Last Tuesday, Sept. 29, the Robinson School Building Committee (RSBC) met to hear residents’ reflections on the initial community forum, held on Sept. 9, as previously reported on by The Westford Villager and answer questions about the building project. The committee also presented new information on site and floor plans for Robinson, Abbott, and a potential location for a new school building at Farmer Way.
Residents’ reflect on community forum in Q’nA
At the beginning of the meeting, resident Meghan O’Connell said that three years ago, the projected cost of the Robinson School Project was $8M – $10M. She asked why the cost raised up to $65M – $70M as of this year.
“At the time, those were the numbers needed, but now the cost has escalated,” Permanent Town Building Committee member Thomas Wimberg said in response.
The projected cost of $65M – $70M reflects the “gut” renovation cost for construction in the years 2029-2031. Part of why the cost has increased is due to a 30% rise in construction costs over time, which includes hiring contractors, covering legal fees, and more. All values are in 2026 dollars.
The presented costs are not set in stone, and may be subject to change before Town Meeting.
Leigh Sherwood, an architect representative from Lavallee Brensinger Architects, confirmed that by [the time of] Town Meeting, “Not only will you [the town of Westford] know the total project cost, but you’ll also know what the town share is versus the MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] share.”
Chin Lin, Senior Project Manager and Representative from The Vertex Companies, added that “We [the RSBC] will be doing a detailed calculation budget at the end of schematic design.”
An updated estimate will be confirmed by the summer of 2027, in time for the August 2027 MSBA board meeting.
“It is tempting, but too early to be translating these numbers into tax impact and reimbursement percentages,” said RSBC chair Valery Young. “It is hard to be patient, but it [information] will come.”
Young added that, “If you see or hear a number in one of these meetings or in our materials and you’re looking for more context … myself and the design team are always happy to help give some information and context to explain these numbers.”
Presentation of updated scenarios
Sherwood spent the majority of the meeting presenting his updates on site and floor planning for Robinson, Abbott, and Farmer Way to RSBC.
There are seven options to choose from, all of which have been vetted by the educators at each school, the police and fire departments, and Westford residents. The site plans are still in the revision stages and do not yet reflect any finalized plans.
An addition or renovation at Robinson School is “not a very pragmatic building to reuse for things” according to Sherwood. In this instance, two stories would be added onto the building, with Pre-K on the first floor, Kindergarten on the second floor, and first and second grades on the third floor. A new gym would need to be built, and car queuing during pick up and drop off times would not be able to reach the required amount of space needed.
“It’s an odd building [and] it’s very tight,” added Sherwood.
Rebuilding Robinson would allow for more options. In this instance, the original building would be maintained during construction which would allow for better queuing during pick up and drop off, and would allow the current gym and cafeteria to stay in place. However, Sherwood said that an effort to maintain the original building would likely pose challenges as “it is not an easy site to build on as a contractor.”
An addition or renovation for Abbot would give contractors “more space to work with” according to Sherwood. Additional road lanes would be added for pickup, and built so that each path would disperse cars into different neighborhoods. There is also the possibility of additional parking being built.
But, this would not be a perfect resolution, in part due to the length of the building. If Abbott were renovated, the entrances would have to be moved around in order to accommodate for more parking and car space.
“It’s hard to get everything to fit and work in the right adjacencies we’re looking for,” Sherwood said. “When we showed this [plan] to the fire department, they were concerned about access because you would have to drive around the whole building in order to get to stuff … this is probably the longest building in the entire town.”
However, if Abbott were to get a new construction, it would include a new admin building next to the school with its own parking lot, which would help with busing and pick up.
Lastly, a new school building at Farmer Way would provide “plenty of room” for classrooms, buses, and parking, as well as fields for recreational use. There may also be room to ‘stack up’ floor sizes if needed in a hypothetical future.
However, the location is not ideal for car queuing and busing, as the queue would extend onto Farmer Way, but would not provide easy access back onto Groton Rd.
“If Farmer Way were not where Farmer Way was, it would be the perfect school,” said Lin. “However, it seems that Farmer Way may be our best option for now.”
The next RSBC meeting is on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 12 p.m. on Zoom. The next RSBC community forum will be on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at Stony Brook Middle School’s Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Link to the Zoom registration is here.
Stay updated on the RSBC project by visiting its website.
