By Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
The fate of smaller-than-expected lockers in the new Concord Middle School remains undecided after the Middle School Building Committee met November 14 and agreed to not vote on the matter.
The lockers drew attention late last month when administrators realized they would be too small to store sixth graders’ backpacks, as intended.
One solution would be to replace the lockers with alternatives more than double the size. Those could cost up to $200,000 — and wouldn’t be ready until after the Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School is scheduled to open early next year.
The building committee visited the school on November 8 to see the lockers themselves. On November 12, schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter asked committee members to stand down.
“It is unfortunate that this is where we landed after so much discussion and visioning,” she said in an email that she later shared with The Concord Bridge. “That said, it makes the most sense to put this issue on hold while we wrap up construction and move into Phase 2.”
Empty lockers?
Project architect Jennifer Soucy said the undersized lockers were the result of a “disconnect [in] terms of what the design intent was.”
Under current plans, seventh and eighth grade students won’t have lockers.
On November 1, Hunter warned the sixth grade lockers might go unused if they were not replaced.
The new CMS is scheduled to open in February. The small lockers — which measure 12 inches wide, 15 inches high, and 12 inches deep — are already fully installed.
By delaying action, Hunter said project leaders will hang on to contingency funding that they could put toward other uses, including risers for the music department that were cut earlier in the budget process and an irrigation system that officials had originally planned to fund through the Concord Public Schools capital plan.
“We’ll give it a go and see how usable they are,” Hunter said when asked about the lockers on November 14. “We’ll get through the logistics of opening, look at the contingencies, and loop back.”
In an update sent on Saturday, school officials reported the new building “is now fully enclosed and current activities include interior framing, mechanical installation such as plumbing and electrical elements, and cabinet installation.”
The gym and auditorium “are the final portions of the building that will be completed and progress continues in those spaces,” a district spokesman said.
