Lynn Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham talks at the new Pickering Middle School Meeting at Lynn City Hall on Tuesday. Item Photo by Owen O’Rourke
By Adam Swift
LYNN — The public can get a close-up look on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at the city’s two-school approach to replacing the aging Pickering Middle School.
The 7 p.m. meeting at the Thurgood Marshall Middle School follows up on a unanimous vote by the Pickering Middle School Building Committee Tuesday to support an option to build two new middle schools to replace Pickering. One school would house 652 students near Breed’s Pond Reservoir, while a larger school for 1,008 students would be built on McManus Field on Commercial Street.
This preferred school building option will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) by Sept. 29. But it’s still a long road before the shovels hit the ground at either site.
The submission will go through a review process with the MSBA voting in November on possible approval for project funding.
Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham said she is grateful for the role the MSBA played in helping finance the Marshall Middle School.
At this time, it is unclear how much of the cost of two new buildings the MSBA could pick up for the city.
While estimated costs for the schools are still in the early stages, at Tuesday’s meeting Gene Raymond of Raymond Design Costs put forward an initial price tag of $83 million for the project.
Also on the table were options for two schools with reduced square footage as well as some programming reductions, as well as a plan where two schools would share some central services, such as a gym and cafeteria, on a single site.
With the extent of a possible MSBA contribution unclear at this time, Latham said the city should move forward with the full programming at two new schools.
“We should lay it all out there and see where the chips fall,” said Latham.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said that none of the plans set forward to address the middle school needs were overly ostentatious.
“We are a land poor city and we are trying to accommodate almost 1,700 middle school students,” she said.
Adam Swift can be reached at [email protected].
