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Principal Thomas Strangie presented the idea of expanding an existing food garden at Lynn English.
BY LEAH DEARBORN
LYNN — Lynn English High School is growing its garden space as part of a historic tribute.
Principal Thomas Strangie presented the idea of expanding an existing food garden at English High to the unanimous support of the Lynn School Committee on Wednesday.
Strangie said that a garden with five beds is at the school now and students will be adding two more beds by bringing in extra soil to update and expand the growing space.
The expansion of the garden will coincide with the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton will attend at a ceremony at English High on Sept. 11 from 9-10 a.m.
A number of student-run projects will take place following the ceremony, including work on the garden.
“English is fortunate enough to be hosting this event, doing the welcoming and the Pledge of Allegiance before turning things over to Seth Moulton,” said Strangie.
In other committee business Wednesday night, it was a busy first meeting of the fall semester with members reviewing potential building sites for schools to replace Pickering Middle School.
In August, a building committee unanimously voted to support a two-school option in place of the outdated Pickering, which is being replaced to service a growing student population.
Architect Gene Raymond of Raymond Design Associates, Inc. presented site options for the committee to review and narrow down to a single choice for further schematic development.
Union Hospital, slated to close, is listed among potential new school sites. But Raymond said it is not a preferred site for a new middle school.
“We just don’t think it’s in the right place and we don’t think we can count on their timing for when, or if, they’re going to close,” said Raymond about the hospital.
At the end of the presentation, the committee voted sites on Parkland Avenue and McManus Field as the preferred options for new school buildings.
Raymond said those sites were considered to be the most favorable from a traffic flow and curriculum development perspective.
The sites will be submitted for a review process to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).
The second public forum for information on Pickering will take place on Sept. 14 at the Marshall Middle School, said Superintendent Catherine C. Latham.
