Lexington School Building Committee Delays Exterior Design Vote, Sets June 22 Deadline

LEXINGTON -- June 15, 2026, Lexington's School Building Committee deferred an exterior design vote for the new high school, scheduling a hybrid decision meeting for June 22 at the Department of Public Works. Chair Kathleen Linehan and several members expressed reservations about a newly proposed "bookend scheme" developed with a group of local architects convened by the Permanent Building Committee, with Ksenia Slavsky objecting to the design even being labeled the "current option," saying elements "are really going backwards" from prior committee direction, and Jingmin Shah raising process concerns about outside architects altering a trajectory set by the SBC's chosen design team. On the mechanical front, project architect Brian Black of SMMA reported that a push to cut two feet from the building's height yielded only a net eight-inch reduction, adding back an estimated $1.4 million to project costs through the target-value-design process; Jingmin Shah confirmed the project remains roughly $600,000 ahead on TVD after the add-back. The committee also heard that Article 97 legislation, the final statutory hurdle, was signed by the governor last week, clearing the path to a project funding agreement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority and reimbursement for work already completed, as site fencing is set to go up July 6.