Brookline Ninth School Search: What's On The List In 2018

BROOKLINE, MA — For years the School Department has been warning of a collision: the way student enrollment is going and the way Brookline parents maintain they want to prioritize small classroom size was not going to end well. Classroom sizes were edging upward. Space was becoming limited.

Schools expanded in place best they could. There were two renovations one at Runkle and the other (still ongoing) at Devotion. The School District planned to continue the rotation of renovating and expanding schools, but the student growth was faster than some expected. In the next three school years the district expects it will need 40 additional classrooms.

That's the size of a school. A couple years ago the school department and school committee dug in and started looking for a place to put all these students; they'd exhausted expand in place options, they said. The only option left was to build a ninth school.

They hired a consultant to look into options. Dozens of sites were on the list and rated based on a list of priorities that Brookline parents and residents had indicated: Was it walkable? The Planning Division recommended three from that list, the school committee agreed, but the public did not. A committee came back with three more options, including a futuristic looking green site where the Stop & Shop is situated now. All of the sites received pushback from members of the town.

Finally in May there was a vote, it was too close to call, so there was a re-vote. The Baldwin School it would be. There was a collective sigh of relief. And then there wasn't: Residents who lived in that area took up figurative arms and threatened litigation. Meanwhile, residents were sending in other ideas for sites, many of which were on that original list, including the golf course and Pine Manor, but had been dismissed for various reasons...

The committee put Pine Manor back on the list of possibilities, despite the fact the college had indicated it did not want to sell.

Where are we now?

The November 2017 Town Meeting authorized $300,000 for the school committee and select board to go back to the drawing table and open up the options for a ninth school to include current school sites, in the face of opposition to taking some of Pine Manor by eminent domain, and other legal challenges to building on the site of the old Baldwin School.

The town brought back HMFH Architects, to evaluate more options at the Baker, Pierce, Heath, Lincoln, Driscoll and Baldwin schools (think: expanding in place or building a second building on the property).

"Everything is framed by the rather detailed warrant article appropriation that was passed. That document is fairly directive about what the $300,000 is supposed to do," said School Committee Chairman David Pollack.

HMFH, the group that worked on the Devotion School renovation and before that worked on the B-Space search, is now working on a high level evaluation and cost estimate at the existing school sites.

HMFH is essentially taking a detailed look at both Baker and Pierce and running through the same set of scenarios at both. The one school scenario would provide additional capacity but not the whole capacity that's needed.

Essentially, said Pollack, the question is "What would you have to build or change or alter to make everything work properly?"

What would it take to right size one of those two schools with the educational program that the School Committee already approved for Devo? Could it be in one building? Could it be in two buildings on the same property?

Pollack expects HMFH will come back with some mix and match options: It might not be just a single building solution. He expects to have a number of options that the committee can compare and evaluate based on a matrix of priorities the town has conveyed: For example comparing walkability or reducing commuting time traffic impact against one another.

What about the other sites?

Lest you think Pine Manor College has been taken off the table; it hasn't. The town is looking at evaluating what that could cost, how access to land would work, a legal study and an environmental assessment.

They're also still looking at Baldwin, said Pollack. They're working with a traffic consultant to figure out what could be done to make it a more feasible site, he said.

We certainly want to assure the community that if the Select Board was to use eminent domain it would be done with a lot of care and consideration about how it was used and where it was used and there would be a really powerful rational about the site, there's been a lot of criticism about Pine Manor and that has to be addressed.

And still, there continues to be a search for those willing to sell land to the school. "If you know of anyone, send them our way," he said.

Has the committee looked at the Sears Road parcels for sale? Yes, he said. Several groups, including the planning department looked into three undeveloped parcels of land on Sears Road.

But there were challenges there, not least of which was that the land owner was against it being used to build a school, access to the actual lots - which had a good chunk of wetland on it - was tricky on the "porch chop" lots, he said. "We're working on providing a open and transparent explanation of why so many of these other sites just don't work," said Pollack.

What's next?

Right now the School Committee and HMFH are working their way from school to school on a listening tour, hoping to get feedback and priorities from the very school communities they're looking at possibly rebuilding.

And so far, so good. Pollack said feedback so far has been useful.
He said he hopes to have this process complete in early March. While it is unlikely the ninth school override will appear on the May ballot, Pollak said, the plan is to have cost estimate ready for voters when they vote on the other two overrides expected to be on the May ballot.

Input sessions:

Pierce School - Jan. 10 from 8:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Lincoln School – Jan. 12 from 8:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Baker School – Jan. 16 from 8:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Driscoll School – Jan. 17 from 8:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Heath School – Jan. 19 from 8:10 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
Community wide – Jan. 23, TBD