JAMES BRITTON BALDWIN

JAMES BRITTON BALDWIN

Name: James Baldwin (Jim)
Address: 39 Potter Pond
Precinct: 3
e-mail address: James.baldwin [at] me.comCarolRSacerdote [at] gmail.com (
)phone number: 781-354-1497

Community Activities: 

  • Secretary/Trustee, Potter Pond Condo Association
  • Chair Potter Pond Goose Control Task Force (Yes. A story goes with that.)
  • Regular contributor to Lexington Lifetimes
  • Sports reporter/writer for Lexington Minuteman and other Gatehouse newspapers (ret)
  • Lexington Little League Baseball coach, 3 years (ret)
  • Lexington youth basketball coach, 2 years (ret)
  • Lexington youth soccer coach, 2 years (ret)

The School Building Committee has approved a plan, “Bloom” for the new high school and building on the current playing fields in the Center. Do you support this decision? If not, what would you propose as an alternative?

Although it has its drawbacks—any loss of open/recreational land is both personal and painful to me (although none of the plans can avoid this)—I feel strongly that Bloom is the best of the 6 plans reviewed by the SBC.  It scores either as high as or higher than the five competing designs on 17 of 18 critical factors.  Most important to me, its disruption on students and overall school operation during construction is minimal.  I feel strongly that students should not have to pay the price of a new school many of them would never get to attend.  Construction duration, another important disruption factor, is the shortest of the options (albeit along with two other designs), and the project cost is competitive.  Bloom also allows for future expansion, which, given possible population pressure applied by the state’s MBTA housing law, is another important consideration.   Finally, I’d like to thank the many people in town who’ve contributed to this enormous, challenging and most important project.  Based on the Bloom design I think Lexington will have a new high school worthy of the town’s excellent academic reputation.  Given the expertise on the project I’m confident we’ll have the wherewithal to meet any Article 97 challenges.