I’m sure many of us have heard about plans for a new Lexington High School building. Most students have experienced some inconvenience associated with the infrastructure of the school—including myself as a transfer student—but how much do we actually need a new school? 

The campus’s two biggest problems, in my opinion, are space and circulation. But dwelling on these problems is insufficient. Instead, I’d like to bring the design philosophy itself into question. 

The Quad has a rigid structure, and the idea of a central circulation space means that no add-on can be put in the middle of the school. Any outward extensions would dig into parking lots and be an inconvenience to the students trying to reach them. Furthermore, the sectioning-off of classrooms by subjects doesn’t allow for cross-disciplinary interactions. In an increasingly interdisciplinary age, our classrooms must be more organically integrated.

Beyond the design, LHS also doesn’t meet students’ needs. Our current school is overcrowded, with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) stating that at LHS nearly 100% of existing classrooms and much of the facilities cannot meet their intended purposes. What does this mean for students and teachers? Overcrowded hallways, mile-long lunch lines, and burning hot or freezing cold walks to class.

Of course, finding the fix is not that simple. Building a new school involves complicated administrative procedures that involve not only our school but the entire town. An average school of our size is estimated to cost around half a billion dollars, a heavy investment for the town. The MSBA is an organization that approves funding for the building of new schools, setting expectations that schools must meet. Current suggestions include “low-cost non-permanent structures (e.g., portables and tents)” to fill in for the lack of space (which doesn’t solve the lunch line crisis), comprehensive repairs (which are expensive and only hide the problem), and alternative course schedules (with free blocks and longer school days). As LHS currently “does not meet the standard”, even simple repairs to our systems will take 183 million dollars. Despite the high cost, the MSBA can only fund ~25% of our school’s cost since Lexington is not in desperate financial situations. At the end of the day, it seems likely that we’ll just get an overhaul on the current building. 

I think the most valuable lesson we can all learn from the school building process is that large-scale changes and projects are never about going in and “making it happen”; timing is crucial. Any renovations to our school will have to fit within summer break or they would interfere with normal school days and cram people into even less space. Although we all complain about the confusing schedule changes every year, the school undertakes these changes for optimization most of us never notice. The room 418 offices were removed and relocated to other offices, freeing up space for one more biology classroom, and classes that require varying amounts of space are constantly adjusted. These efforts are helpful in the short term, but are by no means solutions. Just with these simple changes, the new campus can be significantly improved for all students. 

Author’s Note: As we proceed slowly with the design phase, the Architects of SMMA are looking for student voices! Come to a Day-6 I-block Architecture Club meeting to chat about any ideas you have!