LYNNFIELD — April may be known for showers that bring May flowers, but for Lynnfield elementary school students, April marks the beginning of an exciting new era.
The bottom line? The elementary school-improvement project is on time and on target, with students set to move into new digs at the Huckleberry Hill and Summer Street Schools following April vacation.
“The plan has always been to be completely off site when everyone returns in September, and I am happy to say we are on target to meet that goal,” said School Building Committee Chair John Scenna. “Between LEFTFIELD (Owner’s Project Manager) and architect Tappe Associates we have had a great deal of oversight on this project, and the first phase, being building construction of the additions, is right on target.”
The project, originally expected to cost approximately $17 million, was approved by voters at a special Town Meeting in November 2020. The project had been proposed to address an unprecedented spike in the town’s elementary enrollment, which is projected to top off by the 2024-25 academic year.
Phase one of the project calls for the construction of new additions at both schools. Each wing will include five new classrooms with specialized learning spaces for all grades. Phase two calls for renovation of existing space which will create new preschool spaces and additional classroom instruction space. The project also included reconfiguration of the parking lots and entrances, updated bus pick-up and drop-off routes and new outdoor spaces including playgrounds along with new and renovated athletic fields.
Scenna said the plan all along has been to open the new classroom wings to students at both schools in April. Classes will be moved from the existing buildings to the new wings during vacation week to allow for the renovation of the existing portions of the buildings.”It’s a bit of a reshuffle as we head into the second phase, which is the renovation part, and the goal has always been to use April vacation to shuffle the deck,” he said. “We seem to be right on target to do that.”
A major concern going into construction had been ongoing supply-chain issues, an issue facing consumers, retailers and nearly every industry across the county due to the pandemic
Scenna noted that while there have been some supply-chain issues, particularly with roofing, Tappe and LEFTFIELD “have allowed us to stay well ahead of any major problems and stick to the timetable.
“We’ve been able to foreshadow the bottlenecks to keep the critical path on track,” Scenna said.
John Tomasz, Lynnfield’s director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), said that the contractor (Castagna) is on schedule at both schools. Tomasz said that a major concern at the outset of the project was weather, due to the fact that a good portion of construction would occur during the winter months. Tomasz said those concerns had not posed any major problems to date and expects that both schools will be 100 percent “weatherized by the end of the month, which will allow interior work to progress.”
But the project hasn’t been immune to other complications and headaches caused by COVID.
“One issue that has arisen is (that) COVID-19 is being contracted by some subcontractors, but overall progress is where it needs to be,” said Tomasz.
Besides weatherizing both locations, the next major step will be the demolition of the Huckleberry Hill School gym, which is scheduled to begin during February vacation.
Scenna added that the contingencies budget has been monitored “very closely,” thereby allowing reallocation of funds for new STEAM labs and softball fields which had not been a part of the original plan.
Tomasz said that the project is currently well within its budget.
Another added benefit, according to Tomasz, has been keeping change orders under control.
“Change orders have been minimal which reflects a good design,” he said.
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
