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Date: 2/18/2022
HOLYOKE – The city of Holyoke has not seen the construction of a new school building in over 30 years. In 2019, a proposed ballot question of building two new middle schools aimed to change this. Although the proposal was not passed given tax and financial reasons, residents strongly supported the idea of constructing one new middle school.
During beginning discussions, the idea of renovating Peck Middle School over designing a new building was entertained. According to Superintendent/Receiver Anthony Soto, constructing a new building is more cost-effective.
“The cost benefit analysis we had done far-favored building a core project as opposed to renovating. It was almost just as expensive to renovate a building as it was to tear down and build a new one,” said Soto. “I don’t think that this time around we’re going to even entertain a renovation. We really want to build a new school.”
Soto said that the city’s current middle school model is not efficient.
“I’m a firm believer that part of the reason we ended up in receivership is the decision that was made many years ago to move to a K-8 model…We’re funded at the very minimum spending level required by the state. By switching to that model, it just spread our resources very thin and we have very small grade spans and small middle schools across the entire city, so we’re really just running very inefficiently,” he said.
Currently, Peck School includes grades 4 through 8, Veritas School includes grades 5 through 8 and Holyoke Stem includes grades 6 through 8.
With the new plan, there will be consolidation into only two middle schools. One will be the new construction and the other will be one of the existing schools.
Building a new middle school will help elevate the student experience and can contribute to offering more educational services and enhancing collaboration and efficiency, according to Soto.
Erin Linville, chief of strategy and turnaround, recognized the challenges of consolidation, but noted how worth it, she feels, the process will be.
“Obviously it’s hard to change school configurations and move students around, but I feel hopeful that since it has support from so many people right now about the need to have a middle school experience that Anthony described that hopefully the hard work and the discomfort that will come from that will be worth it and that people will feel that throughout the process,” she said.
At their Jan. 24 meeting, the School Committee approved that the new middle school will be defined as grades 6 through 8. It will fit 550 kids, which will allow half of the district’s middle school students to attend.
“Initially when we were going after two buildings, that was one of the biggest advantages of having the two new middle schools is that every single middle school student would get to experience a state-of-the-art facility and the programming that came with it. That did not go as planned and one of the reasons that we heard loud and clear from the community was the financial capability of the Holyoke taxpayer base and the city willing to fund it within their operating budget just wasn’t something that was feasible financially for them,” said Soto.
The city will be going through a redistricting process by Fall 2023 to decide exactly who will be able to attend the new school. Soto said that they will be working to make the decision as inclusive as possible.
“We want to make sure that our schools are equitable, so we don’t want to draw boundaries or redistrict a portfolio that puts all of our English Language Learners or all of our Special Education population in one building. That’s a process that we’re looking to get input from the community, from staff, from families,” said Soto.
Linville said that they want the other middle school to have the same learning experience and opportunities as the new construction as well.
“We don’t want whoever is in the other middle school to feel like they don’t have the same educational opportunities, so we also want to get community and staff input on that and would also want to look at what types of other investments we would need to make to other middle school building,” she said.
At this point, the city is in the eligibility phase of the project. Immediate next steps will be to get the City Council to approve finances for a feasibility study.
“We’ve hit every milestone required of the city of Holyoke in this process, with the exception of securing funding from the City Council for a feasibility study. Once we do that, we’ll be able to submit it to the MSBA and then they’ll have an opportunity to take that up at their June meeting and make a decision as to whether or not they move us along to the feasibility stage of the project,” said Soto.
After this will come the schematic stage, another funding stage and then construction. They are hopeful that construction could begin within 24-28 months after all approvals and would take around 18-24 months.
According to both Soto and Linville, the best-case scenario is that the new middle school is built by Fall 2026.
“We’re doing all we can to try to get it built by then,” said Linville.
The city has also created a School Building Committee to keep the process running smoothly and efficiently. The committee helps to make design decisions, serve as advisors and advocates for the project and make sure the city remains in compliance with the MSBA process throughout.
“There’s educators on there, city people, parents, community members – so it’s really great to have the wide perspective and different points of view at the table,” said Linville.
Most recently the School Building Committee officially voted on the Peck School site as the location of the new middle school.
Soto said that he is most excited for the opportunities this new school will bring.
“I’m most excited to see the excitement on our students’ faces on day one. I’m excited for the opportunities that this is going to provide us in terms of being able to offer great programming and a great middle school experience,” he said.
Linville said she looks forward to the increased opportunities for students to experience independence and explore interests and passions such as music, sports, world languages and more.
She said that this new middle school and consolidation model will help set students on a good pathway for high school and will show them how invested the community is in their success.
“I’m excited about a more robust experience for students inside and outside the classroom,” said Linville.
Throughout the entire process, community members can stay updated on the middle school redesign website at https://www.hps.holyoke.ma.us/msredesign/, in the weekly school newsletter and through social media. The city will also be hosting set forums and surveys for feedback in the future.