ORANGE — Butterfield, Dexter Park, Fisher Hill or Mahar — one of those four sites will be chosen as the place to send Orange’s children to school.
Since February, architects have been evaluating town land, scanning for a solution to the problems at Dexter Park Innovation School. The final plan will either be a new school entirely or a major renovation or addition to one of the town’s existing schools.
Hill International Inc., the company managing the project on behalf of the town, and Raymond Design Associates Inc., an architectural firm based out of Rockland, have released six schematics on the project’s Facebook page, each depicting a different site plan.
The first diagram, “Option A,” shows repairs and renovations to the existing Dexter Park school building. This option adds no new educational spaces, and Dexter Park would remain as a grades-three-to-six school.
Option B also renovates the existing school and keeps the same grades, but would include additions to the school. A new wing with classrooms would be built onto the southwest corner of the school, and parking lots would be expanded. A 5,000-square-foot playground would also be built at what is now a wooded area.
Option C is a complete demolition and replacement of Dexter Park, with a new school built in the playing fields currently in front of the school and playing fields to be put where the school’s footprint is now.
The other three diagrams would move Dexter Park students to a new site. Option D would resurrect the Butterfield School on South Main Street. Additions and renovations would be necessary, and school buses would drop students off on Cheney Street behind the school. A large addition would stretch south from the current building, behind the church, making the building’s footprint an L shape.
Option K would send all of Orange’s elementary students to one school. Preschoolers to sixth-graders would all go to Fisher Hill, with Dexter Park being demolished. An addition would be built extending westward from the current building — this would necessitate a new paved roadway for pickup and drop-off.
Option Q is the only option that would move students from both Fisher Hill and Dexter Park. A new pre-K-to-sixth-grade school would be built next to the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School, creating one complex for all public school students in town. The new building would be built northeast of Mahar, across from the athletic fields. Three new playing field areas would surround the school, with parking to the school’s south. This option — a two-story school — would need a new roadway branching off of Mahar’s and leading across the fields.
Dexter Park, Orange’s elementary school for students in grades three through six, is one of nine schools in the state designated as “Category 4” by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, demonstrating the need for replacement or major renovations — Fisher Hill Elementary School is for students in preschool through second grade.
Dexter Park gained Category 4 status in 2006 due to boiler and heating problems, a leaking roof, asbestos and opaque windows. Since 2015, the school has been overcrowded due to the closing of Butterfield School — then Orange’s third elementary school, which was shut down to alleviate pressure on town finances.
In January 2018, voters approved funds for a “feasibility study” to examine potential solutions to the Dexter Park problem. The state is reimbursing the town for 79.5 percent of the $875,000 study.
RDA, conducting the study under Hill International and in consultation with the town’s School Building Subcommittee, is to produce three “best” options to present to Massachusetts School Building Authority — Hill International’s Martin Goulet estimated in March the state would ultimately fund about 80 percent of the overall project.
A final option will be chosen from the best three presented to Massachusetts School Building Authority, at which point there will be a clearer picture of the project’s cost. This final option will be again brought before Massachusetts School Building Authority, so the state can evaluate and determine funding. Finally, a finished schematic design and proposal are expected to be finished early next year. Residents should not expect to vote on the project until the 2020 Annual Town Meeting.
The diagrams may be viewed at www.facebook.com/Dexter-Park-Improvements-2673949152635225/.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.