With a proposed new Avery School expected to go before Town Meeting and the voters soon, selectmen and the school board preliminarily turned their attention to the "disposition process" they would use to explore possible reuses of the 88-year-old building.
Selectmen Chairman Michael Butler emphasized that the purpose of the discussion was to introduce people to the process that his board and the School Committee might embark upon if the new Avery - last pegged at $21.8 million - is approved in a January special election.
"We're just getting the ball rolling here," Butler said.
Economic Development Director Karen O'Connell outlined the process, beginning with the development of a timeline. Next, the Board of Selectmen and School Committee would each choose a certain number of members for a Reuse Committee, she said.
That committee would then brainstorm possible reuse options for town or school uses, perform due diligence to gauge the feasibility of the options that seem to make the most sense, and develop recommendations which it would present to the selectmen and school board members.
If the two major boards agreed on what to do with the High Street building, the School Committee could then declare the Avery School property "surplus," and the chosen plan for the site would be presented to Town Meeting for ultimate approval.
"I think that if we develop a really clear-cut process for this that we will get the best options," figure out what is feasible and what is not, "and we can bring that before the decisionmakers so you can make an informed decision, with all of the facts and all of the options already vetted for you," O'Connell said.
While no specific options for the Avery property were floated last night, O'Connell sketched out "a pretty broad canvas" of possibilities: "You can go from an alternative municipal use, sale, a lease of the site, demolition, a reuse."
The School Building Rehabilitation Committee is pushing for a 61,000-square-foot school that would be built on 5 or 6 acres off Pottery Lane in East Dedham. It would replace the deteriorating, undersized old Avery at 123 High St., which the state has declared one of the worst educational facilities in Massachusetts due to structural problems such as out-of-date plumbing and poor air circulation.
The rehab committee's chairman, Andy Lawlor, made clear last night that his group is not budgeting for the demolition of the old building as it plans for the new one, "because we all assume that there will be a number of different potential reuses by the town for that building."
Dedham is due to have its financing meeting with the Massachusetts School Building Authority on Sept. 30, which is when the authority would approve the project budget. (There could potentially be a line item in that budget for demolition.)
Selectman Paul Reynolds cautioned that the Dedham needs to be careful about what it tears down, suggesting that if there is a way to restore a building to good use, it should be.
He noted "that for today's educational requirements, even restoring the building isn't going to take care of the educational requirements of the kids of Dedham. But taking a look at a building and seeing what we can do to protect the history, the architecture of this town, is a really important thing."
Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
