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Date: 12/6/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — A panel studying school facilities and enrollment is asking the School Committee to close not just Mittineague School, but also three other buildings, and build a new elementary school.
West Springfield’s Student Population Projection Committee met for the last time on Nov. 28, and that night members presented their recommendations to the School Committee. In addition to the expected closure of Mittineague — the town’s oldest current elementary school — the panel of elected officials, school administrators and community representatives said the town should build a new elementary school and retire Memorial School, Tatham School and John Ashley Kindergarten. West Springfield would end up with three elementary schools each serving pre-kindergarten through grade 5: Coburn School, which was rebuilt last year; Fausey School, which the committee recommends renovating and expanding; and the new school.
“Significant monetary investments would have to go to address both Mittineague and John Ashley schools,” Superintendent Stefania Raschilla mentioned at the meeting. “It wouldn’t be financially responsible to put that money into those schools.”
She said the cost of renovating John Ashley, Memorial and Tatham is expected to total $84 million, compared to a new school cost of $92 million. Renovation costs would have to be borne entirely by West Springfield, whereas new school construction costs could qualify for a partial state reimbursement, making new construction the cheaper option for local taxpayers.
The Student Population Projection Committee had already voted to recommend moving Mittineague neighborhood students into the Coburn building next year, but it’s possible the building could stay open a few more years serving a different set of pupils, Raschilla said. West Springfield’s bid for state reimbursement would be stronger if the new school could be pitched as a replacement for the 1871 Mittineague building, rather than the other schools that were built in the 1950s. That means keeping at least some classrooms open at Mittineague. She proposed turning Mittineague temporarily into a second early childhood center, like John Ashley, with preschool and kindergarten classrooms.
Nancy Bowie, president of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council and a former Mittineague parent, told her colleagues on the panel that her neighbors are already upset about their local school closing. Seeing different children in a building they were told was too old or rundown for their own children is going to rankle, she said.
“It’s not going to be met kindly,” she said. “It feels a little sneaky. When you have a speakout, it’s going to get ugly.”
The panel’s recommendation would accommodate several goals Raschilla and the School Committee have set. It would move kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes for all parts of town to the same schools as grade 1-5 classes — rather than the current system in which most neighborhoods send their youngest learners to John Ashley. It would ensure that all students with a first language other than English can be served in their “home” school, rather than being bused to Coburn. It would give the school district enough room to expand its pre-kindergarten offerings, increasingly offering five-day, full-day preschool for age 4. Enrollment boundaries would be redrawn to account for the change in the number of schools and to equalize class sizes.
The School Committee said it will welcome public participation in a hearing on the elementary school plan at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Dec. 12, at Town Hall, 26 Central St., West Springfield. The committee agreed to schedule a special meeting on Dec. 19 to vote on the proposal.
In order to apply to the state for school construction reimbursement, the proposal would also have to be approved by the Town Council.
This article was edited Dec. 8, 2023, to correct a reporter's error about which committee had previously voted on moving Mittineague students out of the school.