Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

To renovate or rebuild Putnam?

Putnam Vocational Technical High School
Reminder Publications photo by Katelyn Gendron
School Committee working with City Council and parents to find a solution



By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD Build new or renovate what the city has? Members of the School Committee, City Council, parents and others heard about a number of options how Putnam Vocational Technical High School could be renovated or replaced at a meeting of the School Building Commission on Wednesday.

According to School Committee member Antonette Pepe, the chair of the sub-committee dedicated to Putnam, the School Committee will have to make a decision in the near future about how Putnam should be renovated if construction is to begin next year.

She was not sure if the Finance Control Board would be involved in the selection process, but thought the FCB should be consulted.

Pepe said that building a new school the option that Carl Franceschi, president of Drummey, Rosane, Anderson Inc. took the longest time to present would be the least expensive. Pepe is concerned, though, about eliminating the part of Putnam that was built in the 1980s and wondered if a renovated Putnam campus could also be home for the Springfield Renaissance School.

Franceschi said the 16.1-acre site was "fairly limited" for a high school over 1,000 students and that maintaining the "fabric of State Street" is one of many concerns.

The new school no matter what the plan would be built to house 1,400 students a number that Pepe believes is too small. Franceschi did say during the presentation the plans to renovate existing buildings could accommodate additional students, while the completely new school plans would not.

Under all of the plans, either to renovate the existing buildings or construct a new one, the new Putnam would actually be smaller and would be organized so the classrooms for the freshman and then groups of like vocations would be clustered together. Classrooms would be near the shops and administrators would also be spread throughout the new building, Franceschi said.

The various plans he presented are governed by state regulations concerning number of students and classrooms and the size and type of facility for the academic use, he added.

None of the plans he presented included an auditorium. Franceschi said the cafeteria or the gym could be designed to have better acoustics and be used for that purpose.

There were three basic plans presented two of which would renovate parts of the existing structure, while the third would be for a new building.

In one plan, the building closest to State Street and the part of the school bordering the athletic fields would be renovated with a new building constructed between them. Another option would use the two most recent additions to the school and then build an addition.

There were options for a new building as well. One plan would keep the building closest to State Street and demolish the rest for new construction, while another called for building the new school on the athletic fields and than moving the fields to where the old school had been.

Franceschi said that was the option that could be accomplished in one construction phase. All of the other plan would require working around the students as they attend classes and building in phases.

Pepe confirmed the new school would be the easiest and least expensive to build, but she has reservations about the design. At the meeting she questioned why several of the vocations had been grouped together.

Another attendee wanted to know why there were two classrooms devoted to art and none to music.

Franceschi said the School Committee would have to approve of the use of the space, under the state's guidelines.