Tara Pai and Nikhita Prasad are students at Lexington High School.
Last week, a community meeting and finance summit were held to discuss the plans for the Lexington High School building project as well as a potential new pool and field house. The community meeting was the 6th one held and 109th public meeting for the project. Nearly 200 people attended in person or via Zoom.
Currently, there are five construction options under consideration for the new high school, including four new buildings and one renovation and addition plan. One option, referred to as “phased in place,” would consist of a part-by-part construction and demolition process allowing for a gradual transition to the new building on the site of the old one. The remaining three options all involve new construction built on the current fields by the school; once the new building is ready, the old building would be demolished and turned into the new athletic fields.
These options are expected to be narrowed down to one on Nov. 12, and the Town Meeting & debt exclusion votes are expected to take place in the fall of 2025. Construction would likely begin sometime in 2026, with an approximate move-in date of 2029-2030. The entire process is being conducted with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).
The current school was built to hold 1850 students, said Mike Cronin, the Town’s Director of Public Facilities said at the community meeting.
“LHS currently has 2,395 students. Classrooms are 700 square feet for 25 students,” said Andrew Baker, principal of LHS.
Students are cramped and forced to eat lunch in places such as the main hallways and field house. The new high school will be built to accommodate the current student population, with additional space built into the design to allow for growth.
With the predicted size of 444,000 square feet, some residents voiced concerns about building on the current fields.
“The idea that the schools would take another’s land, the recreation land, to satisfy their own interests is wrong,” said Peter Kelley, a Lexington resident and former Select Board member .
But building on the fields would mean less impact on the students.
“Building on the current site, we would need temporary classrooms, because we can’t tell kids to go home,” Jon Himmel, a member of the Permanent Building Committee, said.
Another concern from residents is cost. The project could lead to a 10-14% increase in property taxes. However, the school committee has said that “something needs to move forward,” as this project has been in discussion for more than 10 years.
Lexington has been preparing financially.
“All new commercial developments — new tax revenue has been set aside to a Capital Stabilization Fund. There is about 34 million dollars in there and there should be 38 million by the end of this year,” Carolyn Kosnoff said. The Capital Stabilization Fund is not exclusively for the high school building project, but funds have been set aside specifically for the project for several years.
More detailed costs are expected in October. For now, estimates are based on a per square foot cost multiplied by the total square footage.
“We can go no higher than a 950 square feet classroom under the new plan, [and] no larger than an 18,000 square feet gymnasium. If we go above, the MSBA will not participate in the cost sharing. We are under cap right now with 850 square feet,” Hackett said.
The proposed pool and new field house discussed at the summit are not eligible for MSBA funding, so require a separate budget and planning process. Lexington High School does not currently have it’s own pool, and the existing fieldhouse is small and outdated.
Currently, for track, LHS students compete at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston, the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, and the Boston University Track and Tennis Center. For swimming, they compete at the Atkinson Pool in Sudbury, and Beede Center in Concord.
All options for the new fieldhouse would occupy the same site as the existing structure. There are five construction options: renovation, renovation and addition, a small new construction, medium new construction, and large new construction.
A new pool is estimated to cost $35 million for 16,400 gross feet.
Conversations about the pool and fieldhouse are ongoing. Both would require a separate debt exclusion vote that could happen in tandem with the school building project or at an unspecified time in the future. While the pool and fieldhouse can’t be included in the current building plans, the current plans could leave space to accommodate them in the future.
The next community meeting will be held on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
In regard to new High School I would build a big new pool and a big field house that would serve many generations . Go big or go home . Ray Ciccolo
Somebody suggested buying the old Boston Sports Club building on Bedford St. It can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of building new.
Thank you for the article. We need an updated high school facility – this is true.
What Town residents need to ask themselves is if we need a *public* high school facility that rivals a *private* college campus in terms of size and grandeur. Lexington already achieves outstanding results with the existing high school. (One SBC panelist at the meeting suggested we should not be proud of this – why?)
The notion of a great high school ‘experience’, that the School Building Committee seeks to augment via an expensive building, is misguided. We do not need to build a big beautiful building in order “to feel good” (as another SBC panelist stated at the meeting). The purpose of a new high school is to create a functional, comfortable and safe environment to house our 2300+ kids while they are being educated. I agree that today LHS is not comfortable – the cafeteria is undersized and the climate control is lacking. Mechanicals are outdated. More space is needed. This all needs to be fixed.
But let’s not forget that education happens with the teachers and the students. And the students with each other. Not the students and the building. This is why our students have been, and are, able to excel, despite the old high school. Surprisingly, I feel our SBC has lost sight of who and what exactly educates our kids, and they are designing a very expensive school at the expense of residents, and at the inconvenience of thousands of users of our town fields.
At the September 3rd SBC meeting, I understand that the Town’s architects are presenting a more robust concept for a design that retains some of the old LHS, adds some new construction, and builds on the existing site. This option should reduce costs, reduce carbon, and preserve more of our Town fields for use. I urge residents to support a cost-effective, addition+renovation of the existing LHS, as opposed to building an over-the-top building. Many people I have spoken to feel the Police Station went overboard. This new proposed LHS will be ten times that overboard feeling, unless we speak up. If you agree, please visit http://www.lhs4all.com to add your voice to other residents who want to be heard.
The “Old” school is just about 30 years old, was very costly to build, a crazy wasteful Town Management, madness with Police Station is not enough! Peter Kelley my last hope!