10 months ago, on November 12, 2024, the School Building Committee (SBC) approved “Bloom” as the preferred design for a new Lexington High School. After competing with a few other designs, such as a simple addition and renovation to the existing school, Bloom will be a new construction built on the existing athletic fields next to the current school. This was a big milestone for the new Lexington High School (LHS) building project that many current students believe is long overdue.
“LHS should have had a new building when their student population exceeded the limit of the school building,” junior Isabella Zhang said.
Chief among many struggles in the current building are the tight hallways, inconsistent AC and heating, and small classrooms that sometimes have to accommodate over 25 students.
“The hallways get crowded a lot and that makes it easier to be late for class, especially the doors going from the quad to the main building,” freshman Eddia Liao said.
However, one of the town’s largest concerns for this project is the eye-watering price estimation: ~$660 million. The current estimate is based on recent nearby school construction projects, adjusted for cost inflation (an overall increase in the price of materials) and escalation (an increase in the price for specific goods or services) and will be more accurate once a detailed design is decided upon by the SBC.
Currently, the LHS building project is in its Schematic Design phase. During this phase, the project team collaborates with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to develop a detailed design to determine the project’s scope, budget, and schedule. The finished design will be submitted to the MSBA for approval.
Another unforeseen development in the building project is the new import tariffs enacted by the current federal administration, which will cause the cost of construction materials and equipment to rise. Tariffs were discussed during a Permanent Building Committee (PBC) Meeting on July 31, 2025, in which the Turner Construction Company placed their best estimate at a 2% impact to the cost of materials. This would translate into a roughly $8.4 million increase to the cost of the school.
However, the tariffs’ unpredictable nature means new estimates will have to be made for each update. The most recent estimates are based on what has been said and done with tariffs by President Trump in the past, such as the 25% tariff on steel from Canada and Mexico.
“They are going to reissue some new tariffs [soon], and we will do this analysis again,” Jamie Meiser, a representative from Turner Construction, said at the PBC zoom meeting in July.
An annual property tax increase of about 10-14% is currently estimated in order to fund the construction. This translates to an approximate $1700-$2400 increase for a home with the median Lexington property value of about $1.4 million. Consequently, a Debt Exclusion Vote will take place later this year (November or December) where Lexington residents will vote on whether to allow the Town to enact such a high property tax increase.
Other forms of payment are expected to alleviate this tax burden. Firstly, Lexington is eligible for a $100 million grant from the MSBA, which could increase to $110 million based on recent SBC meetings.
The Town also plans to issue municipal bonds (essentially borrowing money from anyone with the lowest interest rate offering) and draw from a Capital Stabilization Fund, which pools any new revenue from the property tax growth of specific town buildings.
If approved by the Debt Exclusion Vote, Bloom is expected to take 4.5 years to construct, which includes raising the new building, demolishing the existing one, and reconstructing any athletic fields that the project impacts. Construction is anticipated to start in late 2026, with the new school available to students for the 2029-30 school year.
“I feel positively about this project,” junior Maile Tom said. “I think at this point if you ask a lot of students, they would say this school needs a lot of upgrades.”
