PHOTOS: Topping Off a New Estabrook School

The ceremonial final beam was hosted and secured to the framework on Wednesday, March 13 at the elementary school in Lexington, the latest step toward a new school and pushing the PCB saga into the past.

  Exciting news out of Estabrook School, where the design team dropped its final, ceremonial framework beam before an eager audience earlier this week. According to an announcement from Regan Communications, the topping off ceremony was attended by hundreds of students and residents, who watched the final beam hoisted up and secured into the framework. Estabrook students reportedly had he chance to sign the final beam before it was put in place. Shawmut Design and Construction was the construction company selected to build the new Estabrook Elementary School in the fall of 2012. And this latest ceremony comes just a few months after an October groundbreaking ceremony, which marked the ceremonial start of the building project. The …

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PHOTOS: Breaking Ground for a New Estabrook Elementary School

After the discovery of PCBs before the 2010-2011 school year, the Lexington elementary school has been on the fast track through the MSBA approval process and now onto construction.

Here at Lexington’s Estabrook Elementary School for a day that’s been two long, hard years in the making, State Treasurer Steve Grossman, the chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, looked to the podium he stood behind to find the perfect words to open and close his address. “I don’t think any phrase could be better than ‘What a morning in America,’” Grossman said, taking small liberties with the town motto, “What a glorious morning for America,” scripted in the town seal that adorned his podium. “What a glorious morning here in Lexington, a perfect day, a beautiful day for a new beginning.”  The other officials felt the same way. They were here for a groundbreaking ceremony to at Estabrook Elementary School, marking the …

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mjsa1956

8:06 pm on Friday, October 19, 2012

Very strange, but not surprising.   more ›

Special Town Meeting Says Yes to Estabrook

By unanimous voice vote, an April 2 special Town Meeting approved a new Estabrook School building project with a few moving parts and potential to earn LEED Silver certification and 37 percent reimbursement from the MSBA.

The Lexington Public Schools are one step closer to making polychlorinated biphenyls a part of Estabrook Elementary School’s past. A special Town Meeting on Monday, April 2, approved funding for a new Estabrook School, which landed on the fast track to new construction following the discovery of elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the school at the start of the 2010-2011 school year. The project was previously approved through a debt exclusion vote at a special town election in January and, just last week, got the nod from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to advance planning into the project scope and budget phase. On Monday, Town Meeting unanimously approved an appropriation of $40,792,248 for the …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: April 2

Town Meeting, a solar talk, autism awareness and more today in Lexington.

1. Estabrook's Special Town Meeting Tonight: A special Town Meeting tonight will vote on appropriating almost $41 million for a new Estabrook Elementary School. Lexington voters hit the polls in January to approve an override, and the Massachusetts School Building Authority voted last Wednesday to advance planning into the project scope and budget phase. MSBA could fund a little more than $12 million of the approximately $41 million project cost. 2. More Town Meeting Talk: Although annual Town Meeting kicked off last week, the budgetary business had to wait until this week, as town bylaws stipulate it cannot be taken up until four weeks after being delivered to Town Meeting members. As such, today, April 2, is the first day it can be acted…

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UPDATED: Lexington Voters Say 'Yes for Our Schools' (PHOTOS)

A pair of ballot questions seeking more than $60 million for elementary school building projects passed overwhelmingly during a special election held Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The preliminary results are in and they indicate resounding support for the debt exclusion questions seeking funding for repairs to the Bridge and Bowman elementary schools and rebuilding Estabrook Elementary. Lexington voters yesterday were asked to finance through debt exclusion overrides a pair of school building projects totalling about $60 million and the 27 percent or so who turned out solidly responded to the "Yes for Our Schools" rallying call of the campaign supporting the projects. Voter participation was significantly lower than expected, with turnout topping 30 percent in only percincts 2, 4 and 7. The polling places for those precincts were at the Bowman, Bridge and Estabrook schools, respectively. The first question, to fund…

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Nov. 3

Trick-or-Treating with Lexington businesses and more today around town.

1. The aftermath of Saturday's snowfall whited out Halloween night, but kids can trick-or-treat at dozens of local businesses from 2 to 5 p.m. today as the Lexington Retailers Association holds its 10th annual Trick or Treat With Lexington Businesses event. 2.  A quarterly meeting of Minuteman High School's municipal representatives will be held at 7:30 a.m. this morning at the regional vocational school's Marrett Road campus. Agenda items include explanations on the MSBA process and an open discussion. 3. Other public meetings posted for today on the town website include the Council on Aging at 3:30 p.m. at the Senior Center; the Commission on Disability at 5:45 p.m. at the Cary Memorial Building; the Metropolitan Area Planning Council at…

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Question of the Day: Accessing Estabrook?

Share your opinions in the comments.

The Estabrook School Access Ad Hoc Task Force met for the first time last night to introduce itself to the community, set goals and establish a timeline. The 15-member ETF, charged with fleshing out site access issues with construction on the new Estabrook Elementary School, was created in mid-May after Town Meeting decided to double its original appropriaiton for design and engineering right-of-way modifications and focus on access to Estabrook, rather than just on Robinson Road. Need for a new Estabrook School came to the fore last year after PCBs were discovered in the school. Town officials appropriated $1 million for PCB remediation and learned the MSBA would reimburse up to 40 percent of the cost of new school construction, officials…

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