This watercolor rendering shows what the community wing of the new Agawam High School will look like when it is completed in late 2026.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
AGAWAM — Construction of the new high school “remains on time and on budget at this point,” said Mayor Christopher Johnson in a recent update on the project to the School Committee.
During his brief presentation at the Sept. 23 meeting, Johnson provided several drone aerial photos of the construction site to show the scope of the project.
He explained that workers currently are drilling the geothermal well field.
The wells will provide heating and cooling for the new school. Geothermal wells are specialized boreholes drilled into the Earth’s crust to access geothermal energy that can be used for electricity generation as well as heating and cooling applications.
“There are 150 wells that comprise the geothermal well field,” said Johnson. As of last count, he said between 70 and 80 wells — or 60% — are complete.
The mayor said the well drilling is expected to be complete sometime in early October. When that’s done, work will start on installing all the interconnections and lighting and then all of them will be connected together.
Foundation work on the community wing of the new school also is ongoing. Johnson said concrete footings have been poured as have some of the foundation walls. The wing – which is being built close to the rear of the existing high school’s gymnasium – will be the first section to be completed.
“The hope is that — again, in early October — they’ll start erecting the steel which comprises the frame of the building. It’s anticipated that the topping off will likely be right around Christmas,” said Johnson.
In addition, Johnson said 100% of the new school’s design documents are completed and soon will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. He said the project has gone through the 60% and 90% design stages and now the 100% design stage.
He added that while MSBA doesn’t comment back on the previous stages or the initial design development submission, it does with the 100% design stage. “It’s almost like the official filing with the state,” he said.
Johnson told the committee that the town has so far put out four early bid “packages” on the project. The main one was released in late September with bids due by mid-October. He said there also have been some smaller bid packages for things like furniture, fixtures and equipment.
“The early bid packages have focused on items that have substantial lead times for, manufacturing and preparation and acquisition and all the site work at the geothermal wells so we can get those done before winter this year,” said Johnson.
He added that “a lot of work” has gone into the project to get it where it is now. Johnson thanked the school leadership team that’s now meeting weekly and the School Building Committee for their “hard work.”
The mayor also said AHS Principal Jim Blaine and his staff have done “a great job” with the parking issue, considering how many the spaces we’re lost due to the construction. He added that “kudos go to the teaching staff, because they agreed in mass to park on the eastern side of the building, which for most of them is a much longer walk from where they normally would park.”
At the end of his update, Johnson told the committee that he will try to arrange a day for committee members to get out to the construction area to “take a ride around the site so you can see it up close and personal.”
Construction of the new school that will replace the current high school — built in 1955 with several “wings” added over the years — started this past April. Construction of the community wing is the first phase of the project. It is expected to be completed in December 2026, along with parking and an access road to the building. The new school is expected to be completed by the fall of 2028.
