State Rep. Nicholas Boldyga signs his name on the ceremonial topping off beam at Agawam High School.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
AGAWAM — A construction worker clipped the loops of two cables, one wrapped around either end of a large white beam, onto the safety hook that dangled from a crane.
Slowly, the beam — adorned with a small evergreen tree, an American flag and the names of hundreds of students, teachers and elected officials — was raised into the crisp morning air.
Two workers stood on lifts hovering in the air, ready to attach the beam to the steel skeleton of the new Agawam High School.
The Jan. 6 topping out ceremony marked a milestone in the building’s construction, reaching the highest point of the structure. The tradition goes back to the construction of wooden buildings in Scandinavia around the year 700. People would attach sheaths of grain to the highest point of a newly-constructed building as an offering for the god Odin’s horse. In return, Odin was believed to bless the structure and its inhabitants with good fortune. The tradition has continued in modern construction.
Speaking just before the beam was secured in place, Mayor Christopher Johnson announced, “It’s an exciting day.”
School Committee member Wendy Rua said, “I’m excited for not only the external transformation, but the internal transformation. The educational one,” She added that the new facility would create opportunities for students to learn in a state-of-the-art environment. “This feels like such a victory,” she said.
The high school, which will be 235,075 square feet when complete, is being built in three phases. By limiting the scope of construction to different portions of the high school at different times, the School Department will not need to use modular classrooms, saving money and disruption to the students and staff.
The first phase of the high school project has focused on the building’s public-facing wing, including the gymnasium, and auditorium. This phase will be completed in January 2027, after which the second phase — work on the academic wing — will begin. In the final phase of construction, the Early Childhood Center will be erected. The Early Childhood Center is currently located on Perry Lane, but School Committee member Dawn DeMatteo said that facility was intended to be temporary and has not grown with the School Department’s needs.
While the $229 million project will be built in phases, Johnson said the entirety of the funding has been secured through a partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The semi-autonomous agency reimburses municipalities for a portion of the cost of school design, construction and renovation. The MSBA will reimburse Agawam for about $100 million. Johnson said the town does not yet know how much funding the school will increase taxes because it has not yet gone out to bond, but residents can expect to see the impact on their tax bills in two or three years.
“This is an impressive milestone for Agawam,” Johnson said, noting that the project is the first new school building in the city in 50 years. He thanked Flansburgh Architects for designing the space and contractors Fontaine Bros. for bringing it to life.
“There were times when we didn’t think it would happen,” Principal Jim Blain said of the building project. He emphasized that the school’s design was created with input from more than 100 teachers and hundreds of students.
