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PLANS FOR PICKERING MIDDLE SCHOOL PICK UP
ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
The door of a classroom on the bottom floor of the Pickering Middle School in Lynn.
The door of a classroom on the bottom floor of the Pickering Middle School in Lynn.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Plans to build a new Pickering Middle School will be oriented around a busy spring and summer schedule as city officials gear up to hire a project designer for the proposed 1,660-student new school.
Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said design service company representatives will tour the existing Pickering on Conomo Avenue next Tuesday afternoon to assess the school’s current physical condition and learn about middle school education programs that must be incorporated into designs for a new school.
Donovan said design and feasibility study proposals must be submitted to LeftField LLC, the Boston-based project manager for a new Pickering, by Feb. 24.
“We will evaluate and select the top three with March 2 interviews tentatively scheduled,” Donovan said.
With a prospective $130 million price tag, a new Pickering could be the most expensive school the city has ever built. Like the new Marshall Middle School set to open this spring, a new Pickering replaces a century-old building with weather-damaged ceilings, stairwells and classrooms and equipment deemed outdated for a 21st-century middle school education.
City officials are working in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authorityon the Pickering project with designer selection completed by the end of March. Donovan said an architect “will kick off the project” in April.
Pinning down where to build a new Pickering is a process already underway locally, and parents and residents will get their first chance during a May 24 public hearing to comment on the project and voice their views to project representatives and public school officials.
Donovan anticipates another hearing will be held in June as officials begin to narrow down a plan for what the school will look like and the educational programs a new Pickering will offer.
Using local school enrollment information and population forecasts, the MSBA approved a 1,660-student capacity for the new school.
Donovan said planning for Pickering will involve narrowing down proposed options for replacing Pickering, including building two separate new schools; building a new school on Conomo Avenue; building a new school and an addition to Breed Middle School; renovating the existing Pickering; renovating the current school and adding an addition and building a new school on a new site.
“If all goes well, we will submit to the MSBA in September a feasibility study,” Donovan said.
Once a plan for a new Pickering is narrowed down to a single option, detailed architectural work begins.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at tjourgensen@itemlive.com.
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