On Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, Lexington held a special election for the new school building. More than 60% of voters voted in favor of the new high school, which will cost over 600 million dollars. Despite the high costs associated with the project and potential disruptions caused by construction, the current state of Lexington High School underscores the urgent need for a replacement.
Built in 1953, the current building faces overcapacity and failing infrastructure. Ask any student or staff member who walks the walls of LHS 180 days of the year, and they will tell you about the hallway traffic or the broken Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, major inconveniences that disrupt both learning and teaching.
The LHS hallways, originally designed to accommodate a student population of just 1,800, are far too narrow to accommodate the over 2,400 students now enrolled. This problem becomes more apparent during passing times, when students need to get from one class to another within five minutes; this issue has been further intensified by the stricter attendance policies implemented this school year. Meanwhile, the basis of when to leave and attend class is not firmly established: the building’s ever-changing clocks, which are rarely synchronized with the actual time, can undermine lessons and learning.
Hallways are not the only area in which more space is needed: LHS’s two Commons are too small to seat the hundreds of students, even across three lunch periods. This issue becomes pronounced during the winter months or days of bad weather, conditions that force everyone to sit inside. A makeshift solution has been to spill seating into the hallways of the main building, but this further increases hallway congestion and can be uncomfortable for both those eating and those walking by.
Recent events have highlighted the need for a new building: extreme weather events during the winter stress the aging infrastructure. On Dec. 2, LHS was shut down for the entire day due to a frozen pipe bursting and flooding the lower quad with water. Even on “normal days”, problems in the school’s HVAC systems have resulted in some classrooms being noisy, hot, and humid, while others feel freezing cold. In warmer weather, many classrooms lack proper air conditioning and ventilation.
While the high cost of the new project is certainly a concern among some residents of the town, the current state of the school would still require millions of dollars worth of repair in order to continue running, and we would still be left with the same old school. Additionally, as inflation continues to rise, any future plan for a new building will likely be even more expensive than the current plan.
In order to continue to foster a safe, comfortable, and productive learning environment for the LHS community, we need to consider the building in which that environment exists. Yes was the right answer.
