Kennedy: City will try again for new Pickering

LYNN – Pickering Middle School?s rejection from a state fix-up list last year won?t keep Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy from pressing again for state tax dollars to replace the World War I-era school.A city “statement of interest” outlining the need to build a new Pickering did not make the cut when state School Building Authority officials decided last year how to spend $500 million on public school repair and replacement projects.Kennedy on Tuesday said the city?s success in getting a new Marshall Middle School approved and in securing state money for two major school repair projects may have made authority officials reluctant to give another Lynn project the green light.Groundbreaking on the Marshall project is scheduled for April 29, School Superintendent Catherine Latham announced last week.City officials have given state decision-makers up-close looks at Pickering?s water-stained ceilings and peeling stairwell walls.?I?m comfortable they?ve seen the need, but there are 350 other communities as well,” Kennedy said.Pickering has endured, Kennedy said, “another year of wear and tear.” The renewed push to replace the school located near Wyoma Square comes as school administrators push to secure $1.4 million to replace the Harrington and Connery school roofs.?You?re looking at roofs that are 24 and 30 years old,” said city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan.Initial plans call for state tax dollars to pay for most of the roof work with the city contributing $280,000 to pay for the projects.With 636 students attending Harrington and 585 enrolled in Connery, the two schools are among the city?s biggest elementary schools. Donovan said other elementary schools, including Ingalls, Drewicz and Ford, underwent roof work in 2006, and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute and the Aborn School recently received roof work.Donovan said new roofs reduce school energy needs.Security improvements at local public schools total more than $500,000 over the last several years, including $32,000 spent on seven machines that produce identification badges assigned to school visitors.?It?s a minimal amount of money to pay for such a benefit,” Kennedy said.School security officer Robert Ferrari said the identification requirement goes hand in hand with increased security training for school administrators and teachers who learn security procedures, including restricting school access to one entryway.?The best thing we have is well-trained people,” Ferrari said.