Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/7/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Residents will have another opportunity to weigh in on the future of East Longmeadow High School at a public forum on Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. at Pleasant View Senior Center. East Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent Gordon Smith said it will also be a chance to educate the town on the long, complex process behind a shiny, new school.
Smith told Reminder Publishing that residents are frustrated that there has not been more publicly visible progress in the high school project. “People ask me, ‘when are we getting a new school,’” he said, but noted that the future of the high school might not look anything like they expect.
The town and district are working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), a semi-autonomous state agency that helps districts finance expensive school building projects. The multi-stage operation involves the MSBA agreeing to reimburse municipalities for a percentage of the costs of their projects, although not all costs are eligible for reimbursement.
In the spring, the district was accepted in a feasibility study, which could take up to 15 months. “We’re kind of in the middle of it,” Smith said. The MSBA agreed to reimburse East Longmeadow for 56 percent of the eligible costs for the feasibility study’s $1.6 million price tag.
Community Forum
As part of the feasibility study, a visioning workshop was conducted in June. Between in-person and online participation, there were about 75 residents in attendance. Smith said feedback during the workshop, as well as a survey and interviews of staff, showed significant overlap in what the community is looking for in a reimagined high school.
Through the next forum, the School Building Committee will be able to gather more information from stakeholders to further refine the data it already has.
Smith quoted School Building Committee Chair Stephen Chrusciel, saying, “This is a generational opportunity,” to impact the town and the children that are educated in it for decades to come.
The other benefit to the forum, Smith said, is that residents will learn about the multi-year process and gain a better understanding of how long it will take and what to expect at the end.
Project Options
In the last week of August, the School Building Committee submitted to the MSBA a 618-page preliminary design report, which presented four general options for the high school. The first of those four options is a limited upgrade that would merely bring the building up to code without addressing space or conditions. The second option would renovate and modernize the existing footprint of the school and create an addition as needed for space.
There are also two options for a completely new building. One would move the building to a centrally located position on the high school campus, with the central office, East Longmeadow IT Department and East Longmeadow Cable Access Television (ELCAT) included in the structure, similar to the current situation. The last option allows for a new school building with a separate building on the campus for the district level administrative offices, IT and ELCAT, along with a pool.
The last option has caveats to it, as the MSBA would likely not reimburse the town to the same extent for work related to the pool. That would be a community project, and in turn, would be available to the community, similar to the way town residents use the school’s track.
Smith said a benefit to new construction would be that the committee could optimize the location of the athletic fields, parking and bus pickup and drop off, leading to more efficiency and a better campus experience for all.
Timeline
In addition to options for the scope of the project, the preliminary design report included an overview of the town’s capital planning process, deficiencies of the current building and campus, an outline of the high school’s programs and a vision of future programs at the school.
The report was the first of several documents that will need to be sent to the MSBA over the next seven months. After the MSBA review in April, the School Building Committee will get into the “schematic design phase.” From there, the committee will have much more specific estimates of the cost of each option and will be able to choose one to propose to the MSBA.
Smith remarked, “Hopefully, we will have a building we’ll enjoy for the next 50 to 60 years.”