11/13: Lexington High School Building Project Update for Town Meeting 

The Recreation Committee has endorsed the Bloom design option.

Next Wednesday, October 30th is the next LHS Project Community Forum

Announcement for PTO Presidents: October 30th LHS Project Community Forum

Current LHS conditions: It needs a new roof, new windows, new doors, new HVAC, new plumbing, new electrical, and it requires ADA upgrades. LHS is also substantially overcrowded; LHS was built for 1,850 students and currently has 2,400 students. LHS is severely overcrowded, has undersized classrooms, undersized shared spaces (such as the gymnasium and cafeteria), inadequate science labs, inadequate units for students with disabilities, and more.  Lexington’s leaders have deliberately deferred replacement of systems on the high school in anticipation of this project. Should the Debt Exclusion vote fail, the town is still responsible for a $250 to $300M code upgrade PLUS an addition to mitigate the overcrowding. 

Further, a failed Debt Exclusion means Lexington will put state funding at risk: 

We will be faced with moving forward with no clear plan or timeline to create a school to meet the needs of our students.

On October 21, 2024, the SBC (School Building Committee) voted  to move forward with two options, D.2 Weave (New Construction – Phased in Place (on current LHS site)) and C.5b Bloom (New Construction – Built on Fields).

C.5b Bloom (New Construction – Built on Fields) is a revised option that responds to the desires of Lexington’s Recreation Committee by preserving in place the C1 Baseball field and the C2 Softball field as well as C7 (a field that lays between C1 and C2). These are the lighted softball + baseball playing fields. (All the other fields will be recreated but moved to the other side of the campus.) 

It will take approximately 3 years to build the building of C.5b Bloom (and an additional 1.5 years for site work on the old footprint afterwards). The D.2 Weave (New Construction – Phased in Place (on current LHS site)) construction duration will take 6.5 years.

The  D.2 Weave (New Construction – Phased in Place (on current LHS site)) is estimated to cost $720M and C.5b Bloom (New Construction – Built on Fields) is estimated to cost $648M. These estimates include the new high school, the central office and a renovated Field House. 

The phased in place on the current LHS site option is projected to cost $72M more than building new on the fields. It is also projected to take an additional 2 to 3 years to build. 

This was the language from the Bowman PTO Vote:

At the first Bowman PTO meeting for the 2024-2025 school year on September 12, 2024, there was a unanimous YES vote from all eligible voting members that Bowman PTO advocates and supports the construction of the “C. New Construction – On Fields” of Lexington High School.