With summer effort, Lynn transforms school cutbacks from subtractions into additions

LYNN – Just three months ago morale at the Washington Community School was at an all-time low. Teachers tried to keep smiling faces as they explained to the young students their school would be closed – a victim of budget cuts and declining enrollment – but inside they felt a sadness and anxiety, knowing that they, too, would have to move to a new school the following year.Teachers spent the final days in the school’s dark, dusty hallways, emptying out classrooms and pulling posters off walls, saying goodbye to decades of education in the historic Blossom Street building.But with another September upon us and former students embarking on journeys in their new schools, the School Department and city Inspectional Services Department have breathed new life in to the old building, which will now serve as home for the city’s elementary level special education and alternative programs.The city’s most developmentally disabled students now have a larger, more hospitable space where they can thrive educationally, compared to the cramped quarters of the St. Steven’s Church and J.B. Blood Building where programs were previously held.The city saves a combined $160,000 that was spent last year leasing those two buildings.”This space is so much better educationally for these students, it is really a 180 degree improvement,” said Superintendent Nicholas Kostan. “The move (to the Washington School) was handled beautifully. I have to commend the teachers who were at the Washington last year for doing such a great job under tough circumstances.”The changes at the school go well beyond new students and staff. The Inspectional Services Department spent the summer helping set up the new classrooms and moving in equipment and has revitalized the school’s appearance with new coats of paint throughout the building, new light fixtures and shiny new floors.Workers also replaced much of the school’s old boiler room, which will help with energy efficiency.Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said his staff has done as much work as possible with the funds it has at the school, and says the old building is in great shape.”We have taken this building almost as far as we can without a real major renovation to the exterior, which we don’t really need,” he said. “This old building has some good bones, it will be here for a long time.”O’Callaghan WayA trip across the city to West Lynn reveals more improvements to a neighborhood that has seen a transformation over the last two decades, in part because of three school facilities in close proximity to one another.Once home to a landfill, O’Callaghan Way now features three schools and the King’s Lynne housing developments. While major construction continues at Classical High School, Inspectional Services made smaller improvements to the street’s other two facilities, Breed Middle School and the Julia Callahan Elementary School.Visitors approaching the Callahan this fall will see new fencing modeled after the King’s Lynne grounds, a fresh landscaped front lawn and a newly reconstructed front porch and exterior brickwork.At Breed workers repaired the school’s ventilation system to pump in fresh air to the cafeteria and library, and installed vandal-proof equipment in the bathrooms. They are also awaiting new lockers for students.At both facilities landscapers and DPW staff worked this summer to plant new trees and eliminate ragweed both in an effort to beautify the area, and to improve the health of students with asthma and allergy issues.”We tried to eliminate irritants like ragweed to make it a little bit healthier for the kids, especially now with more and more students having asthma,” said Donovan. “It also makes the grounds look better. If you pull up to a facility and the first thing you see is trash and rag wed, that really is not a good first impression.”With the lawns and exterior areas of the buildings improved, and Classical on pace with projections that will end construction by this time next ye