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Date: 11/29/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — The East Longmeadow School Committee voted to send several capital expense project requests, totaling $5.34 million, to Town Manager Tom Christensen for consideration in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
Superintendent Gordon Smith presented “one key project for each building,” to the committee, which reviewed the needs, potential funding sources and priority for each. The committee voted to prioritize modular classrooms at Mountain View School.
The modulars had originally been approved in FY22, but when the request for proposals was sent out, the school department received no responses. Since that time, Smith said they were able to “go outside” the state-approved list of firms and request proposals this summer. The responses exceeded the original budget, and the school department now needs an additional $1.3 million for the structures. Smith noted that the DPW is supporting the request.
Birchland Park Middle School previously replaced the sashes for a little more than half the windows that required the work while the windows were under warranty. The warranty has now expired, and 80 sashes need replacement. This project is expected to cost $53,891. If approved the work would be completed over the summer and early fall in 2024.
The school department will also be requesting $345,000 to redesign and remove the traffic barriers in the Meadow Brook School parking lot.
A replacement is needed for the turf field at East Longmeadow High School. The field, which both high school and recreation teams use, would cost approximately $741,633. Neither the field, nor the replacement of bleachers on the away side are included in the new high school project.
The final project on the list of requests is replacement of flat roof sections at Mapleshade School, which has been on the school department’s capital plan since 2011. Smith acknowledged, “It’s costly — $2.9 million.”
School Committee chair Gregory Thompson asked if the roof would qualify for the accelerated repair program from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Smith said that if applications will be accepted again after a pause in 2023, the roof would likely qualify for the funding. He pointed out that the school department would have to commit to housing Maple Shade school in that building for 25 years or be required to return the money to the authority.
Smith noted that a capital expense that would see Council on Aging vans used to transport special education students will be submitted as a Council on Aging project, rather than a school department project. He said the two departments had had success partnering in the past and he would like to extend the arrangement to transport students in the 18- to 22-year-old program on field trips to learn life skills and for job shadowing opportunities.
Professional development
Teachers underwent professional development on Nov. 7. Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Heather Brown said there were mixed reactions to the keynote presentation by Performance Project, a group of high school and college students, most of whom are the first generation in their families to pursue higher education or first-generation Americans. While the presentation was based on the lived experiences of the youth involved, some people felt it painted teachers in a negative light or “bashed” them. Brown said the purpose was to encourage conversations and thinking about various perspectives.
The workshops were received positively, with 84.8% of educators describing themselves as at least “somewhat satisfied.” There were 43 workshops available, and Brown said most East Longmeadow Public Schools teachers attended the workshop which is a precursor to Math Labs lessons. The professional development will be offered again in February 2024.