Imagine a Wayland Middle School without clusters or the mural. Imagine a Wayland Middle School without a sixth grade wing. What about a Wayland Middle School where the cafeteria doubles as a theater? Or a Wayland Middle School with carpeted rooms that was called “Wayland Junior High”. Imagine a future Wayland Middle School with three stories. It can be hard to ponder how much our school has changed in its 54 years of existence. In this article, you will learn all about the fascinating history of our building, and what made our school what it is today.
Before World War 2, Wayland had a much smaller population. Teenagers went to middle school in only 4 classrooms in the town building. There were other classrooms in the building, but these were used by high school students. In 1942, the population grew dramatically, prompting a new gym and cafeteria wing to be constructed. The population grew even more in 1950, leading to the addition of a south side classroom wing. Despite the expansions, the town building could not meet demand, leading to the construction of our building in 1972. This means that our building pre-dates the mobile phone, GPS, the World Wide Web, the Rubik’s cube, the Lithium battery, and the digital camera.
The new building was a major upgrade for everyone. The single story building included several dedicated science labs, many classrooms, three lowered “pits”, and two courtyards. Around the mid 1980s, our school was renamed to “Wayland Middle School” from “Wayland Junior High” . This was part of a broader nationwide movement to rebrand these schools, and improve educational amenities for teenagers.
The “Wayland Junior High” site three years after construction. (1975)
In 1991, major renovations began on the school, beginning with the painting of our mural in May. The design was curated by 35 middle school students, along with a professional artist, David Fichter. During painting, around 420 parents, teachers, and students were involved. Soon after in 1993, a new sixth grade wing was built, adding 14 classrooms to the school. Up until this point, the theater, band room, and cafeteria were all combined into one multi-purpose room. This was fixed with the addition of a separate theater near the art room.
This plaque in the sixth grade vestibule gives more information about the mural.
In 2022, strong wind gusts overnight caused the fire sprinkler system to activate, flooding three classrooms and four offices. Since this occurred early in the morning, no students or staff members were injured. This prompted three temporary trailers to be set up in the back field. In May of 2026, I sat down with our Assistant Superintendent, Ms. Gavron, who was the principal of Wayland Middle School during the flood. She stated that there were “six inches of water all throughout the building, so we (administrators) had to close just Wayland Middle School for the day. We were told by the facilities department that it was going to be 48 hours for them to dry everything out.” As it turned out, the classrooms would have been extremely hard to restore, and the area was completely rebuilt.
There were silver linings to this flood. “We were able to restructure some of the classrooms to create an occupational therapy space, new offices, testing rooms, and more flexible spaces. The new rooms can be made smaller with temporary walls.”
This section of the 8th grade wing was where the flood occurred. It has now been rebuilt.
Most recently, 4 new walls were constructed in the summer of 2023. Before this, Mr. Merry, Ms. Cassale, Ms. Anderson, and Mr. Montweiler all had classrooms divided from the hallway by nothing more than small bookshelves. This was due to the school’s “open classroom” design, which meant that classrooms used to be open to the hallway without any division. The installation of these walls allowed for quieter classrooms.
Looking ahead to the future, more renovations and additions are planned. Currently, our building has classrooms without natural light or full height walls, very limited special education and small group rooms, has a small library, and only includes ⅓ of the standard amount of maintenance space. Additionally, ceilings are corroding, and plumbing has become very hard for custodians to maintain. The school district is planning to fix this with a full reconstruction of the middle school site. The new middle school will be three stories tall, and will be connected to a new elementary school. For more information about the future of our school, please see Wayland Public School’s long term facilities plan.
As we reflect on the past today, we can only wonder what our school will look like in the future. What do you think the classrooms will look like? Will any new subjects be taught? What new technologies will influence our school’s future? Regardless of what the future holds, our middle school community will only continue to grow.
An overview of issues identified with our building.
A diagram showing the proposed middle school reconstructions.
Bibliography
All sources are cited in MLA format.
Oppenheim, Sophia. “Flooding at Wayland Middle School Destroys Classrooms.” Wayland Student Press Network, 3 June 2022, waylandstudentpress.com/104357/news/flooding-at-wayland-middle-school-destroys-classrooms/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.
Schools, Wayland Public. “Wayland Public Schools.” Waylandps.org, 2022, www.waylandps.org/323059_2. Accessed 15 June 2026.
Schaefer, Mary Beth, et al. “An Historical Overview of the Middle School Movement, 1963–2015.” RMLE Online, vol. 39, no. 5, Apr. 2016, pp. 1–27, https://doi.org/10.1080/19404476.2016.1165036.]