The school must be expanded to meet the need of students.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

AUBURN – The Auburn School Department has secured six of the seven properties it needs to expand Lake Street Elementary School.

But the Feeley property, a large parcel at the heart of the project, remains in dispute.

Set on less than two acres in the middle of an old, tree-lined neighborhood, the 77-year-old Lake Street Elementary School has catered to area children for more than three generations. But over the years, the brick building has become inadequate.

With 145 students from kindergarten through grade three, the school has no art or music room, no cafeteria or gymnasium. Sitting at the corner of Lake and Fern streets, outdoor play areas and parking places are limited.

Without renovations, Lake Street School would be forced to close.

To accommodate an expansion and state regulations, Auburn must more than double the school lot to over four and a half acres. That means buying parcels of land that range from a tenth of an acre to more than half an acre from seven neighboring property owners.

Officials had hoped to buy the land they needed and present the site to the State Board of Education for its approval in July.

But land agreements have come more slowly than expected.

Over the summer, the school system got purchase options on five properties. In August it spent $128,500 to buy a sixth outright.

Two landowners have told the school system that they will not sell.

And school officials are still negotiating with two others.

If successful, one agreement would give them a grading easement. The other would give them at least part of Rachel Feeley’s land, which abuts the school property.

The School Department needs to buy at least seven parcels in order to expand the school, said Jude Cyr, business manager for the Auburn School Department. The Feeley property is a big part of the expansion plan.

Cyr said the school system will continue to negotiate.

“Everybody is working toward an amicable solution,” he said.

If the school system is able to purchase the property soon, it could hold a referendum to get voters’ approval on the project and its costs in January or February. Construction could start in June or July, with the school opening in fall 2005.

The proposed expansion 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.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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