Superintendent reports summer programs, capital projects and student representative plans
Summary
Superintendent Paul Lynch reported the district launched summer programs serving 585 campers, upcoming STEM and enrichment offerings, ongoing capital work including restroom renovations, elevator replacement and door replacements, and introduced a newly seated ex officio student board member who will solicit student input districtwide.
Superintendent Paul Lynch provided the board with an update on summer programs, capital projects and the district’s new ex officio student representative.
Lynch said the district launched its summer playground program with 585 campers and also opened an extended school year program at Waverly Park and a summer recreation program. The district will host a Camp Invention STEM program followed by district-run reading and math enrichment, a summer science research program, and an "In Spirit AI" program that the superintendent said will be staffed by people from MIT and Stanford.
On facilities, district staff reported active capital work across buildings. At the high school faculty restrooms the demo was about 90% complete and some asbestos abatement remained; a new elevator cab had been delivered and work to deconstruct the existing elevator was scheduled to begin. Classroom door replacement was underway at West End and Marion Street; the transcript records 18 doors already replaced at Marion Street. Lead abatement at West End was expected to be complete by the end of the week the meeting occurred. Some in-house work was underway to reconfigure classrooms at West End (Room 3A).
Lynch also welcomed the student representative, Jackson Bowler, and said Bowler had already asked the superintendent to contact principals so he would receive input not only from high school students but from SGA representatives districtwide.
The superintendent announced a new board-minutes program on the district website that will allow residents to sign up for alerts when minutes and agendas are posted and to access attachments such as policies and finance reports. Lynch thanked the district’s custodial staff and administrators for work managing programming and building use during a busy summer schedule.
Board members asked about asbestos and lead abatement safety and were told that affected buildings had been vacated for the work and programs were relocated to other sites while abatement and construction proceeded.
The board heard the report and took no separate formal action on the capital updates at the meeting.
