Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia cuts a ribbon to officially introduce the new Dr. William R. Peck Middle School to the community.
Reminder Publishing photos by Tyler Garnet
HOLYOKE — The city of Holyoke hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 2 to officially unveil the new Dr. William R. Peck Middle School to the community.
Although the school opened on time to welcome students for the first day of school on Aug. 25, the ribbon cutting ceremony was a chance to reflect on the decade long process and allow the community to tour the space.
The city partnered with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to construct the new, 550-student middle school that meets the needs of modern education.
Dr. William R. Peck Middle School, the same name as the school formerly on the site, is the first new school built in Holyoke since 1989.
The $85.5 million project was officially approved in June 2023 by the city of Holyoke and the MSBA. The city of Holyoke is responsible for paying approximately $27.1 million and the MSBA will reimburse approximately $58.4 million. Currently, the project is estimated to be approximately 10% under budget.
Peck Middle School has also been sustainably designed to be highly energy efficient. It is one of the first new schools in Massachusetts to be built under the state’s new energy code designed to improve energy efficiency and align with the state’s greenhouse gas-emission limits.
Many stakeholders were at the ceremony to celebrate the highly anticipated event including Mayor Joshua Garcia, interim Superintendent Anthony Soto, members of the Holyoke City Council, School Committee and School Building Committee, state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield), state Rep. Patricia Duffy (D-Holyoke) as well as students, families and staff of the new middle school.
Garcia discussed the importance of building a new school and the message it sends to the students in the community.
“This middle school building reflects our city’s commitment to and belief in our children,” said Garcia, “Our school district’s motto is ‘Juntos Podemos, Together We Can.’ This school is the physical embodiment of community leaders, families and educators coming together to invest in our young people and the future of our great city.”
The new middle school is an important component of Holyoke’s efforts to strengthen learning opportunities and reimagine the middle school experience. The new building replaces a poorly designed, energy-inefficient school that previously stood on the same site.
Soto highlighted what the new building will be able to offer for students grades 6-8.
He explained, “I can imagine the learning and joy we will see when we walk these hallways and classrooms this year and in the years to come, including students discussing and collaborating in well-lit, spacious classrooms. Students conducting group experiments in our STEM lab. Student-musicians learning new instruments in a soundproof music room. Family and community members cheering on the Peck Phoenix student-athletes in the gym. We are looking forward to so many more opportunities for our students and families, our staff and the Holyoke community.”
School Committee member Dr. Yadilette Rivera Colón also shared how big an accomplishment this new school is for the community. She told a story when she was in the lobby of Holyoke High School and overheard two students talking about the renderings for the new middle school.
Colón said the two students said, “They will never build this for us. They would be too scared that we will damage the property, that we will make it dirty, they will never do this for us.”
Standing in front of the new middle school that was built, Colón stated, “This is not a building, this is a physical investment of what the community has been brining to our students. It’s an opportunity for all the children of Holyoke to be able to see yes, we care about you, but not just with words, but with action, we [have] an actual building that will be here for many years.”
