State is ready to put Pickering to the test

LYNN – The city is one step closer to beginning the process of constructing its second new middle school.The Massachusetts Building Authority (MSBA) has voted to advance the Pickering proposal to the feasibility study phase. Lynn is already well on its way to completing the Marshall Middle School, another project that qualified for the MSBA?s plan in which cities and towns can get up to 80 percent reimbursement for new school buildings.In June, the City Council and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy agreed to earmark $750,000 for the feasibility study.This is the second such proposal in the Greater Lynn area to successfully reach this phase. At the same MSBA session last week, the town of Saugus was also given the green light to go ahead with the feasibility study phase for a plan for a new high school.The next step in the process is for the city and MSBA to agree on a design. The MSBA supports the design and construction of educationally appropriate, flexible, sustainable and cost-effective public school facilities.?This feasibility study will carefully examine all potential solutions to help us develop the most effective plan,” said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg, chair of the MSBA. “We look forward to partnering with the district to move this potential project forward.”?I?m very pleased that the MSBA is going forward with this project, especially with the new Marshall Middle School still under construction,” said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy. “We still have a ways to go, but soon enough the city will have not just one, but two state-of-the-art middle school facilities, providing an environment for our students to reach their best potential.”?This is a serious need, and I truly am excited the MSBA agrees,” said Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham. “I look forward to examining design and placement options for the new school.”The current Pickering Middle School, which is overcrowded and outdated, is a 78,600-square-foot facility and has the capacity for 600 students. The school was built in 1917, with an addition made in 1953. The district has identified deficiencies in major building systems including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, mechanical and building envelope. With enrollment projected to continue growing, the district is proposing a design to accommodate approximately 1,600 students in the new Pickering. This will also relieve enrollment pressures at other middle schools within the district. After a design is accepted, the MSBA and the city would enter into a project funding agreement, in which the MSBA would commit to funding a certain percentage of the construction costs.City Council president Dan Cahill considers both the Marshall and Pickering projects vital to Lynn?s future. He said part of the city?s plan to revitalize itself is to do everything it can to keep people with school-age children here. Both middle schools are crucial to that effort, he said.?These two schools are linchpins of the city,” he said in June, when the council approved spending the money for the feasibility study. “Those are the schools that will make people stay, and reinvest, in Lynn or make them leave.?Folks might feel comfortable sending their kids to elementary schools here, but by middle school age, that?s when parents make decisions on sending their children to private schools and whether Lynn is even in their future.”Since its 2004 inception, the MSBA has made more than 1,600 site visits to more than 250 school districts as part of its due diligence process and has made more than $11.5 billion in reimbursements for school construction projects.In addition to Saugus and Pickering, the MSBA last week also approved $4.4 million in grant funding for new windows and doors at Breed Middle School and a new roof at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute.