We moved to Lexington in 1966 when our first child graduated from the nursery school. We chose Lexington for the same reason as many others: the good schools.
At that time, Lexington public schools started in first grade—no free kindergarten. A year after we moved to Lexington, the policy changed and our second child entered kindergarten at the new Estabrook school. That meant they had to provide two more classrooms for the incoming kindergarteners.
Fast forward, both of our children graduated from Lexington High School and successfully became freshmen in a college in Cambridge, MA. In the meantime, I became an ESL teacher at Estabrook. Once I had to ask the principal, Bill Terris, where I could teach my students. He said in frustration: “I DON’T know!” He found a table in the storage room for me to teach the large number of foreign students who came to Lexington with their parents because of our good schools.
The new Estabrook in the 1960s could hardly cope with the increasingly larger student body 30 years later! More than ten years ago, Lexington built a new Estabrook school with all modern equipment, and even a dining area for the students. They used to eat in the hallway!
In the meantime, Lexington needed a junior high school: Clarke. I remember the same thing happened. Yes, we need to replace Muzzey Junior High, but do we have to build such a fancy, thus expensive, school?
History repeats itself. Lexington High School was already here when we moved here almost sixty years ago. Should we build a high school that would offer the best education to our students for long into the future, or should we squander this moment—when we have a solid plan and state funding—and start all over later, when the cost will surely be higher?
Things change. It is time to build a new high school. Lexington: Let’s rise to the occasion once more!