BELCHERTOWN — The town is exploring whether to construct a new middle school to replace two of its older schools, a project that would if completed in four or five years would redistribute children in pre-K to eighth grade.
The Select Board in February gave the School Committee the go-ahead to begin a process that could possibly lead to the creation of a new building to replace Jabish Brook Middle School and close Cold Spring School.
At a Feb. 11 Select Board meeting, board members voted unanimously to allow the School Committee to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Board Authority (MSBA) for the “strong possibility of building a new school,” according to Superintendent Karol Coffin in a Belchertown Community Television recording.
Coffin said at the meeting that the committee has been “talking for quite a while about the need to take a look at the configuration of the grades in our schools to look at cost-effectiveness, our buildings and their educational purpose and the way education is delivered now.”
The proposed new building would serve as a middle school, while grades at other schools would be redistributed.
Two sites are currently being considered for the proposed building: the athletic fields behind Jabish Brook, or a town-owned property near the high school, Chestnut Hill Community School and Swift River Elementary.
Students in the Belchertown district currently attend Cold Spring School for kindergarten and preschool; Swift River Elementary for grades 1-3; Chestnut Hill Community School from grades 4-6; Jabish Brook Middle School from grades 7-8; and the High School from grades 9-12.
Under the proposed redistribution, Cold Spring students would merge into Swift River Elementary in a pre-K to grade 2 building; Chestnut Hill would serve grades 3-5; and the new middle school would serve grades 6-8. The high school would not be affected.
Jabish Brook and Cold Spring middle schools each have a number of structural and technical issues that negatively impact learning environments, said Eric Lebeau, director of buildings and grounds, in a presentation before the Select Board.
Jabish Brook, which was built in 1964, has “major building components that are aging and failing,” Lebeau said, which will become more costly within the next 20 to 25 years.
Among these issues, Lebeau said that the school does not have an electric system that can adequately support 21st century technology without a “major upgrade.”
“We’ve pretty much maxed out what we can do for technology,” Lebeau said, adding that the school is also expensive to heat and difficult to cool during the summer and also has traffic flow issues.
The school will also need its roof replaced within the next five to 10 years, which Lebeau said would cost around $2 million presently. But in 10 years, he suspects the price will be higher.
Leabeau told the Gazette that the school district is in a “time crunch” for deciding what to do with the roof, as well as other major capital improvement projects.
“Should the process start to take longer for us to get into the MSBA program, we’ll have to decide if we’re going to put a new roof on the building or not,” he said.
Cold Spring School, which was built in 1954, has no computer lab, meeting room, library or gym. The two-story building also does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, as it has no elevator and is also not up to code in its bathrooms.
Both Jabish Brook and Cold Spring do not have a fire suppression system.
According to Coffin, ensuring that students are at the same school for a minimum of three years is also “much more stabilizing for students” and has educational and developmental benefits.
At the moment, she said that Jabish Brook, which serves only two grades, is a “revolving door” for students.
The school committee will find out if the statement of interest is accepted in December, and will then need to undergo a feasibility study by MSBA in 2020, with results received in 2021.
According to Lebeau, the town will likely not take a vote on whether to fund the building for another four to five years.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.
