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Date: 12/15/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Resident Carolyn Ferros addressed the East Longmeadow School Committee about the safety of students walking to school. Her two children attend Mapleshade School, less than a mile from her home and Ferros said the 0.8-mile walk is dangerous.
Ferros said there is no crossing guard at the intersection of Elm Street and Mapleshade Avenue. Pedestrians in the crosswalk are more difficult to see in the winter when her children walk to school at dawn. Ferros said “20 or 30 cars” pass through the intersection without stopping for people crossing the street. One of her children, who walks home by themselves in the afternoon, has “almost been hit multiple times,” because vehicles will pass through the intersection without “paying attention.” Other drivers have sworn at or made “rude gestures” at the fifth graders when they are in the crosswalk.
Ferros said that she left a message for the safety officer but had not yet heard back. She also took her daughter to the police station the second time she was nearly struck by a driver. “The woman there was very nice but had no answers for me,” Ferros said.
When East Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent Gordon Smith asked what Ferros would like to see as a response, she said a crossing guard or flashing lights at the crosswalk may help alert drivers to someone crossing the street.
Living within two miles of the school means that parents have to pay $500 for school bus service, which Ferros did last year. The family also lives less than two miles from the high school. If she had high school-aged children, they would need to cross at multiple locations, including in the busy center of town.
Another resident said that her children had to walk down streets with no sidewalks. She felt that she had to pay for bus service because there was “no safe alternative.”
Ferros asked that the town reconsider the blanket two-mile bus limitation. School Committee Chair Gregory Thompson explained that the two-mile rule is a state guidance, although he said the town could explore altering it. School Committee member Aimee Dalenta acknowledged that the town is not laid out for ease of walking. Smith said he would speak with the safety officer, East Longmeadow Police Department and DPW to explore options.
ELHS project update
Smith delivered an update on the East Longmeadow High School (ELHS) building project. The Building Committee is in the “Preferred Schematic Report Phase” of the feasibility study. The Design Team is developing designs and estimates for three possible projects – an upgrade that would bring the building up to code, an addition/renovation or a wholly new building.
Renderings were shown to the committee that detailed a potential new building, including the grounds. The rendering featured tennis and basketball courts and fields for soccer, football and softball. A location for a future swimming pool was delineated on the plans. The pool would need to be built with a different source of funding, as the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), with whom the district is working, does not reimburse for such facilities.
The inside of the two-story building would feature a central corridor with access to chorus and band rooms, and the auditorium. The academic wings could be sealed off from these more public-facing areas, Thompson and Smith explained.
Three public feedback meetings have been conducted on the overall project and Smith said more will be scheduled before the next time the Building Committee must submit documentation in February 2023.
Heritage Park
The School Committee voted unanimously to return control of 19 acres of Heritage Park to the town. The land has been under school department control since a Town Meeting voted to transfer it in 1958.
After much discussion and many questions from the School Committee, some of its members, as well as Smith, met with Town Manager Mary McNally, Deputy Town Manager Thomas Christensen and DPW Superintendent Bruce Fenney on the matter. Thompson said he was assured that the town would not seek funding for the park redesign and renovation during the same period in which the school department will be asking taxpayers for money for the ELHS building project. Thompson said he had also walked the area and was satisfied that it posed no opportunity for development.