Mayor Joshua Garcia (left) and Superintendent Anthony Soto (right) talk to the School Committee during its Jan. 14 meeting.
Reminder Publishing screen capture by Tyler Garnet
HOLYOKE — After a groundbreaking event in March 2024, Holyoke’s new middle school is set to open this fall for about 550 students in grades 6-8 and Holyoke Public Schools are calling student artists to help design the new Peck logo.
Recently the Holyoke Public Schools announced the new building will retain the name William R. Peck School, will have a phoenix as their mascot and the school’s colors will be red and black.
After months of public engagement and several community surveys to choose an identity for the new school, the School Committee and district leadership made the final determinations including the new school will retain the name William R. Peck School, the same name as the school that stood at the site of the new middle school for 50 years, before it was demolished almost a year ago to make way for the new one.
Students who are set to attend the new Peck Middle School, current students in grades 4-7 at Donahue, Lawrence, Morgan, Metcalf and STEM, are invited to submit their design for the school’s new logo.
The designs should reflect the voted-upon school colors of red and black and incorporate the Phoenix mascot.
Submissions can be sent to the student’s art teacher, or Mr. DiPilla or Ms. Powe at STEM, and are due by, Wednesday, Jan. 29.
A finalist from each school will be chosen in February. The final design concept will be determined by early March.
The new 107,475-square-foot middle school will replace the poorly designed, energy-inefficient original William R. Peck School that was no longer able to meet the needs of a modern education.
The $85.5 million project was approved in June 2023 by the city and the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The new school has been in part of a larger citywide effort to strengthen learning opportunities and reimagine the middle school experience.
Superintendent Anthony Soto talked about the process and importance of finding a name and identity for the new building.
He said, “Choosing a new name, mascot and colors for the district’s first new school building in 35 years was an important part of the planning process. Our new school will be a fixture in our community for decades to come, and we wanted an identity for the building that reflects who we are and where we are going. Designing and building a new school was an important component of Holyoke’s efforts to strengthen learning opportunities and reimagine the middle school experience.”
Holyoke Public Schools also reported that work crews are continuing their work on the new Peck Middle School throughout the winter months, keeping the project on budget and on schedule to be ready for students and staff at the start of the new school year in August.
“The building is 100% weathertight since the roof systems are fully in place,” said Project Manager Petros Davos, “and so far, the weather has allowed exterior work to continue as planned this winter.”
Soto also said the interior of the new building is also already being planned.
He said, “While the construction crews continue their work on the structure of the new school, HPS district and school staff have selected furniture for the classrooms and are in the process of selecting equipment to ensure our students and staff have what they need for the first day of school.”
During the Jan. 13 School Committee meeting, also discussed potentially naming rooms within the school after other notable leaders who were recommended during the process.
Soto said the School Committee is not obligated to do so and that “this is just feedback that came out of the Building Committee. They said they know they’re recommending it be Peck but we heard some really great names, and I wonder if we could honor these people in a different way.”
School Committee member Ellie Wilson explained the current policy for naming a room at Peck Middle School or any other current school in the district.
It states that the committee will give higher preference to names of deceased person, preferably local people who have made a significant contribution to education.
The School Committee did not have any recommendations, but if the need arises, the School Committee may develop an orderly, announced procedure which will lessen community or factional pressures when naming a new facility.
A two-thirds vote of the School Committee is needed to change the name of a facility.
The School Committee did not decide on if they will start discussing naming rooms in the new school, but Mayor Joshua Garcia said they will bring the points discussed and policy back to the Building Committee to further discuss the potential of naming certain rooms.
