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Article 2017-1.4: Appropriate Design Funds for Lexington Children's Place/20
<br /> Pelham Road
<br /> Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation
<br /> $581,500 GF Debt Approval(7-2)
<br /> The property at 20 Pelham Road was formerly known as the Armenian Sisters Academy, a private K-8
<br /> school. It comprises about 8.4 acres of land with a mostly one-story school building constructed in 1959,
<br /> two paved driveways, and two small paved parking lots. Between three and four acres of the plot is cov-
<br /> ered by woods,with a small clearing on the west side of the building. Some of the area is considered to be
<br /> wetlands; a rough estimate suggests that 6 to 7 acres may be considered developable. The building has
<br /> slightly less than half the capacity of other Lexington public elementary schools; it contains 10 class-
<br /> rooms, a two-story gym, a cafeteria, and administrative offices. The property abuts the location of the
<br /> Lexington Community Center(LexCC) and carriage house.
<br /> On December 2, 2015,under Article 4 of the November 2, 2015 Special Town Meeting#1, $150,000 was
<br /> appropriated for studies of vehicular access to and egress from the site,pedestrian access between the site
<br /> and the LexCC, and other engineering studies. Professional consultants performed the access studies, and
<br /> have submitted a report to Town officials.
<br /> The amount of$8,000,000 was appropriated in May 2016 under Article 2 of Special Town Meeting 2016-
<br /> 2 to acquire the property. On February 15, 2017, this Committee approved a transfer of$17,115 from the
<br /> Reserve Fund for due diligence studies that needed to be done prior to acquisition of the property. The
<br /> agenda for the Board of Selectmen meeting on March 8, 2017,just prior to press time, contained an exec-
<br /> utive session item to "... Review and Authorize Town Manager to Sign Purchase and Sale Agreement for
<br /> 20 Pelham Road Property". However, by press time no details of a negotiated agreement were available
<br /> for public release.
<br /> The Town's preschool, Lexington Children's Place (LCP), provides services to preschool children, in-
<br /> cluding children with special needs who qualify under the state mandate for free educational services.
<br /> Due to growing enrollment, LCP currently uses space in both the new and old Harrington School build-
<br /> ings. Having the program split between two buildings presents substantial inconveniences for the LCP
<br /> staff. At the same time, K-5 enrollment at the new Harrington School continues to grow. The demand
<br /> for space for administrative uses in the old Harrington building also continues to grow, especially with the
<br /> current transition to central registration that will be administered in the School Administration building.
<br /> Increased use by LCP of the old Harrington building would present building code compliance issues, and
<br /> there is only limited parking at the site, which must accommodate elementary school, preschool, and ad-
<br /> ministrative staff and visitors. Given this situation, the School Committee has been looking for a way to
<br /> move one or more uses off site.
<br /> With the assistance of the architectural firm DiNisco Design Partnership, Inc., the School Committee
<br /> evaluated five alternative sites for the Lexington Children's Place program and determined that the Pel-
<br /> ham Road property is the preferred location. Since the building was formerly used as an elementary
<br /> school, the floor plan of a major portion, i.e., the part laid out for classroom use that comprises just under
<br /> half the floor area, is favorable for conversion to LCP use. The cafeteria and gym occupy large portions
<br /> of the floor area not currently planned for use by LCP.
<br /> At the present time there are open questions in regard to the future locations of a number of Lexington
<br /> Public Schools facilities, including LCP, the Central Offices, and a possible seventh elementary school.
<br /> As noted above, five sites were considered as possible sites for LCP. A decision to renovate the Pelham
<br /> Road building for LCP would foreclose for the foreseeable future the possibility of using the 20 Pelham
<br /> Road property for an elementary school. However, the Pelham Road site is not particularly well-suited to
<br /> use as an elementary school for several reasons. The lot is small, and it seems unlikely that it could sup-
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