. He was the mayor of the 60s, so as a kid, I knew all that stuff. And I always remember

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the 90% because I was listening to other communities that people were croaking them. Because they were spending. 80 million, 60 million on a, on a, on a school. And I said, number one, if we do them as, as one plan, we're probably gonna get a better

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bounce, you know, for the buck. And um We took advantage of that and then people challenged us on it and said, hey, this is the 90s. That was back in the 60s. And I said, yeah, but it's still the law. So we were the last school

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system that got that 90% under the particular um funding method that Mass School Building Authority used at the time. They got rid of it after you. They, they got rid of it. They got rid of everything and they set up a new formula like 2 or

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3 years later and actually on the 6 schools that we were building. Once they changed that formula. They had enough money at the time that they would come out to your school, your city. And one day they handed us a check for $17 million. So we

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made out on both formulas. Uh, you know, it was great. So we thought about, I went in to see, uh, MSBA. I wish I could think of the gentleman's name. He's a great guy to work with. Um, We were gonna build one School at one location

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and the other one at another location. And I said, what would happen? If we put them side by side because we have plenty of space down there. Would we still be entitled To the reimbursement. Said as long as you have a plan that allows for choice

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on what school they want to go to. I said, so you're gonna build. One cafeteria here and one cafeteria here. You're gonna have, you know, one basketball court and one gymnasium one over. And they said, yes, yeah. Uh, and then when we added an elementary school

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to one of the middle schools, they said, yeah, and we'll give you another smaller gymnasium, but, you know, for the, for the kids and stuff. And it didn't affect everything and we said, wow, that's so it's equal we're bringing everybody together. Um, Which in my mind

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was uh. A great goal in in great goal for diversity in our, our community. So Uh, we continued on. We, we got our approvals, we did the 4 elementaries we did the the two middles, um. It was great. The state paid to clean up the land.

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Um, Everything worked out very well. And there was one little bump in the road. What was that? Was the opening of the first two schools. Was the day That President Bush had decided to. Drop some bombs in another. Uh, nation. And We turned the opening day

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into a field day. So we were all down there for the field day, and then we went in the afternoon to do the the uh dedication. And They said um. Lisa Evangelistic came running up to me and says, hey. It's just, uh, some factors that you

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may not want to do the, the fireworks. I said, what did the what did the president say? He said, live your life. As you ordinarily would go forward. So I said, the president of the United States is telling us to go forward. To the fireworks. And

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But I mean, it was, it was great fireworks. But what happened was. So many people panicked based upon what they had seen in the news and what was happening in other parts of the world. That they jammed the 911 board and the uh all the police

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department and the Selville Police Department and the Arlington Police Department and the Stoneham Police Department with calls about what's going on are we being involved. So now, we don't know any of this. We're still worried. We have the band playing, the fireworks flying, the celebration we

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had the first new schools. Some of those schools went back to the to the 1890s that were that were built and um. Then the whole thing was over and we're leaving. And I see the media coming over the bridge, truck after truck after truck, and Lisa

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said, you wanna do a press conference? I said, no, we sent them press notices. We told them everything that was going on. We told the neighboring communities everything was going on. Um, And I thought they were theater. They ask us about the new schools and how

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did everything go so we go back to a little reception we had for ourselves for the committees. And uh I look at the TV. And they're saying, who's that jerk, who's the mayor of Medford who just did this, and I'm going like, what the hell happened?

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But this is the first I'm getting on, you know, the whole of, of everything. In 2 weeks after I said to my wife. I said, honey, it's nothing we did wrong. But I'm never going to get reelected again. And then. All of a sudden, from all

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over the country. Emails, calls, everything, saying here's a guy who just built 6 schools, celebrating his country, his schools, his city. What are you picking on him for? And then the whole thing flipped around again and and it was fine after that. But that was the

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only little bump in the whole place. That's good.