Dedham is one step closer to a new Avery School

With the state pitching in $11 million to help build a new Avery School, the town’s School Building Rehabilitation Committee is turning its attention to a community outreach campaign to better explain the project before Town Meeting.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority board voted last week to commit up to $11.09 million to the project, whose total cost is estimated at $23.37 million. The new, three-story, 61,000-square-foot Avery would be built on about 5 acres off Pottery Lane in East Dedham.

“It’s a big milestone for us, and it means the state will be paying for approximately 48 percent of the project,” said Andy Lawlor, the School Building Rehabilitation Committee’s chairman.

Lawlor said the town could gain one percentage point in funding if the building authority grants Dedham another point for its school district facilities maintenance plan. The town could earn a second additional point if its uses a “construction manager at risk” for the project, rather than the traditional general contractor bid process. Using a general contractor tends to lead to an adversarial, friction-filled relationship focused on costs, according to Lawlor, whereas a construction manager would be evaluated more on their performance, and more accountable to the town.

With the approval in hand, Lawlor said the focus is now on the community.

 “Right now our mission is to explain the project and its impacts to Town Meeting members and the voters at large,” he said.

At the Nov. 16 special Town Meeting, members will consider an article to fund the construction of the new Avery. If that passes, the project would then need final approval in a townwide special election that could be held in January. An estimate has not yet been provided for how much the new school would cost the average Dedham homeowner, should voters approve the Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion property tax override.

If Town Meeting approves the Avery, it would also be presented with another article that would significantly upgrade the nearby high school athletic fields and track. That project, which could cost $4.5 million to $5 million, would also ultimately need to be approved in the special election.

Lawlor said a subcommittee should finalize a presentation for the project by Saturday. The rehab committee will give that presentation to the Finance Committee at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13. The project proposal will also be presented to the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, mini-Town Meeting and at Town Meeting.

Selectman Michael Butler, who is vice chairman of the school rehab committee, said the presentation will explain the impetus behind the project, what the school will look like, and its impact on the town and on individual homeowners.

The committee will also make its pitch to Dedham parent-teacher organizations to explain to parents why a new Avery is needed, said Superintendent of Schools June Doe.

One important upcoming date is Sunday, Oct. 18, when the school rehab committee and supporters of the new school will hold a kick-off session “to begin our communication campaign,” Butler said.

“It’s an opportunity for people who want to come out and help us move the project along,” he said of the meeting, to be held that Sunday morning, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the VFW on Eastern Avenue.

The meeting will lay the groundwork for a new townwide group that will distribute information and push for the Avery and athletic fields projects, said one prominent backer, Joe Heisler.

The 88-year-old Avery School at 123 High St. in East Dedham, which the state has declared one of the worst educational facilities in Massachusetts, is undersized and has structural problems such as antiquated plumbing and poor air circulation. Doe called it “a very outdated, needy, needy facility.”

The new Avery would accommodate at least 310 students – or 99 more than the school had in the 2008-09 academic year. The larger school would allow the Dedham public schools to include five special education classrooms at the Avery, and provide flexibility to shrink from five to four elementary schools in the future, if that proves necessary.

“We’re excited to hopefully be able to bring another building project for Dedham,” Doe said after the School Building Authority vote. “It’s one step closer to getting them a new school, which they definitely need.”

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.