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A grass-roots effort to pass a $39.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion for school construction in Stoneham paid off handsomely for proponents recently.

But while Stoneham override proponents are celebrating their success this month, supporters of similar efforts in Lexington and North Reading are regrouping. North Reading voters last month refused to lift the tax cap to build a $10.35 million elementary school, and on Dec. 8, Lexington voters rejected a $68.2 million debt exclusion to renovate or expand four of the town’s nine schools.

Surging enrollments, deteriorating buildings, and a state Department of Education program that offers from 50 to 90 percent reimbursement for comprehensive construction or renovation projects are fueling a wave of proposals for debt-exclusion overrides in the area. In Stoneham, Jill Kennedy, chairwoman of the Building for the Future Committee, said, “We leafleted and made 2,100 phone calls the weekend before the election. But most of all, we talked — to parents of children in sports, youth, and Lexington Preschool organizations, at story hours, to mothers’ groups,

to seniors, to anybody and everybody.” While some considered passage a long shot, Stoneham’s voters agreed by a 2-1 ratio Dec. 9 that replacing a pair of aging elementary schools and updating two 1950s schools was worth paying more taxes. “The biggest thing that helped us was that there was no denying the need,” Kennedy said. “We were going to have to pay for it one way or another, either the Band-Aid approach or the building plan.” Since the fall of 1996, at least 10 area school districts have sought overrides to upgrade schools; six passed, four failed, and now two are in the works for 1998. Arlington has set a March 7 special election on a pared version of a plan defeated in June. Acton plans a Jan. 13 Special Town Meeting that could trigger a February referendum on a $21 million school building proposal. Jim Anderson, who runs the School Building Assistance Program for the state Department of Education, said, “Demands have been unprecedented in the last several years, and we don’t see any slacking off.

” The state’s school age population is on the rise, home construction is booming in many suburban areas, and young families are scooping up homes of retirees in communities with little land left. The turnover of homes from senior citizens to families with school-age children is one of the reasons that Reading’s schools are bursting at the seams, even though the overall population hasn’t budged for a decade. “We’re hearing many Realtors give prospective buyers beepers so they can respond as soon as a house goes on the market,” said Reading’s schools superintendent, Harry Harutunian. He predicts 4,200 students next year, up from 3,843 four years ago. “That’s a whole school,” he said. Communities qualify for state reimbursement based on a formula that factors in community wealth.

Applications must be complete and funding secure before a project is approved. Last summer, 59 districts were awarded $33 million for construction or renovations, and 117 new projects, estimated at $81 million, were added to the list. Because of the backlog, some payments may not begin for up to five years. And 50 to 70 new projects are expected to join the queue in June. Lexington School Committee’s chairwoman, Barrie Peltz, said Tuesday she still has not given up hope that Lexington’s project will secure funding before the June 1 deadline to make the current list. “Instead of playing the blame game, we should try to find the right solution to the very real problems that didn’t go away” with the Dec. 8 vote, she said. That might include meeting with opponents to seek a compromise. About $28 million of the $68.2 million total was for renovating the high school.

The rest was for renovations or additions at the middle schools and Harrington elementary school. The override had the unanimous support of Lexington’s building and finance committees, the current four school board members and a majority of selectmen. Opponents included a former school board member and two selectmen. The rhetoric was heated, and more than half the town’s registered voters turned out for the referendum that lost, 5,456 to 4,529.

To gain his support, said Leo P. McSweeney, the chairman of the Board of Selectmen, the project “needs to be a lot smaller in dollars.” Peltz said she is concerned that cutting the project might jeopardize the 59 percent state reimbursement for both principal and interest, which applies only to comprehensive plans. David Troughton, the North Reading superintendent, said the proposed new elementary school in the Swan Pond neighborhood was to be the second piece in an overall plan to upgrade schools. While Town Meeting gave its blessing, the November debt exclusion bid failed at the ballot box by nearly 1,000 votes. Before another try, Troughton said,

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supporters need to understand the message voters were sending. With enrollment up about 25 percent in the past four years, space is a serious concern, he said. Westford voters last spring endorsed a $32 million debt exclusion to renovate and expand Westford Academy, including funds to make sure the building, sited on a fault line, can withstand earthquakes. With the five-year-old middle school already above capacity and at least 425 new homes under construction, Superintendent John Crisafulli warns that more school-related overrides are on the horizon. He said a new committee brainstorming ways to meet space needs will consider options, including use of open commercial space, church halls, and moving eighth graders to the high school. Also last spring, Wilmington voters approved an override for a $26.5 million middle school.

Tewksbury lifted the tax cap to fund a $15.3 million school for grades five and six, and North Andover approved funds for an $8.4 million elementary school. George Blaisdell, North Andover superintendent, said future overrides will likely be needed to renovate the high school and to build another elementary school. Arlington’s $50 million school upgrade override was just 34 votes shy of passing last June and, on March 7, a trimmed plan will be before voters. It will seek a $23 million debt exclusion for a new Brackett School, renovations and/or expansion at Hardy and Bishop schools, and $1 million to begin planning for four other school projects. The three building requests have been approved for state aid but would drop to the bottom of the list if ground is not broken by June.

Acton voters approved an override of close to $1 million last May for heating, ventilation and air conditioning units at the high school and, if a Jan. 13 Town Meeting approves, voters will face a $21 million debt exclusion to replace the McCarthy-Towne school building and renovations and expansion at the Merriam School. Michael Rogers, who heads a new committee supporting the override, said the project has been trimmed from a proposed $50 million. “We’ve learned you have to open the process,” he said, “to get a reality check and see what’s in the realm of possibility.”

Rogers said the project is needed to accommodate a growing enrollment and to bring class sizes more in line with other communities that, along with Acton, typically rank in the state’s top 10 on standardized academic tests. Meanwhile, at least seven area communities have been upgrading some schools without overrides. Officials in Reading, Bedford, Chelmsford, and Littleton say state reimbursements, long-range planning, fiscal restraint and/or programs that regularly earmark funds for capital projects are among the reasons recent school projects have been approved without resorting to overrides. At a recent Special Town Meeting,

Bedford got the green light for a $12.9 million project to raze and replace the Davis School. Chelmsford is financing its portion of costs tied to reopening the Center School. Winchester, Dracut, and Burlington launched school construction or renovations after debt exclusions failed. Area cities, including Lowell, Lawrence, and Methuen, have completed projects or are in the process of school construction and renovations, through a School Building Assistance Program category that provides 90 percent reimbursement for projects that correct racial imbalance. In Medford, a citizens committee last week released a report that examines the condition of school facilities and makes recommendations for a major construction program to address the city’s needs.