I would like to respond to the “Excited for new middle school” letter to the editor. First of all, the unnamed safety concerns I was referring to involved the tragic death of a woman using the cross-walk by the Longmeadow High School. There are other issues also, which I will not get into here, but suffice to say that someone losing their life is enough of a safety issue for me. There is a reason we now have two speed bumps on Williams Street, one at Grassy Gutter and one near the Town Green.
People speed on Williams Street and it’s a safety issue for anyone crossing that road. The traffic feasibility study that was conducted clearly points out that adding a combined school here will exacerbate the already challenging traffic conditions during school drop-off and pick-up. We can’t just build wherever we want in Longmeadow without adhering to the town’s zoning regulations and building in the Williams field violates those regulations.
Secondly, no one is disputing that the middle schools are in poor condition, we are just lobbying for a different preferred solution, one that does not add to the problems that already exist with having a middle school, a high school, an elementary school, and all of the town’s commerce and only supermarket all within the same area.
Third, I also take issue with the statement that all students “ought to have a new, thoughtfully designed facility that meets modern standards.” Yes, students need a facility that meets modern standards and should be up to code, on this we all agree. But new? Why do all students need to have a new facility? Why can’t an older building be brought up to code? Does every generation of students need to have a new school building? What about the elementary schools? None of them are new, is the author proposing three new elementary schools?
Fourth, it was asked how does building a new school in the place of an old one change the character of the area? If a combined middle school results in an over doubling of the number of students coming to an area, and if most of those students are dropped off by their parents, then you are adding a couple hundred more cars to the drop-off line every morning and afternoon. I also think that adding a large two-story building in the middle of a residential neighborhood certainly changes the character of that area.
The last thing I’ll add is that in the authors letter it was mentioned that they have been dropping off at least one child for the last three years. To that I will add, this is part of the problem. Why is it that most students get driven to school, why don’t they take the bus or walk/bike to school?
Bill & Terry DeGiulio
Longmeadow
