|
Lexington Home Page
|
Help
|
About
|
Browse
Search
2015-11-02-CEC-STM#1-rpt
Breadcrumb Navigation:
TownOfLexington-Public
>
WEB PUBLISHED-PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
>
ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETING ACTION & WARRANTS
>
Town Meeting Minutes and Reports
>
2010-2019
>
2015
>
Reports
>
2015-11-02-CEC-STM#1-rpt
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
12/14/2022 4:19:10 PM
Creation date
12/7/2015 11:23:41 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Archives
Year
2015
Author or Source
Capital Expenditures Committee
Department
Town Clerk
Keywords or Subject
Town Meeting CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO NOVEMBER 2, 2015, STM #1
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
8
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
View images
View plain text
CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO NOVEMBER 2,2015, STM#1 <br /> Introduction and Overview <br /> The School Committee (SC) is charged with providing adequate accommodation for the students of <br /> Lexington's public schools (LPS). The SC is facing challenges in this regard due to serious overcrowding <br /> at the Pre-K (also known as the Lexington Children's Place [LCP]), Elementary and Middle School <br /> levels, and projected overcrowding at the High School; increasing enrollments continue to exacerbate the <br /> overcrowding; and changes in the distribution of students in Town which have unfairly distributed the <br /> enrollment burden. One elementary school, Maria Hastings, is in severe need of replacement; and two <br /> major heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems (Diamond Middle School and the High <br /> School) are on the point of failure and in need of replacement. The issue of increasing enrollment has <br /> dominated the discussion, but ongoing maintenance, replacement of HVAC systems, and replacement of <br /> the Hastings Elementary School remain as urgent and pressing needs as well. Adding to the challenge is <br /> the need to address these issues in a manner that is cost effective and does not present a greater burden on <br /> property-tax payers than is absolutely necessary. <br /> Facing these challenges in a cost-effective manner requires that all non-capital options be explored and <br /> those deemed reasonable be implemented before investing in major capital expansion. This Committee is <br /> pleased to see the SC move out on this activity. In particular, LPS has engaged a consultant to help design <br /> a redistricting plan so that all available classrooms are used and the burden of overcrowding is equitably <br /> shared among the elementary schools. Additional classrooms can be opened in every elementary school <br /> by changes in how instruction is delivered: for example art can be delivered in general-education rooms <br /> freeing up an art room. While this is not ideal, it does not present a severe burden on the system and <br /> provides a modest level of relief until additional space is brought online. <br /> The SC is asking for $5,386,000 to continue planning and design work to address the combination of the <br /> space needed to accommodate increasing enrollment and to upgrade or replace high-risk-of-failure <br /> end-of-life systems and facilities across the elementary schools and middle schools. (See below in the <br /> Article description for the breakout of how those funds will be used.)Included in that amount are funds to <br /> purchase and install up to six medium-grade modular classrooms at the elementary level. <br /> Previous plans contemplated moving the preschool to a leased site on the Minuteman High School <br /> campus for three years and building a new stand-alone preschool to be ready when that lease was up; <br /> however, the current plan leaves the preschool at Harrington, saving the cost of moving to and operating <br /> in a separate, renovated, school facility. This does mean that the 4 classrooms expected to be vacated will <br /> not be available for K-5 use. Building a stand-alone preschool is still the plan for an unspecified date in <br /> the near future, so the cost is kept in the current estimated costs. <br /> At the elementary level, the current plan calls for replacing the 21-classroom Hastings with a new <br /> 30-classroom Hastings which addresses the need to replace an old and failing building as well as adding a <br /> much-needed 9 additional classrooms—and avoids the impacts of the on-going education that would <br /> likely result during a major renovation that might include the need for swing space. In addition, the SC <br /> plans to add 6, mid-grade, modular classrooms at the elementary level as cited above. Purpose and use of <br /> the 20 Pelham Road site has been removed from the plan. <br /> At the middle-school level, the SC plans to perform renovation, site work, and add brick & mortar <br /> construction at each middle school. This will allow an additional 3.5 teams, ideally of 85 students per <br /> team, for a capacity increase of 298 students, as well as provide some general improvement of space and <br /> additional science classrooms. <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.