Classical construction to start Dec. 5

LYNN-Construction on the freshman wing of Classical High School, found to be sinking into the ground last year, will begin Dec. 5, Superintendent Nicholas Kostan said at Thursday night’s School Committee meeting.Freshmen students have been displaced this year to the Fecteau-Leary Building on North Common Street while construction, which is expected to take at least 18 months to complete, is done on the site.Kostan said that phase one of the construction, which involves removing all furniture and excess walls, will begin Dec. 5 in preparation of the demolition and construction of the freshman wing. Most of the furniture has already been moved over to the Freshman Academy at the Fecteau-Leary building, but Kostan said there is still work that needs to be done on the area before real construction can take place.Phase two is scheduled to start on Feb. 6 and run straight through the 2008-2009 school year, with freshmen students re-entering the school the following September.The workers will all be subject to background checks and will wear identification tags when at the school. Construction will begin at 2:30 p.m. when students leave school and run until midnight on weekdays and half of the south parking lot will be sectioned off with a chain-link fence to store equipment and dumpsters.Any questions or concerns on the construction should be directed to Principal Warren White who will be in direct contact with representatives from the construction company.In other committee news, the board approved the yearly Nature’s Classroom field trip for fifth grade students of the Aborn, Sisson and Lynn Woods schools. Teachers said the program is a great success because they are the only schools in attendance and it gives students a chance to meet one another before they attend Pickering Middle School together next year.The committee also approved Lynn English High School’s annual trip to Ireland and England. This year, 15 students and three teachers will be attending the trip.Applications for the School Department Business Manager are in, and Kostan said the finalists will interview with the School Committee on Monday, Nov. 26 and Tuesday Nov. 27. The committee will announce the new hire at the regularly scheduled School Committee meeting on Thursday, Nov. 29.The committee officially approved the appointment of Kevin Rittershaus to Assistant Principal at Pickering Middle School. School Principal Robert Murphy announced last month that Rittershaus, a former English teacher who had been acting as Interim Assistant Principal since July, was his final choice for the position. The committee voted unanimously to approve the move.Finally, Kostan announced that he would be working with the Curriculum Subcommittee to review and revise offerings at each high school to potentially include more career and skill training in high demand areas such as health and dental care, biotechnology, finances and service programs.”It is time for us to take the initiative and revise our curriculum at the high schools to be more up to date with the needs of today’s workforce,” he said.The next meeting of the Lynn School Committee will be Thursday, November 29 at 7 p.m.