AUBURN – The ball field proposed for a renovated Lake Street school won’t be big enough for anything but elementary school sports, according to school leaders.
“That’s one of the rumors we’ve been hearing now, that we’re going to build a full-sized recreation field on that land,” Superintendent Barbara Eretzian told city councilors Monday. “We’ve heard a rumor that we’re going to make this into a standard recreation field and there’s going to be cars parked all around it all the time. But that’s not true. It’s not a standard field. It’s just an elementary school field.”
That’s one of the rumors Eretzian said she hopes to squash Tuesday night at a meeting with neighbors who share a property line with the school. Members of the School Committee and the School Building Committee will be on hand to answer questions.
“There are a lot of rumors, and a lot of misinformation out there,” Eretzian said. “We’re hoping we can put a stop to that.”
The school, which has 145 students from kindergarten through grade three, sits on a 1.88-acre lot at the corner of Lake and Fern streets.
Councilors said the project might be more popular than the School Committee thinks. Councilor Rich Livingston said he has discussed the matter with neighbors.
“There was absolute consensus that they favor the school, and they favor the expansion,” Livingston said. “But they have some questions, and I think they need to meet with you.”
Councilor Bob Mennealy agreed.
“The only negative I heard was that some of them were not too happy with the process,” Mennealy said. “But that’s not a lynch mob by any respect.”
The project would add 12 classrooms, art and music space, a gymnasium and a cafeteria. It would also create separate areas for buses and parents to drop off students, and for children who walk to school to enter school grounds. The school would draw up to 300 students to kindergarten through grade six.
The School Committee is also scheduled to discuss the expansion at a public hearing on May 8. It should submit the project to voters in the fall and could start work next spring if voters approve.
staylor@sunjournal.com
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