Renderings of the new Longmeadow middle school, which would be built on the campus of Williams Middle School.
Photo credit: Longmeadow Public Schools
LONGMEADOW — On Sept. 9, Longmeadow residents will vote at Town Meeting on whether to approve a debt exclusion to fund the construction of a new middle school at 410 Williams St.
The proposed school, which would serve all 665 middle school students in town, has been met with opposition since the location on the campus of the existing Williams Middle School was announced.
A group of residents calling themselves Save Our Middle Schools first organized in 2024 under the name Educational Advocates for Responsible Spending. That group, largely made up of people living in the area around Williams, pushed back against locating the combined middle school in their neighborhood.
The group is now working on a campaign encouraging residents to vote against the middle school. Instead of a single school, they are promoting the idea of renovating both Williams and Glenbrook middle schools.
Recently, another resident group, Longmeadow SMART, has begun advocating in favor of the combined middle school. The group distributed 150 lawn signs to residents from all areas of town in one day, said member Ryan McCollum. He said it showed that large numbers of people were in favor of the school project.
At two recent government meetings, vocal members of both groups argued their case to the Select Board and School Committee. There were several points that the groups conflicted over. Reminder Publishing interviewed both groups ahead of the Town Meeting.
Athletic fields
One aspect of the new school’s design that Save Our Schools has pointed out is a reduction in athletic fields. Glenbrook has four baseball diamonds, and the Williams property has two baseball diamonds and two fields for football and soccer. The plans for the new school include a single turf field for football and soccer.
The group has also questioned the use of a turf field as opposed to a grass field. Turf fields become hotter in the sun and turf fields are more expensive up front. However, grass fields require more maintenance overall. Christian Whitsett of Jones Whitsett Architects, the firm designing the school, said at the June 16 Select Board meeting that the amount of use the field will receive would make maintaining a grass field a constant challenge. Turf has been used at athletic facilities in several area schools, including those in East Longmeadow, Wilbraham and Agawam.
McCollum discounted the impact, saying, Longmeadow has “beautiful athletic fields all over town.” He also noted that it is possible Glenbrook would be redeveloped to include athletic facilities.
Property values
Curt Freedman said closing Glenbrook will devalue homes in the area and people will be less likely to buy a home in the neighborhood because there is no middle school within walking distance. Several members of Save Our Middle Schools quoted the National Association of Realtors as stating that losing a school would lower property values. When asked about the positive impact on property values that would result from a new, updated middle school, Freedman said only schools within one mile, or walking distance, of the Williams Middle School campus would experience that.
McCollum said that is disinformation. “The National Association of Realtors says walkability helps property values,” but Save Our Middle Schools is “trying to reverse engineer it,” he said, adding, “It’s a little bit of a scare tactic to say people are going to lose 5% to 10% of their property value.” Instead, he said spending money to build a new, modern school “shows we value education and put our money where our mouth is.”
There is no shortage of articles that link the quality of school districts to property values. A 2023 article by the National Association of Realtors stated, “School spending has been proven to increase home values. A study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that home values increased $20 for every one dollar spent on public schools in a community.”
Considering claims that a single school would create a lack of parity between the neighborhoods, Longmeadow SMART member Cameron Burke said that there already exists a lack of equity in student opportunities. She said children with diverse needs, like hers, may have to be transferred and leave their friends behind to receive the educational support they require. Ryan added that students interested in a club that does not have many participants at one school may need to be bused to the other to participate.
Neighborhood schools
At the Aug. 19 School Committee meeting, Save Our Middle Schools member Theresa DiGiulio said she and other members canvassed the neighborhood around Glenbrook. According to her, many people in the area did not know there were plans for a combined middle school. She said residents were upset because they had purchased their homes with the intent of sending their children to Glenbrook.
Burke discounted the idea that buildings are “neighborhood schools” because Williams is in the center of the town.
Freedman spoke about the disservice to students who will need to take a school bus. He said students will need to walk to the bus stop in all kinds of weather, spend time on the bus and then do it again on the way home.
Burke said that she is fortunate to work from home, but many parents must leave for work in the morning, making it difficult to ensure their child will leave for school on time. “The idea that your kids have to leave at a certain time in bad weather [to walk to school] is unrealistic,” Burke said. A nearby bus stop is more convenient, she said. She also noted that school children do not walk to school in the winter, but buses run throughout the school year. She also said many children who would need to be bused to Glenbrook will now be able to walk to Williams.
Renovating both
Perhaps the most important issue for Longmeadow SMART member Katie Allen is the idea that the Save Our Middle Schools position is “untenable.” She said proposing the town renovate both schools “creates the idea that there are options that don’t exist.”
The yes-no vote at Town Meeting will only consider whether to approve the debt exclusion, not the merits of the project. No amendment to the project can be proposed on the floor of the meeting. If residents vote to fund the combined middle school on Sept. 9, a referendum will be conducted at the ballot box on Sept. 30. The debt exclusion must pass both votes for the project to proceed.
Freedman contended that Wolf Swamp Road School and Blueberry Hill School were renovated at the same time in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The town paid the full cost to renovate both as the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a semi-independent entity that helps municipalities fund school buildings, was created in 2004. Freedman said if those schools could be addressed at the same time, it should be possible to do the same for the middle schools. “The MSBA would reimburse at least one, probably Glenbrook,” he said.
In fact, that is exactly what happened when the MSBA accepted Longmeadow into its program in 2022. Both Glenbrook and Williams were examined in a feasibility study, but the agency will only accept one school at a time into its main program. The MSBA chose Glenbrook. However, the town was given the opportunity to address both schools if it chose to integrate them into a single building. Creating a combined middle school was a method of addressing the needs of all of Longmeadow’s middle schoolers simultaneously.
Burke said Blueberry Hill School and Wolf Swamp Road School were expanded. When Center School was renovated, students were displaced to the high school, she said. She cited a comment School Committee member Jaime Hensch made at the body’s Aug. 19 meeting.
He stated that one reason he supported the middle school project was because students at both Glenbrook and Williams would be able to continue classes in the existing schools while the new one was built, limiting disruption.
On that point, Burke added that the MSBA does not reimburse municipalities for modular classrooms, which can cost millions of dollars over the course of a project.
Cost
In June 2024, it was estimated that the cost of renovating both schools would be $153.6 million. The combined middle school is slated to cost $151.59 million. Freedman questioned the Middle School Building Committee’s figures and said they were not an apples-to-apples comparison because the different options included various configurations. He said the renovations were made to look more expensive than the new construction.
McCollum said that, fiscally, borrowing money to renovate two “antiquated, out-of-date” schools costs the town more money with less return on investment. Unlike with renovations, he said, borrowing money to build new construction boosts a municipality’s bond rating. He pointed out, “You also don’t know what you’re going to find when you renovate.”
Transitions
Several of the Save Our Schools members, including Freedman, called the proposed two-floor building a “mega middle school.” Freedman said the transition of going from small elementary schools to middle school less disruptive if the school is a “more manageable size.”
Burke also said middle school is a transition. When it is time for students to move from fifth grade to sixth, students from Blueberry Hill and Center schools are split between Williams Glenbrook, she said. Children who have been in school with friends for several years are suddenly separated. She said that a single middle school would ensure friends make the transition to middle school together.
On the other hand, McCollum said it is better for children’s academic and social-emotional well-being to get to know unfamiliar children coming from other elementary schools. “I don’t want to lose sight of that,” he said.
