I support the decision to submit the Bloom C.5b design option in the Preferred Schematic Report Submission.

Reviewing information publicly available on the Lexington Public Schools website gives a thorough picture of the process Lexington has engaged in to reach this decision. The 19 options originally considered are there, as well as cost and timing estimates for each. I believe the chosen design balances support for the educational program, access to the outside, security, cost and efficiency, and educational/athletic disruption during the multi-year process of construction.

Along with other members of the public, I also attended one of the working sessions with probably 75 or more people from the involved boards and committees (and members of the public) rotating through presentations and discussions on funding strategies to reduce the impact on tax payers, location and design options, and consideration of the MBTA communities building anticipated, along with how the designs could accommodate population increases. I was reassured by the level of detail the staff and board/committee members were considering in the models and projections discussed with consultants, as well as the number of people involved. I understand why people have concerns about elements of any of our options, including the selected one, but I believe this is the best solution for Lexington. That doesn’t mean any of the solutions would be as easy as it would be if we had a freestanding space on which to build anew, with no disruption. Unfortunately we don’t. But we will come out in the end with what we need. For example, we are short at least 8 playing fields in Lexington, so losing access to fields temporarily will be tough for a bit, but going through the process to build the school and reconstruct fields will serve us best for the long term.

We need to replace our 75-year old high school with something that will last another 50-75 years – we have “kicked the can down the road” as far as the road goes. As someone who has benefited from the investment prior generations made (and investments I made to keep getting use out of that space as long as possible), I feel that I owe it to future generations to make these investments now. In fact, every moment we take before going out to bid, costs increase; by delaying year after year, we now have a bigger price to pay, and more costly alternatives (I believe the statements that doing nothing costs us $300 million; and the option which involved phasing in gets a lesser result over a more disruptive and longer time period). We will continue to dedicate some new growth from commercial areas to reducing the cost to the tax payer, as well as use money set aside for that purpose over recent years. Our financial committees have been advising and admonishing Town Meeting to make decisions which would help us as we approached this large project, and we have been listening to them.

We are complying with the Massachusetts School Building process which is long and clear about what steps we need to take in order to receive partial reimbursement for qualifying costs. I believe the statements that the alternatives put forward by others at this point would put that at risk. We need that money from the state in addition to the preparatory steps we have taken on our own. I also believe that if we need to adapt from what we have recommended, the process we have established will serve us, with values of transparency and use of community dialogue as well as efficiency of informed decision-making by key representatives. I support our process and the outcome.