Meeting on tap this week over Marshall

LYNN – A public forum will be held this week on the proposal to replace the nearly 90-year-old Thurgood Marshall Middle School.”It’s really a chance for the public to have a voice in the project,” said School Committee member John Ford.Representatives of the architectural design team – Raymond Design Associates – and project manager Joslin Lesser will be on hand Wednesday at 7 p.m., in the school’s cafeteria.Topics up for discussion include educational programming for the new building, site selection, project schedule, and the process for working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which will fund 80 percent of the cost of the project.Superintendent Catherine Latham said there would also be an opportunity for those in attendance to ask questions and offer input.”We invite all interested parties to attend this important meeting,” she said. “The Marshall project is critical to our overall Master Plan to improve the quality of our educational facilities and provide an appropriate 21st century learning environment for our students and teachers.”Built in 1923, the Thurgood Marshall Middle School is in the feasibility study phase of the MSBA process, in which the community analyzes options for the site and design of the building. School officials are looking at three possible sites for a new Marshall, a vacant parcel on Brookline Street that was formerly home to Lynn Plastics, Keaney Park behind Lynn English High School and the existing Marshall site on Porter Street. The Brookline Street site would have to be acquired from the current property owner, Cricket Realty Holdings of Marlborough, which in July scrapped plans for a 120-unit apartment complex due to neighborhood opposition.Ford said the Brookline Street parcel would be his pick because it makes the most sense for two reasons. If they chose to build on the current site they would have to find space to house the students elsewhere during construction which would involve busing and also likely rent since the School Department wouldn’t have suitable space.Ford, along with School Committee member Donna Coppola and Rick Starbard said he is hoping for strong attendance at the forum.”The community needs to know the details especially when it goes out to bid,” Coppola said. “The more support we have then the better.””I hope people come,” Starbard said. “We need a ton of support for this and any other school because the voters will have to pay for it? I hope we’ll do three more (schools) in short order – Revere did it. We should too.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].