School crunch focus shifts to Revere’s Lincoln, McKinley

REVERE – The effort to ease school overcrowding by redrawing district lines is shifting to the Whelan and McKinley schools even as educators look to the new Rumney Marsh Academy for relief.Under a 9-year-old plan, Beachmont middle school students will move to the Rumney Marsh this fall. The new middle school is under construction on American Legion Highway next to the high school.The Paul Revere School’s 400 students would start the next academic year at the Beachmont School in August.That move frees up Superintendent Paul Dakin to introduce School Committee and City Council members to his redistricting proposal for easing Whelan School and McKinley overcrowding.He received committee members’ permission last month to assign new students who live north of Squire Road to the Lincoln School. Dakin wants to take advantage of a space surplus at the Lincoln School to relieve overcrowding in the Whelan and McKinley schools.Parents will be allowed to send children to Whelan if they have another child attending the first through the fourth grade there.On Carol Tye’s recommendation, the committee also voted to encourage McKinley parents to send their children to Lincoln.The city has given state School Building Authority officials a commitment to build the new Paul Revere by mid-summer 2009 in time to open the new school for the 2009-2010 school year.Meeting the deadline will require the city to start work on the school this year. Before work can start the city needs to take six land parcels through a legal process called eminent domain.Mayor Thomas Ambrosino told City Councilors last December he hopes to meet with Authority representatives this winter and get a sense of what percentage of the Paul Revere project’s $20 million cost will be reimbursed by the state.By contrast, the West Revere building housing the Whelan School and Susan Anthony middle school cost $38 million and the price tag for Rumney Marsh is $31.8 million to date.The city also wants to build a new McKinley School by 2011. Dakin plans to give councilors a tour of McKinley on March 24.School officials drew up a repair list for Paul Revere and McKinley last year highlighting work both buildings need done until replacement schools are built.Dakin estimated a year ago that the school needs $50,000 in door repairs and $500,000 in masonry work to “ensure the structural integrity of the building.”He also said the city must also maintain the McKinley School to the best of its ability until a new school is built. The March 2007 city inspection report listed 43 relatively minor repairs ranging from rusted doors to faucets that are difficult to turn and several paint jobs.