Top 10 Myths About the LHS Building Project

Dr. Hackett has stated that from an educator’s perspective, administering a high school larger than Bloom at its maximum capacity of 3,500+ is untenable. Bloom is the practical maximum size high school for Lexington. We can confidently build the new LHS now, knowing that there is built in flexibility to handle the enrollment impacts of the MBTA developments. Please see Myth #4 for more details on enrollment concerns.

In addition, we simply cannot afford to wait any longer. Cost escalation is a reality, and there is a hefty price tag associated with delays: inflation in construction, material, and labor costs; ever increasing maintenance costs to limp along the existing buildings, the condition of which is already negatively impacting our children’s education; the large price tag associated with the potential catastrophic failure of systems in the current buildings. And most importantly, abandoning the Bloom plan at this point in the process almost certainly waives the ~$100 million in MSBA funding for the new LHS. The more we delay, the more we pay.

Click to close...

Lexington is participating in the MSBA building process, which is anticipated to contribute ~$100 million to the project. The MSBA places strict controls on school building projects, requiring districts to adhere to state guidelines in order to protect the state’s financial investment in these buildings. The MSBA does not allow unnecessary or extravagant features. LHS is the 8th largest high school in Massachusetts. There are sections of the Bloom design where the SBC has determined that some additional square footage beyond the MSBA’s reimbursement parameters is required to meet our Educational Plan. Lexington pays for 100% of that necessary difference. For example:

• The MSBA participates in paying for an auditorium of up to 750 seats, but allows larger schools to build 1,000 seats—250 extra seats at their expense—if needed. Lexington’s large cohort sizes and exceptionally high student participation in performing arts programs require this larger space.
• Similarly, the MSBA reimburses for a maximum size gymnasium of 12,000 sq ft, but will allow school districts to build an 18,000 sq ft gym if needed. With our enrollment size, it is challenging to schedule both sufficient physical education for all students and the competing space needs for our large number of sports teams in the smaller space. An 18,000 sq ft gym is being planned to accommodate these ongoing needs.
• LHS is home to a more extensive and robust special education program than most public high schools, requiring significantly more space than is typical. Lexington is proposing 35,000 sq ft for special education to meet the requirements of our Educational Plan, which exceeds the MSBA guidelines by approximately 11,000 sq ft. Lexington pays for 100% of that necessary difference. The additional square footage addresses the current inadequacy of our space for students with disabilities. Lexington was a founding member of the LABBB Collaborative that was established nearly 60 years ago. LABBB now services students from over 70 Massachusetts communities, serving students with intensive needs, life skills and transitional needs, and other essential programming for students with disabilities.

Click to close...

Bloom is 125,000+ sq ft larger than the current LHS. It is designed to accommodate future enrollment increases if needed. LPS is carefully tracking projected enrollment increases based on current cohort sizes plus expected occupancy from the multi-dwelling development projects being built. LPS has done an enrollment analysis of the historic density of LHS students by housing type and bedroom count, and continually refines its analysis based on new development proposals. All indications are that Bloom is flexible enough to handle these anticipated enrollment increases.

Prior to these new housing developments being proposed, LPS enrollment was projected to go down in the coming years. But even if it doesn’t, LPS administration has three primary strategies to ensure Bloom is the right size when it opens:

• Bloom is designed for 2,395 students at 85% utilization. Maximizing the utilization rate of the school to 95% yields space for approximately 400 more students, or 2,800 total.
• Expansion into the 20,000 sq ft space designated for the Central Office yields space for approximately 300 more students, or 3,100 total.
• Additional building expansion yields space for approximately 500 more students, or 3,600 total.

In the current lower grades that will be the first to attend the new LHS when it opens in Fall 2029, enrollment is 20% less than the current LHS grades. Even though the Bloom design could accommodate a large number of students, should our high school population someday exceed Bloom’s significantly larger capacity, LPS is already evaluating other creative options to manage enrollment.

Click to close...

The SBC and Permanent Building Committee have also continued to explore the feasibility and costs of “Addition/Renovation” options similar to the concept presented in the Town’s 2015 Master Plan, as well as “Staged” plans, both of which are often referenced by community members. The SBC discussed the major challenges with renovating the existing buildings. These include issues with undersized structural bays that cannot accommodate modern classrooms, the need for temporary core building services while upgrades are made, temporary shoring of new foundations for added loads, and issues with floor to floor “deck height” that require ramping to connect old and new spaces (Sept. 3, 2024 recording, starting at 39:15 minute mark and presentation slides 47-88). The PBC concluded that add/reno plans are no longer a cost-effective option. 

Both our Educational Program and the condition of the existing buildings have changed in the 10 years since the 2015 Master Plan was developed. All of the add/reno and staged options are more expensive (projected to cost more than $850 million), take longer to build, and are significantly more disruptive to students than Bloom, a single build project on the fields. Staged plans by definition take longer to complete, and require many more years of student use of and maintenance on our existing failing buildings. Please see recent professional cost estimates (slides 60-65) of staged and add/reno projects, provided by Lexington’s design partner, SMMA. All of these estimates are $70-200 MILLION HIGHER than Bloom estimates.

Click to close...

The costs of building a school are mainly based on square footage. With dramatic escalation in post-pandemic construction costs across the region, the cost per square foot for schools is around $1,300/sq ft right now, and continuing to rise each year. Replacing the Foreign Language building with a new 200,000 sq ft building will cost approximately $260 million. It would not, as proponents claim, be cheaper to build because it’s “just a simple rectangular shell.” It would need to be outfitted with the same features and equipment that any school building requires: science labs, specialized education spaces, cafeteria, kitchen, art spaces, etc.

In addition, a phased project would require Lexington to spend TENS OF MILLIONS for temporary modular classrooms to accommodate students during the construction phase. At the conclusion of Phase 1, we would have a half-complete project. We would be left to continue fixing and updating the remaining LHS buildings, and still need to pay for and live through the Phase 2 construction. This staged plan will cost AT LEAST $250 MILLION MORE and take several more years to complete than Bloom.

Lastly, the staged project does not meet our Educational Plan, which means Lexington would receive NO REIMBURSEMENT from the MSBA for this project. Even if it did qualify, although the MSBA reimbursement rate starts at 31 percent, the effective reimbursement rate is much lower for ALL projects in the state. This is due to certain caps the MSBA places on reimbursements. For example, there is a cap on construction costs of $645 per square foot, and there are other caps on site work, furniture, and technology reimbursements.

Click to close...

Overcrowding at LHS is a complex problem that impacts every aspect of the school. It is not solved by simply adding more classrooms and/or replacing one building. The proposed replacement for the World Language building is approximately 200,000 square feet. In contrast, Bloom is approximately 440,000 square feet (this does not include the Central Office space or field house).

Replacing one part of LHS with a modern building means that some classrooms will be the correct size, but classrooms in the existing buildings will remain much too small. We would have a two-tiered system, with some students being educated in a modern 21st century facility and others stuck in the past. This creates legitimate equity concerns within the LHS facility. 

In addition, adding a new 200,000 square foot building does not fulfill a key MSBA funding requirement: we must be able to meet our Educational Plan. If Lexington fails to meet this requirement, the MSBA would most likely decline to participate in the staged project, leaving our taxpayers to pay for the project in its entirety, without state support.

Click to close...

There are currently eight playing fields at the Center Recreation Complex. Any recreation fields and areas displaced by the new LHS building project will be reconstructed on the land where the existing high school is now. All the costs of this reconstruction are included in the price of the project. Anticipated field impacts:

And a bonus: Since the footprint of the Bloom project is smaller than the current high school buildings, there will actually be an overall net gain in open space on the LHS property.

Click to close...

Over the past twenty years, the MSBA has participated in over 1,000 projects and made over $17 billion in reimbursements to communities across the state. In short, this is a large and complex state organization with well-defined procedures in place that apply uniformly to every city, town, and regional school district in Massachusetts. Significant and unprecedented changes to how the MSBA oversees projects and distributes reimbursements are not going to happen because Lexington declares that changes should be made to accommodate our specific situation.

Lexington was invited into the MSBA’s process for the LHS project in March 2022, on our third try. That year, the MSBA only invited 17 of the 58 applicants into their Eligibility Period. The MSBA base their decisions on need and urgency as expressed by the applying school district. 

It’s important to understand that if we somehow derail this project now, Lexington would likely have to go back to the beginning of the preliminary design phase, or terminate its partnership with the MSBA and lose $100 million in state funding. At that point, we would either pay for the entire project on our own, or restart the MSBA application process for a different LHS project and hope to be selected again. There is no queue in which we would simply wait to be funded again. The MSBA would reevaluate the entire project, knowing that we abandoned our previous plans. The minimum delay for starting over with the design process is 2 years. The delay as a result of any other option would be even longer. 

Many school districts apply for several years before they receive MSBA funding, and some are consistently rejected year after year. Burlington has applied to the MSBA for high school renovation funds for 10 consecutive years, and has yet to be invited into the process. If we do not wish to continue our partnership with the MSBA, many other schools will get approved for funding before we get a second invitation for a high school project.

Click to close...

The goal of Article 97 is to ensure no net loss of protected open space. There were 22 land swaps in 2023-2024 alone, including three associated with school building projects in Milton, Brookline, and Lynn. The work of the SBC over the past two years included an extensive search for a suitable site for a new or renovated high school. The most cost-effective solution that meets our needs is Bloom, which requires using a portion of currently protected land that will be relocated from one side of the campus to the other. Unfortunately, there are no other suitable parcels of land available where the Town can build a new high school. 

Article 97 requires the Town to notify the public and the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs of the proposed swap, conduct an alternatives analysis, and provide replacement land of equal or greater natural resource value, acreage, and monetary value. The LHS building project meets all of these requirements, and the costs for compliance are included in the Bloom cost estimates. Our Owner’s Project Manager, designer, construction manager, the SBC, and Town administrative staff do not foresee any issues receiving approval from the State Legislature on this standard building practice.

Click to close...