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Date: 1/18/2022
HOLYOKE – After four years of talks among the Board of Trustees of the Holyoke Community Charter School, the school announced that it received an $8.5 million tax-exempt bond from MassDevelopment and TD Bank that will go toward a 20,000-square-foot gym and the creation of four additional classrooms.
The charter school is housed in a facility on Northampton Street that was formerly a flea market. Currently, it serves K-8 students and has 702 students enrolled.
Addressing the expansion, Principal Sonia Pope said, “The area for the gym and cafeteria served its purpose, but it was not conducive to really do games.” The new gym will have a full basketball court and a volleyball court, which she said “students really enjoy.” She also mentioned the new basketball court would help the middle school basketball program and teams going into the school.
She added that COVID-19 has significantly impacted the school and stressed that adding the four extra classrooms would accommodate more academic initiatives and bring more needed space into the building.
She said more trustees are on board to continue giving more outlets to the students, and she had been exploring possibilities to help the kids deal with the social-emotional pressures they are facing due to COVID-19.
She explained, “Many of our students live in areas that when they had to isolate and when school was closed, they were closed in small areas and never had the opportunity to go out and play, and so I think that us expanding our sports program, will give the kids an outlet and it will expand the wellness program that we have for them and our physical education classes.”
As for plans for when the construction will begin, Pope said their vendors are experiencing delays in getting the wood and other materials, so they do not have a set date at this time but are hoping for early spring.
She also told Reminder Publishing, “Holyoke Community Charter School has been in our community for the past 16 years now, serving our community here in Holyoke and in other areas close by, and we want to serve our students in every capacity, and I think that this wonderful project would definitely help us enhance our wellness program…”