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It’s that time of year when the School Committee puts forward its list of priority capital projects addressing the needs of the buildings under its jurisdiction – with the hope at least some will be funded. Some items on the list are perennial favorites and others are making their debut.
Here is the list as presented by Director of Finance & Operations Andrew Marron.
Last year, the committee made seeking funds for demolition of the 100 plus-year -old building, which sits on the Ambrose Elementary School lot, a priority.
Since it remains unfunded, Marron moved it forward to this year’s list, despite the fact the plan is currently in a holding pattern thanks to an effort by the Historical Society to save the structure that is part of the Sanborn House estate.
- Ambrose Elementary School HVAC:
Marron said the request is to fund design work for replacing the full HVAC system, including adding air conditioning.
- Expanding air conditioning at the Vinson-Owen and McCall Middle School
This is a new request, Marron said, aimed at prioritizing the upper floors of both buildings where there have been some very high temperatures.
So high in fact, portable air conditioners were brought into almost every room, he said.
- Heat pumps at Parkhurst
Marron said replacing the heat pumps has been on the five-year plan for a while. They are overdue for replacement, fail often and have reached or exceeded end of life, he said.
- Upgrade the building management system
Marron said this new addition is to design and upgrade the system that runs all of the School Department’s and the town’s facility systems.
- Lincoln flatwork
The project has been on the capital plan for a while, so this year Marron split it into two phases.
Phase One would focus on the entry level, meandering pathways “and that monumental staircase,” he said.
Phase Two would include replacing the flat areas around the building and other perimeter work.
- Winchester High School exterior concrete
A carryover from last year, Marron said they’re asking for $30,000 to study what is really going on with areas at the high school where the concrete is failing but shouldn’t be.
- Funding for designs to upgrade the field turf and landscaping around the Lincoln Elementary School
Marron said it’s a new addition hoping to address a kind of dust bowl area as well as clean up an older playground area.
School Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji said there were three projects on the list she’d like to see considered for Winchester Committee on Community Preservation (WCCP) funds: the Lincoln flatwork, the exterior work and the HVAC for McCall.
School Committee Chair Tim Matthews said it would be interesting to see if the WCCP would consider the flatwork because it is not building work per se. Flatwork refers to horizontal concrete work, such as walk ways.
But Mnayarji argued the staircase at Lincoln is part of the building and is historic.
Matthews said there seemed to be a lot of projects in the design phase versus implementation and asked Marron how he would prioritize them.
“I present them sort of in my priority,” he said.
Marron said he put the design for cooling systems for student classrooms higher on the list than other projects, but in reality it was hard to weigh the projects because they’re all priorities.
That said, he called the plan to upgrade the turf at Lincoln more nicety than necessity right now, which is why it’s ranked last.
Matthews and member John Bellaire said they would prefer to bump the turf project up one place and knock the high school concrete work to last place.
School Committee member Karen Maruyama Bolognese suggested the field work might also be considered for WCCP funding since outdoor recreational spaces is one of the things the Community Preservation Act could fund.
All agreed air conditioning, as it concerns the health and safety of students, were important.
“Even on an 80-degree day, it’ll hit 95, 100 in those classrooms, because it has the floor-to-ceiling windows, it's not forgiving,” said Mnayarji.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett suggested they put the carriage house in abeyance until they know what the path moving forward will be for the building.
After agreeing to drop the carriage house from the list and swap turf design with the concrete work at the high school, the committee approved the 2028 project list unanimously.
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
