This article is part of a series on the new Wayland High School building project.

After first approving the construction of a new high school at the polls on Tuesday, the town overwhelmingly voted to support the project on Wednesday night, at a special Town Meeting which had a particularly low turnout rate.

On Tuesday, 70% of voters approved a ballot question asking for support for the new school. Only 42% of the town’s eligible voters participated. 2602 voted in the affirmative and 1115 in the negative. The measure needed a simple majority to pass.

On Wednesday night, in the field house of the current high school, voters approved the request for $70.8 million in funding for the new building, 1481 to 95. Over 3000 fewer citizens voted in the special Town Meeting than did in the  2005 vote for a different high school plan, which failed. Turnout was an exceptionally low 18% of the 8805 eligible voters.

The town has been promised $25 million by the Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) to help offset the costs of the new facilities, meaning the town will only have to pay $45.1 million for the project. Had the vote failed, this state aid would not have become available again for many years, and even then, would likely be severely reduced.

After a short debate on the merits of the vote on Article 2 (see warrant), the article that would appropriate the funding, the meeting’s moderator, Peter Gossels, called for a voice vote of the “ayes” and “nays.” By eyewitness accounts, though the nays were loud, the ayes were much louder.

Gossels then called for a tally to ensure the ayes had the necessary two-thirds majority. In an unorthodox move, he asked that just the nay votes be counted to save time. After slight difficulties collecting the votes, the Chairman announced that the motion had passed.

After the resulting applause died down, many attendees left the meeting, though there were still several motions to be voted on.

Junior Siddharth Virkud was glad the vote passed: “It’s good, but we’re not getting it. My younger sister’s getting it, so that’s good for her. It’s time they updated some of these classrooms.”

Still, not everyone was so happy. According to senior Ben Wolfarth, the town should instead “try to fix up this school and spend less money because there’s other things we should spend money on.”