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Date: 1/17/2023
HADLEY – The Russell School Committee met on Jan. 9 to continue its discussion on the future of the Russell School building. The meeting was notable due to its discussion of recent survey results.
The survey in question was sent out by the committee to all residents of Hadley and anyone else involved in the Hadley Public Schools community. It asked community members to rank the importance to renovate, replace or demolish the current building. It also asked responders what their preferences would be regarding specific design features and funding options. The committee has not released the raw data to the public but discussed the results at the Jan. 9 meeting.
As the committee quickly reviewed the results, they discussed how they should organize the results and comments, how they should proceed with the results and what the committee's recommendation to the Select Board should be - as the next step for the committee is to go before the Select Board with results.
Commenting on what he believed the recomendation should be, committee member Dan Regish explained, based on the results, that the majoriy of survey responders felt that the building must be renovated.
“Looking at [these results], you can see right away that the majority of the people who took the survey think that it’s very important or somewhat important to move forward with stabilizing the building in some manner or fashion. The minority says it’s not important, so based on that simple, super boiled-down formula, my recommendation would be to get some preliminary numbers for people to vote on,” said Regish. “‘It’s going to cost a certain amount of money, this is what we recommend to stabilize this building. Given that we still don’t have a dedicated use for it, but it’s a historic structure and we want to save it for future generations, this is what it’s going to take.’”
The committee will spend the coming weeks putting together said information for the townspeople of Hadley.
“Our recommendation is to at least forward a decision to the townspeople that should have been done 15 years ago. [These survey results are] concrete evidence that the majority of people in town and out of town would like to see that building saved…Between this meeting and our next, [our job] is to come up with a general report that say just that,” Regish said.
As discussion continued, the committee agreed they would attempt to get on the Select Boards Jan. 18 meeting agenda to present their recommendation based on the survey results.
Members of the committee will meet next on Jan. 23. Though no official timeline has been announced as to when townspeople can expect to vote, it will most likely occur sometime in the mid-spring.
For more information or to watch the meeting in full, go to: Russell School Committee: 1-9-22 - YouTube
This article was updated on Jan. 24, 2023 to clarify Regish's comments regarding the survey results.