Brookline may need a ninth elementary school

The issue, Lupini said, is that state school reimbursement policy has shifted from replacing currently operating but down-at-the-heels schools to meeting more urgent needs. As Brookline’s elementary schools increase classrooms from 196 in 2005 to an estimated 226 in 2011 , the system is looking at converting gymnasiums, cafeterias, custodian closets and lobbies into classrooms or meeting spaces.

This means that long-awaited refurbishment of the Devotion School and the Pierce School will be further delayed and the addition of classrooms at Heath or elsewhere may start less than two years after ground is broken for the much-awaited Runkle School expansion, Lupini said.

“We are interjecting a ‘tweener’ project,” Lupini said. The Massachusetts School Building Authority “is very open to this kind of project because of our enrollment profile is unlike the rest of the Commonwealth.” Kindergarten enrollment in comparison districts Lexington and Newton has been flat in the last two years, Lupini said.

Parents at the meeting worried about the delays in renovations.

“It’s been 30 years since the Pierce was designed or renovated last,” said Brian Kane , who has a two year old and is expecting another child soon. “We have been waiting our turn very patiently.”

Lupini said that the schools have devoted much of the capital and maintenance budget to keeping the two schools in good shape, and in fact the school building authority rated the district’s schools as in better physical shape than many in the Commonwealth.