Thompson School Makes MSBA Agenda
In a very positive development communicated by the office of State Senator Ken Donnelly, it was confirmed today that the consideration of the Thompson Elementary School will be on the Agenda for the March 25th meeting of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The Thompson Rebuild/Equity Task Force is urging as many people as possible to attend the meeting.
At the meeting, the MSBA will consider moving the Thompson School from the planning phase to the feasibility phase. This is a very important step forward in the state process. The intent of the feasibility phase, as I understand it, is to explore options to remediate problems in the condition of the school, from a complete rebuild to various levels of renovation and determine which, if any, the state will proceed with. The difference between a rebuild and a renovation is probably fairly obvious although there is one catch that is not: a renovation cannot change the ‘footprint’ of the building, that is, the current shell of the exterior must be maintained. The most significant aspect of this is that is it difficult for a school to expand if it is renovated. Furthermore, moving to the feasibility phase does not guarantee that there will be any rebuild or renovation, although clearly it is a major step in that direction. It is hard to imagine the board moving to approve the feasibility phase for a school if they did not believe that the condition of the school was in need of improvement.
The meeting will be held at 10:00 AM at 40 Broad Street, Suite 500, Boston and is expected to run two hours. The public can attend but cannot speak or present to the board during the meeting. I will be at the meeting and will use Twitter to provide live updates. For those that want to follow the progress of the meeting in real time, sign up for Twitter and follow me.
