COURTESY PHOTO
An artist’s rendering of the proposed Pickering Middle School.
It must be getting hard for middle-school-construction opponents to stand their ground now that the city is poised to eliminate two major objections to building new middle schools.
The public vote on building new schools and paying for them through property-tax debt exclusion is 12 days away and a plan to build a school on Parkland Avenue still faces opposition.
The continued resistance is puzzling, especially considering public statements by City Council members who said they are reviewing the idea of moving a Parkland Avenue home instead of demolishing it through an eminent-domain taking.
The tentative plan to move the house 200 yards in the direction of Wyoma Square received a guardedly optimistic response on Tuesday from the homeowner who was happy to learn city officials don’t simply want to bulldoze her home in the name of progress.
Whether someone’s house gets torn down is a sideline concern for school-construction opponents who are fighting the school projects under the banner of “Protect Our Reservoir — Preserve Pine Grove.”
Opposition is healthy in a democracy but only when sensible, well-explored alternatives are outlined and presented. City officials launched a torpedo into the side of the opposition’s proverbial ship last week when they outlined a plan providing land on which to build a school off of Parkland Avenue while providing needed land for Pine Grove Cemetery.
The city’s attorney said the proposal “should end all debate” on possible legal action by construction opponents. That is an optimistic assessment given the opposition’s perspective. That said, it is up to the Pine Grove commissioners to say if the proposal meets future land requirements for the cemetery.
It is important to note that construction opponents cannot stand up, point to a piece of land in Lynn, and say, “This is the perfect site for a new school where no one will be bothered.” That fantasy tract simply does not exist in a city as old and as congested as Lynn.
https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/news/council-makes-a-house-call-for-school-2/
Where to put new schools is an important question. But the more important question is how many more new schools does the city need and when does it need to build them?
Several local elementary schools were built before the Titanic set sail and others were built in the 1920s.
New schools cannot a guarantee students will focus on their studies or excel on tests. Building new schools does not protect the city from maintenance costs like the millions of dollars spent to keep Classical High School from sinking into a former dump off O’Callaghan Way.
But the condition of schools is a factor in determining if a community can be justifiably proud of its schools and its future. Middle-school-construction supporters and opponents alike take pride in Lynn and, with that pride in mind, it is time to set aside the battle over building a school on Parkland Avenue and move on to determining future school-construction needs.
