Marshall School wins big

LYNN – Residents answered the ballot question on whether to build a new Marshall Middle School with a resounding 5,769 votes in favor to 1,338 votes against during Tuesday’s preliminary election.”I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” said an exuberant Superintendent Catherine Latham. “I’m so glad it’s over ? it was the right thing to do.”The question won in every precinct by an average 4-1 vote, which Latham said was a bit of a surprise.”I figured everyone would vote for it, but then I was so involved in it, you just don’t know,” she said.Jim Ridley, treasurer of the Friends of Marshall Middle School Committee, likened it to a sporting event.”It doesn’t surprise me ? but you never really know until the game is over,” he said. “To me it just made a lot of sense.”Ridley said the school, which is 90 years old and plagued with a plethora of problems, needs to be replaced, voting yes is good for education, good for the community and good for property values, and it won’t affect taxes.”There are just so many pluses,” he said.Ridley noted that not everyone was thrilled with the site choice, the new school will be built on Brookline Street between Empire and Chatham streets, but “even if it’s not your first choice how could you not vote for it?”With 50,933 registered voters in the community only 7,107 actually came out to vote. It is still a positive vote, however, and that also allows the School Department to move forward and submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority a statement of interest to build a new Pickering Middle School and eventually new Cobbet and Tracy elementary schools.Latham said the School Department has been invited to an MSBA meeting on Oct. 2, she believes to discuss the new building’s schematic design, which has already been submitted. The next obstacle to tackle is finalizing the project’s budget, she added.When asked if winning at the ballot box was the biggest hurdle facing the project Latham said, “I think so. Everything is else is doable.”A virtual tour of the proposed school: