Good Morning, Neighbors!

Quick question for you: How is it August already? Someone hit the pause button. I’m not ready for summer to be almost over!

This evening, the Elementary School Building Committee will have their first meeting since the submission of the preliminary design plan to the state. For a longer explanation of what this means, you can find recaps of previous meetings of the School Building Committee below.

The tl;dr, however, is this: The first phase of the process to address Fox Hill with reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) culminated last month with the School Building Committee submitting the Program Design Plan (PDP), which includes the Educational Plan and Space Summary. The Ed Plan outlines the current educational program, and the Space Summary outlines the space required to meet that program.

Fun fact: Fox Hill is currently 64,000 square feet. With no changes to the program and 100 fewer students, the proposed new Fox Hill would be 91,000 square feet, suggesting the school is very undersized for the program it offers and the students it serves.

Now that the PDP has been approved by the School Building Committee and sent to the state (after some controversy at School Committee), the Committee can start investigating the eight possible options. These options include (a) base repairs and code improvements to Fox Hill for 325 and 640 students, (b) renovation/additions to Fox Hill or Pine Glen for 325 and 640 students, and (c) construction of a new school for 325 or 640 students. Option (a) wouldn’t meet the education plan, and option (b) would be difficult if not impossible to pull off while maintaining students in place, so in all likelihood we’ll be constructing a new school, and most of the community conversation has been centered around those options.

The Committee has previously stated they won’t be making final decisions about which option they’ll choose until later this year. They have a matrix they’ll use to weigh out the important considerations for each option, and I imagine they’ll be using it this evening.

I encourage everyone to start paying attention to this now if you’re not already, because one way or another the entire community will be affected—be it by traffic flow changes, tax increases, or redistricting.

There will be public participation at the beginning and the end of this meeting, for 15 minutes each.

Previous recaps:

• Broad strokes of what the PDP, which includes the Educational Program & Space Summary, entails
• An incomplete chronicle of community input
• More in-depth  information about the PDP
• Cost estimates for the project options
• All minutes, agendas, schedules and documents are posted at the project website.

Today in Burlington

Municipal Meetings and Community Events

• 10:30 AM - Sensory Play at the library
• 6:00 PM - School Committee Joint Fox Hill School Building Subcommittee will begin investigating the eight options for the elementary school project and discuss the possibility of allowing the town to vote on the two primary options. (BHS and Virtual)
• 6:30 PM - Parks & Recreation Family Concert: Moose Juice
• 7:00 PM - Board of Appeals will continue public hearings for a residential project on Chandler Road and a sign variance for The Paper Store. (Public Hearings to begin at 7:30 in Town Hall Main Hearing Room)

That is all for today. I hope you have a lovely one, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Nicci

Thanks for reading the Buzz! Share this issue with someone who will Google the term “Moose Juice”!