One of the truly amazing monuments to dramatic change in school education here begins next week with the opening of the new KIPP School – a 68,000 square foot mansion by comparison to most of the public schools in operation in this city.
Almost 600 students will shortly fill the nearly $30 million structure which will give entirely new shape and form to the intensive school routine practiced by the education masters at KIPP.
The new structure replaces Kipp’s former location at the Holy Family Church in East Lynn. This was KIPP’s first place where its teachers and administrators got to show off their talents when it comes to educating young people from this city.
The new KIPP School has laboratories and science facilities, a library and many other amenities in the sprawling facility built on High Rock Street on the template of the former Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.
From that site there are commanding views of the Lynn skyline and of the ocean and there is the feeling one can see for miles and miles.
The building is crescent shaped and divided into two schools – middle and high school.
Consigli, the construction company that built the school, finished on time and on budget.
There are 32 classrooms and two decks and from the front of the building there are views of the soaring Boston skyline in the distance.
Enrollment at the school will expand to 850 students by 2014. By that time, there will also be a grade 11. A 12th grade class will be added in 2015.
Keeping with tradition, the school day at KIPP begins at 7 a.m. and finishes at 5 p.m.
Expectations are high. There are rigorous demands put on students’ time.
An official ribbon cutting will be held at the school in September.
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