School Committee expresses concern about building
Date: 10/10/2012
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHICOPEE — While members of the Chicopee School Committee expressed an interest in advancing the moving of School Department offices to another location potentially the former library building next to City Hall some expressed hesitation to step into the dispute between Mayor Michael Bissonnette and the City Council.
School Committee member Mary-Beth Pniak-Costello brought up the subject in the superintendent's briefing prior to the regular meeting. It was then also discussed during the regular meeting.
Pniak-Costello said the School Department will have to move eventually and was concerned that investing more money into the repair of the present building on Broadway was "throwing good money into bad."
Bissonnette has been unsuccessful in convincing the City Council to approve funds for a compete assessment of the former library to see if it could be redeveloped into office space. Bissonnette has long advocated a plan that would bring the School Department personnel to the City Hall complex to consolidate administrative offices.
His administration has tried to seek private development of the building but has not been successful.
School Committee Vice Chair Marjorie Wojcik said her concern was parking in the downtown area for the School Department staff and for parents with business with them.
School Committee member Donald Lamothe said that before the department relocates the operating costs of the new site should be studied.
Superintendent Richard Rege reminded the committee members the plan to move the administrative offices into the present Szetela Early Childhood School. He said that once the former Chicopee High School is renovated into a new middle school, Fairview Veterans Memorial Middle School would move to that space and Szetala would relocate to the former middle school.
Rege believed "it would be wise to wait to be asked for our opinion [by the City Council]."
School Committee member David Barsalou said he wants to keep the issue of the new office "alive."
Barsalou added, " I don't want the issue of the new School department [office] forgotten. It's an on-going thing. I don't want to be at the mercy of the City Council."
School Committee Michael Pise asked for a progress report on the Chicopee Academy project the former high school — and Rege said the preferred schematic designs were sent on Sept. 27 to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).
The MSBA screening committee will look at those designs, especially the one preferred by city officials and will vote on it either on Oct. 17 or Oct. 30.
The next step, after that approval, will be the final design.
"At that time we should start to see some progress," Rege said. "We think we cleared most of the hurdles and answered some of the questions they had [about the schematic design]."
