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Date: 2/8/2023
AGAWAM — The town is getting ready to take the next major step in the Agawam High School construction project, hiring a design consultant to study whether a new school should be built or the existing building on Cooper Street should be renovated.
“The goal is to have a designer onboard by the end of March or early April,” School Superintendent Sheila Hoffman said in January. She said the timing of the hiring depends on the schedule for meetings and interviews.
Hoffman told the School Committee at a recent meeting that 17 architectural firms and several subconsultants currently have expressed an interest in working on the study.
LeftField Project Management, which was hired by the town as its project manager in October, will assist the town in hiring a designer. The company was approved recently by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which will fund part of the project.
Hoffman said LeftField recently led prospective designers from five architectural firms on a tour of the high school. Designer proposals were due back to the town by Feb. 1. Proposals will be reviewed by three members of the Agawam School Building Committee.
Once that review is complete, a panel of three local representatives and 13 experts from MSBA will decide on a winning bidder.
LeftField plans to launch a website to keep residents updated on the project, www.agawamhsproject.com, this month.
“The website will be continuously updated as we continue to move through the feasibility study process,” said Hoffman.
The complete feasibility study is expected to take about 20 months and will conclude with an MSBA Board meeting that will approve a final project budget, explained Hoffman.
“That will then guide us through to the next steps, which are design documents, followed by construction and closeout,” she said.
LeftField was among seven firms that submitted proposals seeking to work with the town and MSBA as the study’s project manager. The company was founded in 2007 and is currently managing 13 active MSBA projects. With offices in Boston, Worcester and Providence, it will help the town determine the most “fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate” solution to problems identified at the high school.
The original section of the current high school was built in 1955 to replace the town’s first high school, which opened 100 years ago. That century-old building is now Doering School, serving grades 5-6.
Even though the high school has been renovated several times, including an addition just over 20 years ago, educators say it’s outdated in many areas. Among the problems plaguing it are obsolete science labs, small classrooms, antiquated boilers, a leaking roof and inadequate handicap accessibility. Other additions were built in 1961, 1980 and 1997.
Jennifer Bonfiglio, the town’s chief procurement officer, said MSBA’s support of the feasibility study does not guarantee it will approve the final project.
“It’s strictly an invitation to the town to work with MSBA to explore potential solutions to the problems that have been identified at the high school,” Bonfiglio said.
Mayor William Sapelli has estimated that a new high school would cost Agawam around $125 million. If approved by MSBA, the state would reimburse a large portion of the cost, typically around 60 percent.