Discussion continues on whether a school built to replace Bancroft Elementary will have one, two or three access roads.
The School Building Committee voted Wednesday morning, March 10, to study the possibility of 24-foot-wide access roads, with sidewalks, leading to Holt and West Knoll Roads, in addition to a driveway that leads to the school from Bancroft Road.
Bancroft, built in 1969, has structural problems and the Massachusetts School Building Authority is partnering with the town to pay to build its replacement. The school was built with just one paved driveway. Students also walk to school on a footpath from Holt Road.
Wednesday's vote begins a study of which combination of roads makes the most sense for the site.
"Everything will be refined with the schematic design. What does the road look like? Is there a sidewalk, or a curb?," said Lorraine Finnegan, a representative of Symmes, Maini and McKee, the project architect. "Operationally, the roads can be whatever you want."
An access road to Holt Road would relocate wetlands. Superintendent Claudia Bach noted that Holt Road needs improvements and cannot handle large, emergency vehicles.
Building committee member Joseph Reilly and Joe Piantedosi, town Plant and Facilities director, suggested that if a Holt Road access is built it should be one-way or open to passenger traffic only.
Finnegan gave approximate cost estimates of $125,000 to build an access road to West Knoll Road and $100,000 to Holt Road.
Bancroft sits in a quiet, historical neighborhood next to Phillips Academy, and many neighbors have voiced concerns against the additional traffic and changes, including felling trees and moving wetlands, that could come from adding additional access roads.
Residents filled every chair in the third-floor conference room of Town Offices for Wednesday's 8 a.m. meeting, with several more standing in the doorway.
"I realize this is a really major change for abutters on both sides," said building committee member Tom Deso.
"I've read all 275 of your e-mails. I get up every morning, and there's more e-mail," said Johnson.
'New Bancroft' K-5 population SET AT 680
The School Committee voted Wednesday night, March 3, to remove the pre-kindergarten program from the new school being designed to replace Bancroft Elementary. It said the school will serve a kindergarten through fifth grade population of 680 students.
In December 2009, the School Committee voted to support a 700-student school to replace Bancroft, at the time meant to house 620 students in kindergarten through fifth-grades as well as the district's pre-kindergarten program of 80 children.
The March 3 vote to change this followed a study by Symmes, Maini and McKee, Bancroft project architect, that found the "new Bancroft" and remaining elementary schools in Andover would be overcrowded if Shawsheen Primary School closed.
"We came up with a more enhanced understanding of what our capacity needs are. If we built the original configuration of 620 and 80, we would not solve our kindergarten through fifth-grade capacity problems, going forward," said Annie Gilbert, who sits on both the school and school building committees. "If we were to close Shawsheen, we would need more capacity on the Bancroft site."
The School Committee will now address Andover's preschool program as a separate issue, said Gilbert. All but two pre-K classrooms are housed at Shawsheen School, a building that is expensive to maintain and does not provide handicapped access.
