City gets state money for three school projects

Date: 6/16/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- Although Mayor Sarno may have characterized last week's announcement of state support for three school initiatives as a "trifecta," others are critical of part of that announcement: the decision to rehab Forest Park Middle School rather than build a new school.

At a Thursday press conference, Sarno, State Treasurer Timothy Cahill and Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Executive Director Katherine Craven announced three state expenditures:

• Springfield would be the location for the MSBA Supplemental Capital Improvement Pilot Program. The city will receive in excess of $20 million over a three-year period to make preventative maintenance repairs to a number of city school buildings;

• the new Putnam High School project has been given the green light by the MSBA;

• and that Forest Park Middle School will not be replaced, but renovated with the $30 million that had been allocated for a new school construction.

The pilot program, Cahill said, allows the state to combine a number of projects, which he said would save money. If the pilot program proves successful in Springfield, it would be "rolled out across the state," Cahill said.

He explained the previous philosophy was to "wait for the building to fall apart before funding more expensive repairs."

Craven said the pilot program is "the culmination of many years of effort." She said among the repairs and renovations will be new windows, roofs and heating and cooling systems.

The decision about Forest Park Middle School was an about-face for the city, which had been in a search for a new location for the school. Last month, the city had undertaken a feasibility study for the school to be built on the property also slated for a low-income apartment complex on Longhill Street. The decision to renovate the school removed one possible impediment to the apartment complex project.

The city could have lost the $30 million for a new middle school if it had not determined a new location for it by the end of this month.

When asked why the switching of the school's status as a candidate for new construction to rehabilitation of the present structure, Sarno said, "My number one priority was not to lose that [state] money."

He added, "If we don't make a move, we're off the [school building reimbursement] list."

Sarno maintained the possible sites for the new school carried "intensive relocation" costs and that an "11th hour site" -- the Longhill Gardens location -- would involve litigation to obtain it.

Sarno said that there were plans originally to renovate the building and Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management Executive Director Patrick Sullivan said that Craven toured the school three years ago and viewed it as a good candidate for rehabilitation.

Sullivan said the rehabilitation will be completed faster than the construction of a new school and that he anticipated the work would include gutting parts of the school as well as the addition of a new roof and a new parking area.

School Committee member Antonette Pepe -- the only member of the School Committee to attend the press conference -- questioned the decision to rehab the building when there was already $1 million spent in the past for architectural drawings for a new building.

George Pappas of the Springfield Forward (www.springfieldforward.com) group told Reminder Publications the announcement about Forest Park Middle School was "disgraceful and disingenuous."

The grassroots citizens group in Forest Park has sent Sarno over 300 letters from residents opposing the apartment complex at Longhill Gardens.

Pappas said the mayor "sacrificed" the new school.

Pappas was planning to speak at the Finance Control Board on June 16.