Winchester Field Development Council to Move Ahead with Pride Park

Along with a new field, track and artificial turf, will be getting another new addition to the facility -- Pride Park.

The School Committee gave approval for the Field Development Council to move ahead with Pride Park, which is part of the renovation of Manchester Field. The renovations, because of town budget restrictions, has been financed largely through private fundraising.

And Pride Park will be no different as it will be constructed entirely upon donations. It will cost $200 to $300 for someone to buy a brick in Pride Park and plaques will run from $1,000 to $10,000.

According to Paul Manganaro, President of the Winchester Field Development Council, the park will be a tribute to the town for its support during the project.

Manganaro said that the construction of Pride Park will begin in the spring and will take three to five weeks to complete.

The School Committee also decided to keep the All-Day Kindergarten Program unchanged for the next school year. There had been some consideration given to expanding it from three to four days, but the decision was made to keep things status quo due to the concerns about increased enrollment. 

believes that a better method is now in place to use census data to predict enrollment numbers, and he is cautiously optimistic that moving forward they will have a more accurate measure so that the school system will not be caught by surprise as they were in 2009.

McAlduff also addressed the difficult winter that has forced him to call

“There are some rumors that we’re using some days in the February vacation and we’re not,” McAlduff said.  “It’s a vacation time for families.  Right now we’ll add the days to June.”

McAlduff said that without any additional snow days school will end on June 23.