I. The LHS Building Project: (Next SBC meeting is Feb 24 12-2pm-here's the webinar link).

The Bloom Design and Why support it by voting for the anticipated Debt Exclusion Vote December 2025:

1. There is NO OTHER PROJECT DESIGN BUT THE BLOOM, SO NO ALTERNATIVE PHASED DESIGN OPTION, the MSBA will consider moving forward. 

2. Lexington will absolutely lose the $100M MSBA Reimbursement for the high school project. There are no powers that be that will change this outcome. I've shared the f

3. Lexington will also absolutely lose any possibility of MSBA approval on future school projects for many years to come.

4. THE COST OF DOING NOTHING: Lexington will still be hit with at least a $300M debt needed to repair our current severely undersized school that will absolutely have to be paid for by our taxes either through another Debt Exclusion for the $300M without any MSBA reimbursements, or through an Override (means our taxes are permanently increased). 

5. Accreditation : Accreditation in Massachusetts is handked by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).The last NEASC accreditation site visit to Lexington High School was in 2021. Currently, if not for the MSBA process, our high school would be on probation. While its unlikely our town would allow for LHS to lose accreditation, what does losing accreditation mean for our students? 2 key take aways: LHS diploma would no longer be considered valid by colleges and employers and LHS students would not be eligible for federal financial aid.

The Permanent Building Committee approved moving forward with the “Bloom” for the new high school and building on the current playing fields in the Center. I wholeheartedly support the Bloom plan. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) requires all approved school constructions to meet key standards outlined in their Education Plan for affordability, sustainability, and efficiency, and the Bloom plan fully satisfies these requirements. Bloom is designed with sufficient capacity to accommodate over 3,300 students (at 100% capacity), with additional expandability built into the design. It can be constructed within the shortest time frame, with minimal disruption to students attending the school during construction. With the projected $100M reimbursement rate from MSBA, Bloom is the most cost-effective option for the Town of Lexington, ensuring we continue to provide the best education possible for our students and set the foundation for a bright future for Lexington's school system. There is NO OTHER PROJECT DESIGN BUT THE BLOOM, SO NO ALTERNATIVE PHASED DESIGN OPTION, the MSBA will consider moving forward. 

Bloom Design for Lexington High School: The Town of Lexington, by submitting its Preferred Schematic Report (PSR) on December 13, 2024, advanced Bloom to the second stage of the MSBA building process and establishment of the Permanent Building Committee (PBC), consisting of School Building Committee members, Dore & Whittier (Owner's Project Manager), SMMA (Architect Project Management) and Turner Construction (the Construction Manager at Risk, CMAR) . The PSR, developed in collaboration with the MSBA, refines the educational program, evaluates alternatives, and recommends the most cost-effective solution. The MSBA must approve both the Preliminary Design Program and the PSR before the project can be moved to the next stage,  Schematic Design. The report will be reviewed for authorization at the MSBA Board meetings in February and April 2025. The PBC met Feb 20 @5PM to discuss community design submissions. Here is the link to the meeting recording, meeting agenda and  the presentation slides. The next meeting is scheduled for Feb 24.

I have extracted and listed the key facts from the Preferred Schematic Report (PSR) below:

• Existing Building Size: Lexington High School is documented to be 352,000 gross square feet. By my calculation: With 2419 LHS students (data from LPS in Sep 2024, so numbers might differ now), we were told that we are currently at 98.5% capacity. This is the equivalent of  (352,000 x 0.985)/2419 =143.33 gross sq ft (gsft) per LHS student.

• Bloom Proposed Total Building Gross Floor Area (GFA): 509,516 square feet (34,000 Field House; 475,116 New Construction).  By my calculation: The new build at 475,116/143.33 gfa = 3315 students at 100% LHS student capacity not including the ad/renovated field house. Here is a real number comparison: Stuyvesant High School, my alma mater is a 10 story building that was built in 1987 in NYC, is 402,000 sq ft  (73,126 sq ft/gfa less than Bloom). The cost was $149 million in 1987. Today, the 402,000 sqft/gfa building still fulfills the educational requirements of over 3200 high school students (3258 in 2023-24, 123.39 gfa/student).

• Estimated Total Project Cost: The estimated Total Project Cost for the Lexington High School project, which includes the Bloom alternative, is $662,000,000 (not inclusive of the $100M MSBA and $40M Capital Stabilization Funds), based on escalation to the midpoint of construction in July 2028. This figure includes space for the Central Administration Office and a renovation and addition to the existing Field House.

• Estimated Total Construction Costs: $529,700,000. Here is the recording agenda and slides for the Feb 20, 25 PBC meeting: SMMA estimates after MSBA contribution as of 2/13/2025 is $552 million. I have copied and pasted an image from the PBC Slide #40  at the bottom of this website.

• Local Funding and Authorization: Funding will likely be through Debt Exclusion, which requires a referendum election where voters would exempt the Town’s borrowing from the limits of Proposition 2 and ½. The borrowing would be through General Obligation State Qualified Bonds that are either 25-year or 30-year level debt service bonds

• MSBA Reimbursement: The Town’s projected reimbursement rate is 31% of eligible project costs, with MSBA financing contingent on a successful Debt Exclusion referendum. Lexington intends to seek additional incentive points for major reconstruction, a High Efficiency Green School, and Best Practice for Maintenance and Capital Planning. No additional large municipal projects are planned until after the LHS construction is completed around 2030-2032.  

• Town's Debt Service and Tax Impact Analysis: Town’s anticipated share of project costs is stated to be capped at (not to exceed) $550 million. It's important to follow upcoming PBC meetings to learn how they plan to implement cost-saving measures to meet this limit.

• Local Funding and Authorization: Funding will likely be through Debt Exclusion, which requires a referendum election where voters would exempt the Town’s borrowing from the limits of Proposition 2 and ½. The borrowing would be through General Obligation State Qualified Bonds that are either 25-year or 30-year level debt service bonds.

• Capital Stabilization Fund: The Town built a Capital Stabilization reserve fund of approximately $40 million to mitigate the project's impact on taxpayers. The town also has debt capacity within the levy limit to absorb a portion of the annual debt service

• Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA): A Preliminary PSR LCCA analysis was presented in July and August 2024. The 75-year Comprehensive LCCA analysis reflects estimated installation, replacement, maintenance, and utility energy costs.

• Energy Costs: Energy costs are based on energy modeling analysis, using the 2023-24 Lexington utility bills, with an average [blended] annual $0.24/kWh (baseline $1.40/Therm), with a 3% cost escalation rate. The energy costs do not yet include peak load reductions expected out of the project Solar PV/Battery Storage.

• Demolition and New Fields: The total costs for demolition of the Central Office and installation of new fields are estimated to be in the range of $5M - $8M. The deconstruction of the Central Office building is approximately $1.5M, and the two multiuse fields with lights would be in the range of $3.6M - $6.1M, depending on the plan.

• Article 97: The project's timeline allocates 1195 days for Article 97-related activities, spanning from June 1, 2022, to December 29, 2026. Town meeting approval is required for the land swap, which is planned for 21 days, from April 1, 2025, to April 29, 2025. State Legislative Approval: Preparation and filing for State Legislative approval of the Article 97 Bill is estimated to take 300 days, from January 2, 2025, to February 25, 2026. State Legislative approval of Article 97 is projected to take 133 days, from February 26, 2026, to August 31, 2026. Article 97 completion is expected by September 1, 2026. 

II. MBTA multi-family district development (hyperlinks, providing detailed information, are underlined):

Article 34 of 2025 Town Warrant, formerly Article 2) to amend Section 7.5 of the Zoning Bylaw to reduce multi-family dwelling unit capacity from 12,546 units to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Living Communities (EOHLC) to numbers closer to required/mandated 1,231 unit capacity (click to find and read EOHLC letter to James Malloy Nov 25, 2023). 

"Where does the MBTA Communities Act come from? --from WBUR article:

The MBTA Communities Act is an initiative to help resolve the housing crisis in Massachusetts. The state has among the highest home prices and rents in the nation, driven by an estimated shortage of 200,000 housing units.

The act was signed into law by former Gov. Charlie Baker in January 2021 as part of a larger economic development bill."

"The law requires MBTA communities to have at least one zoning district where the construction of multi-family housing is allowed "as of right," meaning no special permits or zoning variances are necessary. Multi-family housing can mean anything from triple-deckers to apartment buildings, as long as the district has a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre.

In communities with MBTA service, the multifamily zoning districts must be located less than half a mile from a subway station, commuter rail station, ferry terminal or bus station. The districts can't impose age restrictions on tenants and units must be suitable for families with children."

The determined 12,546-unit capacity adopted under Article 34 of the 2023 Annual Town Meeting (Planning Board Slides) more than doubles the population of Lexington. Pending Planning Board reports, slated for March 17, 2025 Special Town Meeting STM25-1, a vote on Article 34 (formerly Article 2) will be cast at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting slated for March 24, 2025. A 2/3 Town Meeting YES VOTE is needed to allow our town to pause, reassess, and reduce the multifamily zoning capacity to numbers that support beneficial, sustainable growth while mitigating negative impacts. If elected, I will VOTE YES on ARTICLE 34.

• Academic Background: PhD in Biology from Columbia University. Areas of study: DNA damage, immunology, cancer & cell biology, and protein biochemistry; big data RNA and DNA whole genome sequencing analysis.

• Professional Experience: Served as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and Dana-Farber Cancer Center. Also held positions at the Broad Institute and Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Research: Immunological diseases and cancers (lymphoma, glioblastoma) caused by defects in DNA damage. Integration of DNA and RNA sequencing data to study complex disease mechanisms.

• Lexington High School PTO President and Presidents Committee; former Forums VP. 

1. As LHS PTO President, I spearheaded support for Serious Talks with all our LPS PTOs/PTAs and actively worked with our LPS PTOs/PTAs partners to advance Article 8 to move LHS Building Project Bloom C5.b forward at the Special Town Meeting 2024-1 in November 2024. I advocated for permanent funding for METCO, Adaptive Education programs and student financial aid funding in our annual PTO budget. I secured METCO, Class Senate, and Pep Band Liaisons to join our PTO Board, and allocated more mini-grant funding for our educators to enrich their departmental educational programs. With the LPS budget freeze, we are working actively to do more for our educators and students, including supporting more ad-hoc LHS staff and educator grant requests.

2. As LHS PTO Forums VP, through countless hours of team effort, we successfully established long-term collaborations with CAAL, IAL, Youth Counseling Connections, Cary Library, and other nonprofits in the Lexington, with the goal of building stronger connections between LHS and the Lexington community.

• Town of Lexington: Member of the Vision for Lexington Committee Affordable Housing Working Group.

• Yes 4 Lexington: Fundraising, supporting the LHS Building Project.

• Lexington Public Schools: Working member of the School Committee Calendar Group, and volunteer and organizer for LPS School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) Parent Academy.

• Friends of Lexington Music, Art and Drama Inc (FOLMADS): LHS volunteer usher & ticket sales for performance arts choral, drama and musicals; and POPs Concerts setup/cleanup, usher, fundraising and senior class flower distribution.

• Lexington High School: Actively involved in various LHS PTO events, including staff hospitality events, junior and senior prom receptions, Cookie Pop-Up's, Credit for Life, Parent Academy, volunteer signups for MLK Day of Service and more.

• Lexington High School All Night Graduation Party (ANGP): Parent volunteer.

• Diamond Middle School: Organized 8th-grade end of the year activities; helped with performance art student activities for D-minor, drama and musicals; and parent lunch, Book Fair and Lexington Food Pantry volunteer. For the 8th-grade end of the year activities: our parent group teamed up to help Assistant Principal Elizabeth Sharp to book and organize fundraising and parent volunteers for the school dance (food and decorations); busing and financial aid for the Museum of Science; tickets for a day at Canobie Park (in lieu of the  8th grade Washington DC trip). For the graduation ceremony, I organized with Asst Principal Sharp for over 300 roses (donated in part from Wilson's Farm) to be distributed to rising 9th graders during their graduation ceremony. 

• Fiske Elementary School: Co-organized PTO Science Fair, volunteered for Big BackYard, Fiske Fair and various school events.

I am committed to thoughtful collaboration, critical thinking, and addressing challenges with both confidence and humility.