LYNN — The timeline for a new Pickering Middle School may be up in the air, as the project to build it faces budget uncertainty.
The Pickering Middle School Building Committee voted Wednesday to extend the project’s schematic-design period, with a final schematic design to be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Association by Oct. 26.
According to the project’s website, schematic design is the process of developing the preferred concept for a site. It also includes identifying and establishing the full scope of work and schedule for a project to the degree that total costs can be confidently established for its duration.
“We’ve been trying to work with the city to get the project to a cost that they can afford to do without having to go into any sort of debt exclusion,” said Lynn Stapleton, a project executive from LeftField, a project-management firm working on the new school.
According to Stapleton, the extension is a strategic move that will allow the city to take advantage of an expected bump to the MSBA’s reimbursement amount, which currently sits at $393 per square foot.
“What we’re understanding is there may be the potential for additional increases from MSBA in terms of reimbursements,” Stapleton said. “We’re trying to time all this in such a way that it benefits the city in terms of cost.”
Stapleton said that while she could not commit to the school opening on time for the start of the 2026-27 school year, it will be possible for the project to make up for some of the lost time in the future stages of the process.
“With this two-month delay in the process, it does mean that we’re very tight for a September 2026 opening,” she said. “However, if we get a jump-start on design and development in November, we have a chance to mitigate this schedule extension.”
Stapleton said the committee aims to receive approval from the MSBA for the project’s budget, scope, and scale, and from the City Council for the project’s funding in December.
“We were on an accelerated schedule. We knew that we were trying to get the school opened as soon as possible just because of the condition of the existing Pickering School,” Stapleton said.
Mayor Jared Nicholson, who is a member of the Pickering Middle School Building Committee, said it is important to make sure that the project is done right.
“We recognize the urgency of getting this school built and opened,” Nicholson said. “We can be hopeful that we can make up the time, but we also need to be confident we can make this work. The time is worth it.”
According to the project’s website, the current Pickering Middle School was built in 1905, and an addition to it was constructed in 1953. The city formally stated interest in the project to build a new Pickering School in March 2020.
