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Date: 4/17/2015
WEST SPRINGFIELD – About 350 parents of Cathedral and Holyoke Catholic students had a chance to have their questions answered, squash rumors and learn new details regarding the merger of the two schools at a meeting on April 13.
While Bishop Mitchell Rozanski and Dr. Paul Gagliarducci answered some lingering questions at the parents’ meeting conducted at St. Thomas the Apostle in West Springfield, it also created more and again pushed back the timeline for a decision regarding a site for the new school and, ultimately, its construction.
Though the merge was set to begin in the fall of 2015, Gagliarducci said that is no longer a realistic option. Holyoke Catholic currently has 251 students enrolled, and Cathedral has 200, thus making a physical move unattainable. After meeting with stakeholders, it was decided that the transition would not begin until 2016.
“Taking a look at all we had to do, my recommendation to the Bishop was if we can avoid merging the students, let’s not do it,” Gagliarducci said. “Let’s run this as one school with two campuses and let’s keep people as is.
“There are a couple of reasons for that. I wasn’t comfortable that either one of the sites could hold 470 kids. Second, mergers should be done well … I still felt that it was rushed to do that. Then there was the potential that some kids might be in three schools by the time they graduate. My recommendation was that was not a good thing for those kids … Now, they’re going to love the third school, but the difficulty of changing schools mid-career was too difficult.”
When the schools merge under one name and two campuses, Gagliarducci said the tuitions will remain the same. Cathedral’s current tuition is $9,300 and $8,600 for a parishioner. Holyoke Catholic has a full tuition of $8,500 and $7,500 for a parishioner.
Freezing the tuition at their current rates has been discussed, Gagliarducci said, but nothing has been decided.
Gagliarducci said there has been a group of student representatives working to collaborate and brainstorm a name, mascot and colors for the new school, and the athletic directors have already begun work to on a presentation on combining all sports teams for the Pioneer Valley Athletic Group.
The father of a Holyoke Catholic student asked about how athletics would be impacted by the merger. He wanted to know if his hockey-playing son would be able to become a part of a renowned program like Cathedral’s existing one.
For this, Gagliarducci had a simple answer. Once the schools had a single name, the sport programs would be completely united, though the transition may begin even sooner.
“We’re going to be doing everything we can to merge the two schools, so next fall, we’ll probably be working under some ‘co-op teams,’ and that’s going to help,” he said.
While a site is yet to have been selected for the new school, Gagliarducci said this is their main focus and they hope to reach a decision by the end of June, at the latest.
The sites being considered are Surrey Road, where Cathedral was located before the 2011 tornado, the Brush Hill, adjacent to the Dominican Nuns Monastery, property in West Springfield, the old Uniroyal site in Chicopee and unused land owned by the church near St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Chicopee.
Part of the St. Stanislaus property, off of Memorial Drive, is currently the site of a solar farm. This site has not been publicly discussed previously.
Gagliarducci also said additional sites were being reviewed but did not identify them.
The site has been one of the most heated facets of the new school, and Gagliarducci said parents have been passionate about getting it built in the right location.
“We can put everybody into three camps: build it on Surrey Rd., please don’t build it on Surrey Rd. and I don’t care where you build it, just build it,” he said.
The parents meeting served as an opportunity for Gagliarducci to address this and clarify that all of the concerns about the site are being taken into consideration. At the end of the day, the best site for the new school will be selected whether it is Surrey Rd. or elsewhere, he said.
“There are people that think that building it on Surrey Rd. does not meet the regional component. There’s also a fear that the Surry Rd. site represents ‘a new Cathedral,’” Gagliarducci said. “We’ve heard all of this and [the Bishop has] heard all of it.”
Though he said a site will not be chosen for a few weeks, Gagliarducci said there were concerns about some of the proposed sites. One parent raised concerns about the Uniroyal location and how the cleanup of its brownfield would impact the new school’s timeline should it be selected.
“I’m going to disobey the Bishop,” Gagliarducci said. “The Uniroyal site does not come out well on the checklist.”
Aside from the site, parents at the meeting had questions about class sizes, maintaining Holyoke Catholic’s relationship with Elms College and duplicated positions after the merger.
Gagliarducci said “a lot of things haven’t been decided yet,” but the hope is to maintain class sizes and building a stronger relationship with the Elms for all students to utilize. As for staff and faculty mergers, he said there is an actuality to the situation.
“We all know there’s a reality out there. The reality is we’re going to take two separate schools, each school has multiple positions and you’re going to form it into one,” he said. “You’re going to have duplications. How we’re going to get there, that has not been decided yet.”
While there were a handful of comments regarding the neutrality of Surrey Rd. as a site for a new regional Catholic high school, even those questions that did not outwardly pertain to location had it at their core.
“For the students that are currently bussed in, my son is at the Wilbraham site, will they continued to bussed in once the site is finalized or will we have to transport them?” one mother asked.
Gagliarducci said if the school ends up in Springfield, residents can send their kids on the city’s buses. If it is outside of Springfield, he said it is the Diocese’s duty to find a solution, such as a few busses with designated pick-up locations in the city.
“We haven’t figured that out yet, but we do know that transportation is impacted by the decision we make of where we are going to put the school,” he said.
The Diocese said it is looking for a property with 30 or more acres for 500 to 550 students. Amenities include a baseball field, a softball field, a surfaced track, a field within the track, two soccer fields, a general-purpose field, a football field and stadium and six tennis courts.
Gagliarducci estimated the new school would cost anywhere from $40 to $53 million.
One parent asked for a realistic timeline, which was not included in the overall presentation. When the site has been decided, Gagliarducci said it would be between four and six months to “pull all of the specs together enough to put it to bid.” He anticipates bids to go out early in 2016, with construction running from two to two and a half years.