September 19, 2024 |City of Lynn, Education, Events, Infrastructure, Lynn Public Schools, News

(Ground)Breaking news: A new Pickering Middle School is coming

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It has been a long and arduous process to get here, but the City and Lynn Public Schools are set to break ground Friday on a new Pickering Middle School that is scheduled to open in January 2027.

Work on the $175 million building project started in July, four years after the City submitted its statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority and seven years after a vote to approve a new Pickering and additional middle school in West Lynn failed.

“We are thrilled to see this project come to fruition and excited for the generations of students who will benefit from this state-of-the-art building,” Mayor Jared C. Nicholson said. “I appreciate the hard work and persistence of everyone who has gotten us to this point.”

Nicholson is chair of the 21-member Pickering Middle School Building Committee that includes Superintendent of Schools Dr. Evonne Alvarez and other LPS administrators, LPS parents, and representatives of the School Committee, City Council, multiple City departments and trade unions.

Spearheading the project are project manager LeftField Project Management, architect Raymond Design Associates and contractor Consigli Construction.

At 183,000 square feet, the new building will be almost twice the size of the current Pickering, which was built in 1905 with an addition constructed in 1953. The school will accommodate 1,100 students, double the current enrollment.

The City will receive a $104.5 million reimbursement from the MSBA and contribute $71 million, though they are pursuing rebates for geothermal wells that provide heating and cooling that could lower the City share to $64 million.

The new building will be constructed adjacent to Sisson Elementary School, as opposed to on Magnolia Park below. It will be five stories on the Magnolia Avenue side and four stories on the Conomo Avenue side. It will include a media center, combined gymnasium/auditorium, black box theater, cafeteria, rooftop learning deck, multi-purpose learning stairs in the two-story main lobby and Lynn Community Health Center satellite location.

The site will feature a public basketball court and community playground on Magnolia Avenue, as well as recreational space for Pickering and Sisson.

“We appreciate this significant investment in our students and teachers, who deserve the opportunity to learn and teach in a 21^st-century environment,” Alvarez said. “This new building will allow us to carry out our mission of creating an environment in which we educate the whole student, beyond just academics.”

Nicholson credited the state delegation for advocating for a change in the way the MSBA calculates reimbursement – from $393 per square foot to $550 — which lowered the City’s cost by almost 40 percent.

“This has been a team effort from the beginning and we wouldn’t be here without that,” the mayor said.

“Having experienced the heartbreak of our initial attempt to build a new Pickering Middle School, it brings me immense joy to now be part of the team bringing this vital project to fruition. It’s incredibly rewarding to contribute to creating a school that the Pickering students truly deserve,” said Lynn Stapleton of LeftField Project Management.

The above press release was submitted to us by the City of Lynn.