Work nearly complete at Ford annex

LYNN – The former Ford School annex on Bennett Street is getting a new lease on life as offices for school administrators who will move from Commercial Street starting in two weeks to free up space for a new early childhood center.The move will come at the end of construction work now in its final phases at 100 Bennett, the two-story, stone wall building constructed in the 1970s as a General Electric River Works union hall. It was converted into a satellite school for Ford students between 2000 and 2008.Workers supervised by Swampscott contractor Massey Construction spent the summer adding a fire sprinkler system in the Bennett Street building, upgrading the building?s electrical system, converting former classrooms to offices and adding energy-efficient light fixtures. The building?s well-worn doors were also getting replaced.?Approximately 100 people from three locations will be here,” said city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan.As work finishes up, school employees now working on the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute annex? second floor will begin moving on Aug. 19 from their Commercial Street offices to Bennett Street.The Tech annex? second floor space will become 10 classrooms and other rooms for 250 kindergartners who will attend school in the 90 Commercial St. building.School Committee members voted on April 23 to ease a classroom space crunch in three schools by sending kindergartners, beginning in September, to the Tech annex.Donovan said the Commercial Street building does not need a lot of work to prepare it for incoming students. But the Bennett Street building is undergoing $1.2 million in renovation that will include painting over the “NASA explorer school” logo painted on a foyer wall by former Ford students.?Essentially we took areas that might have been two classrooms and made them five offices,” Donovan said.The building?s electrical outlet capabilities are being boosted to handle computers used by employees. Thirty-year-old light fixtures are being upgraded and workers will take down the ?70s-era decor originally installed the former bar room located on the building?s ground floor.The building is surrounded by parking and Donovan said its renovated ground-floor foyer will include a receptionist?s desk and secure doors accessing other parts of the building.The parent information center, School Committee meeting room and a computer room will occupy the Bennett Street building?s first floor with offices and other rooms on the second floor.