POLL: How Will You Vote in Jan. 24's Three-School Special Election

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, the voters of Lexington will be asked to finance through a debt exclusion a pair of school building projects that would spend .

Two questions will be on the ballot.

One seeks funding to rebuild , a project already an aggressive schedule as the town sticks to the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s timeline following the . The project is currently in the schematic design phase and will likely result in a .

The other will ask for $21 million-plus to renovate the and elementary schools, a project that a . 

The Estabrook project came about out of necessity. In summer 2010, officials in the air at the school and, during the fall, town and school administrators submitted an , seeking funding for the replacement of the school. Under a plan submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency, the current school can stay in use until 2014, when a new building would come online.

According to officials, renovating Bridge and Bowman is a move to improve educational programming and extend the useful life of the aging schools by another 20 or 25 years.

Though renovation plans have , the argument against, often voiced by Selectman Peter Kelley, has been in favor of rebuilding instead of “renovating 1960s schools.”

Supporters have countered that argument by saying the town simply can’t afford not to renovate these schools when the alternative would be waiting years to build schools that could each cost twice what the town would spend to renovate both.

So, with that in mind, we want to know, Do you support plans to rebuild Estabrook Elementary and renovate the Bridge and Bowman schools? Take our poll or let us know in the comments section below.