Letter to the Editor: Say No to a Half-Old Half-New BHS
Resident Sunil Prajapati implores residents to wait for a plan to build an entirely new school.
My Dear Concerned Citizens, Board Members, Elected Officials, and School Management,
Please say NO to the proposed "Half Old/Half New" BHS building because this is NOT a solution that will take us into the 22nd century.
The building we have isn't perfect and certainly needs regular maintenance – and perhaps some TLC, too. But I believe the building structure is rock solid with many years of life left. Please do not fall for the "If we fix some we have to fix everything" trap as there are surely many workarounds to fix only what needs to be fixed to operate the building for the next 10 to 15 years while we work on having a whole new 22nd-century-ready building by 2040.
On the other hand, I believe this "half old/half new" approach will quickly fall apart, needing us to fix a problem we should not have created in the first place. Unfortunately, I think this will happen long before we pay off the debt we take, compromising our ability to manage other fiscal priorities.
The people who lived before us built and paid for the building we use today to take us well into the 21st century. It is now our moral responsibility to be prudent and build a whole new school that takes us into the 22nd century.
Many points were discussed in the September town meetings in favor of NO while the YES were mostly about "HVAC will fail", "School is not very ADA compliant", "Classrooms are dated", "If we fix some we have to fix everything" and "fixing will cost just as much as half demotion/half rebuild". All those YES arguments need a fresh look in light of these NO arguments primarily because this expensive rushed solution is not a durable one.
Why? Because this is the biggest investment we are making for many generations. Do you sincerely believe this "half old/half new" building will still be useful in 2040? Specifically the "half old" part, which is still the bigger half of everything? Will we have funds to demolish/rebuild those facilities in 2040?
Lexington is also building a whole new high school 2x the size, and Lexington is building it beautiful for a lot less thanks to state aid. Lexington is an excellent example for us to learn from in both school building and education quality.
Please say NO to "half old/half new" buildings. Please prevent the demolition.
Sunil Prajapati
Forbes Rd.
