KIPP’s Lynn school site causing concern

LYNN – City inspectors will keep a close eye on erosion along the steep slopes bordering the Knowledge Is Power Program’s Highlands construction site once the charter school starts late fall work on a middle and high school.”We don’t want earth washing off into Lawton Avenue or into backyards,” said city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan.KIPP plans to build a $25 million school complex slated to open in August 2012 and educating 750 students by 2018.Donovan anticipates the school will file a building permit with the city in late September or October to start construction on the site of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 507. The hilltop site has sufficient land for the 75,000 square foot school complex KIPP wants to build.Tentative plans call for constructing a middle school and high school and a gymnasium. Design plans submitted to the city once a permit is filed could alter those plans but KIPP’s goal, unveiled by charter school educators last March, is to expand the current 320-student fifth to eighth grade school into upper grades over a several year time frame.Over 500 students are slated to attend the school once the complex is completed in 2012 with more classes added each year.Donovan said KIPP’s plan to build on a slope-sided plateau at the center of one of Lynn’s densely populated neighborhoods means contractors and builders must pay attention to equipment noise levels and erosion during rainy weather.”We will pay attention to noise complaints,” Donovan said.KIPP bought a home at 94 High Rock St. in June from owners Kimsan and Nou Chhengthaw for $362,000. Donovan said contractors will tear down the house to provide a wider entrance to the building site capable of accommodating turning school buses.KIPP launched its local charter school in Holy Family Church in 2004 with an 80-student fifth grade. Its school complex is the second major Highlands construction project undertaken in the last three years. Girls Inc. renovated the vacant school building at 50 High St. into its new quarters.