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Date: 6/13/2023
HOLYOKE — The Holyoke City Council voted unanimously during its June 6 meeting to approve $85,504,592 in funding for the construction of a new middle school building to replace the existing William R. Peck Middle School building.
The decision received a round of applause from residents who filled the chamber awaiting the council’s decision. Public comment had a majority of speakers express gratitude for the proposed project. The new school building would replace the aging and energy-inefficient Peck building with a 550-student middle school.
Of the over $85 million in costs, it’s expected for the state through the Massachusetts School Building Authority to reimburse the city $46 million which means the city will be responsible for a total of $40 million in projected costs. City officials have maintained these are conservative estimates.
At-Large Councilor Joseph McGiverin spoke first for the council and expressed gratitude for all parties in the city involved on the project, including the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, the School Building Committee, and the school district. McGiverin, who also chairs the Finance Committee and has worked extensively on the proposed middle school building project.
McGiverin credited Mayor Joshua Garcia’s leadership in this project and said the work of the School Building Committee has been “tremendous.” He added the existing Peck building had essentially served its course for the city and this was not only a great option for the children of Holyoke, but also a great option financially for the city.
“A note on the existing Peck Middle School, it is in need of a lot of work. The commonwealth of Massachusetts would not give us one penny to work on the Peck Middle School because of that particular design itself and for other reasons,” McGiverin said. “I think it’s important to understand that to all the people of Holyoke.
Two election seasons ago when a ballot question had a chance to approve two new middle schools to be built, the voters made it clear they were not interested in the proposal, and it was denied. This started a processing of regrouping and a new approach of outreach for the city to be as inclusive as possible in making everyone’s voices heard in the decision.
With the City Council’s approval of this proposal, there will be no ballot question this time around as the public vote was to seek debt authorization from the community that was beyond the city’s limits. This time, the proposal does not exceed the city’s limits and is only for one new middle school building.
McGiverin suggested the state legislature and governor look into making new school building more affordable like they were in the past. While he said he gives the MSBA credit for getting to a 45-48% reimbursement rate, it should still be more money for any community looking to invest in a new school.
“We have to give them [MSBA] credit for that. It’s still a long way from where it used to be. I don’t fault the MSBA for doing their job and their charge. The governor and the state legislature should be on record that this formula is wrong,” McGiverin noted. “Not just for a city like a gateway for Holyoke, but for the entire commonwealth. There’s nothing we can do and its not the MSBA’s fault, but the governor and the legislature should be looking at this and asking why 40,000 people have to borrow $55 million for a middle school project. It’s just beyond reason to me.”
In closing, he reiterated he believes it makes a lot of sense for Holyoke to build the new middle school building. He added this decision puts the “correct foot forward” and sends a message that the city believes education is part of where the future of Holyoke needs to be.
The Finance Committee had unanimously voted to adopt the approval of this bond and allow the project to go forward.
At-Large Councilor Kevin Jourdain talked about how the city got in conversations for a new school building, what went wrong, and the process that has gotten it right this time.
“First of all I would just say to the voters, 65% of whom said, ‘time out, there’s got to be a better way. We have to have a better approach to doing this,’” Jourdain said. “It’s almost Herculean, quite frankly, to have seen that type of support coalesce on saying we could not afford that, this approach was not inclusive, and did not consider all the things that we have now considered in this proposal. That’s what got us here today.”
To the voters in this instance, Jourdain congratulated them for effectively communicating to the city through their vote that a new approach was needed. He added the 35% of voters who said yes to two new middle school buildings but lost were also winners in this instance as he believed the majority of voters were in favor of the investment in the children but were just in disagreement about how to get there.
“This process got us to a point where we could accept the mandate, I think which was always unified which is we wanted to do a new middle school for the kids. I know myself as a father of three kids in the Holyoke Public Schools, this was always something that was my desire to do,” Jourdain said.
Jourdain said the question in resolving where they once were was how the city builds a new middle school but also meet the other priorities within the community. He added he was “really impressed” with the School Building Committee’s hard work and being inclusive of different voices around the city in getting through this process.
“It just goes to show you the inclusive approach that was taken. Now we’re going to listen to everybody in the community to get to a result that we all could rally around,” Jourdain said. He also expressed gratitude to Garcia and Superintendent/Receiver of Holyoke Public Schools Anthony Soto.
“It goes that we can use this type of template as a blueprint for how we operate here. It creates a culture of collaboration and creates a culture of working together and tackling all these different points and that we can come out with this tremendous result,” Jourdain added.
At-Large Councilor Peter Tallman has served as a member of the school building committee for the last year and a half and expressed similar sentiments about the work done across the city in making this project a reality.
“This is something not just for the school children but for the city. It’s really important for our city and how this is going to improve what the city looks like and how we care for the education of our students,” Tallman said.
At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera said he was “a little torn” even while being in total support and thankful for the new school building for Holyoke students. His main gripe was taking a model school when he felt there was an opportunity for the district to create an image of their own that fit the students of Holyoke’s needs, not a valuable building to be fit into by students.
“I’m glad that we saved money, it was economical, but I feel like it’s an opportunity for us to start new,” Rivera said. “But otherwise, I’m glad and I’m appreciative of all the work that’s been done over the last four to five years. And that finally we get a W for education in Holyoke.”
The firm selected by the Holyoke School Building Committee in January was the Mount Vernon Group who have designed several school building projects in the state, including the exact model the new Holyoke proposal would be based on. The MSBA selects model schools for districts and design firms to choose from as they have been built quickly, proven to be successful, are energy efficient and cost effective.
With the City Council approval, the MSBA is now aware of local commitment in building the new school building before its vote for final approval in late June. The city will then go out for bid for construction. According to Garcia during a recent “Mayor’s Message,” construction could begin as early as fall 2024 or February 2025.