School Committee discusses projects


The Wilbraham Middle School Jazz Band welcomed the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee by playing a few selections at their Dec. 13 meeting. Last year, the School Committee made touring district schools a part of their bi-weekly meeting. This is the second time the band performed the Committee. This year Wilbraham Middle School Principal Barbara Lukis noted that this is the largest Jazz Band the school has had. Reminder photo by Natasha Clark

By Natasha Clark

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM Last week's Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee meeting was hosted at Wilbraham Middle School.

Following are a list of highlights from their Dec. 13 meeting:

School Committee Chair Scott Chapman announced that School Committee members attended a Hampden Select Board meeting, to learn of any of their budget concerns. Chapman assured the public that the School Committee will continue to be make budget projections and "wisely allocate money."

"I just want to remind people that communities are made of building blocks," he said, citing the Library, public safety and school system as some of them. "We will put together a budget next year that wisely spends on our greatest investment which is our students."

Superintendent Paul Gagliarducci gave an update of Minnechaug Regional High School's (MRHS) Building Project. He announced the Building Committee's sub-committee will be visiting new high schools the following day in surrounding cities.

"They will report back to the School Committee at the first (School Committee) meeting in January," Gagliarducci said.

The moratorium for submitting school project plans to the state ends in July 2007 and Gagliarducci said the Building Committee is also scheduling in order to meet that deadline.

"Two thousand and six will be a busy year for the project," he added.

The School Committee voted to endorse Gagliarducci's recommendation to the Major Projects Committee to have a feasibility study conducted for Memorial School in the future.

Gagliarducci wanted it to be clear that someday Memorial may possibly be considered "as a project to be submitted to the state for reimbursement." The School Committee's vote just formally puts it into the meeting minutes.

As reported in the Nov. 7 edition of The Reminder, many issues with Memorial School have been identified, including a leaky roof and water lines, and rotting exterior doors and windows.

Gagliarducci plans to submit a letter to the Major Projects Committee about the study in the near future. School Committee member D. John McCarthy asked Gagliarducci how long such a process would take.

Gagliarducci said taking into account the entire process, it could take at least two years.