WESTFIELD — Michael Tirrell, chair of the School Committee’s Facilities Subcommittee, said at a July 8 meeting that the schools have “a lot in the works” for their buildings in the coming year.
Tirrell was referring to, among others, the planned January 2025 move of Franklin Avenue and Abner Gibbs elementary schools into the new Westfield River Elementary School being built on Franklin Street; a planned application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a new high school — or two — due in April 2025; and the scheduled closing of Fort Meadow Early Childhood Education Center, which was pushed off for a second time by the School Committee to June 30, 2025.
Tirrell said Mayor Michael McCabe has requested a capital plan covering the next five years from all city departments by the end of July. Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said the School Committee needs more time.
“I’ll let him know our plan has to be run by the subcommittee,” he said.
Fort Meadow is a century-old building that school officials have determined is too costly to renovate. The School Committee had voted last year to make 2023-24 the last year in the Fort Meadow building, with plans to move the whole program to a city-owned Southampton Road building currently rented by Head Start. When Head Start’s plans to move to its own facility fell through, the mayor and School Committee agreed to let both programs stay put.
School Committee member Timothy O’Connor, who also serves on the Facilities Subcommittee, finding a new home for the Fort Meadow program will be something to “keep an eye on” in the coming year. He said if a new site becomes available for the school, it will require a review by the whole School Committee.
“We can’t move it too far down the road,” he said.
Czaporowski said the committee can list Fort Meadow as a standing item on every School Committee agenda starting in September.
The subcommittee’s next meeting, on Oct. 7, will discuss the move of Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue schools into the new Franklin Street elementary school. Among the questions are what to do with the Abner Gibbs building once it becomes vacant.
Czaporowski said one option would be to use the building at the corner of South Maple and West Silver streets as a new home for the Pathways high school credit recovery program, which currently meets at Camp Togowauk. He said the program is maxed out at 50 students at its present location, but would gain space by moving to Abner Gibbs. He said that a decision has to be made before the elementary school vacates the building. If the building stays vacant too long, any move to reuse it would trigger a requirement for expensive renovations to bring it up to modern building codes.
Czaporowski said the district had started to pay for minor repairs at Pathways’ current location at Camp Togowauk, which is owned by the city, such as $25,000 to address sewage backups in the past year. Behavioral Health Network also leases space there, and signed a new five-year lease agreement on June 10, he said.
Tirrell and O’Connor said they were concerned about paying for utilities to keep a relatively large building open to serve a small program. Czaporowski said the Pathways program, which currently serves juniors and seniors as an extension of the Westfield High School campus, could accept sophomores and also provide a place for Westfield Technical Academy students who are struggling with credits.
He said the program works. He said when the Pathways program first started his first year as superintendent, there was a 3% to 4% dropout rate in Westfield. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had fallen below 1%.
Czaporowski said the decision on moving Pathways to Abner Gibbs would have to be made before the Fort Meadow move, in August or September.
After the move into the new Franklin Street school, the School Department will have to tear down the old Franklin Avenue building, which occupies the same campus, Czaporowski said.
New high school
Other future agenda items discussed at the facilities meeting included applying for state reimbursement funding to build one or two new high schools.
Czaporowski said the district has put a lot of money into the Westfield High School building on Montgomery Road, including a new roof, tennis courts, the pool, science labs and a new entry way, and he doesn’t think replacing that facility, first opened in 1973, would qualify for state assistance on its own.
He said Westfield Technical Academy is another story. The vocational school occupies two buildings on Smith Avenue, built in 1931 and 1962. Czaporowski said he believes it would cost too much to rehabilitate Westfield Technical Academy. A recent estimate to rehabilitate four bathrooms at the school came in at $260,000, he said.
“Philosophically, are we looking to put it in front of the School Committee, or will the MSBA make the decision,” asked O’Connor.
Czaporowski has championed the idea of building one new comprehensive high school to replace both schools. He said the first step is to apply to the MSBA, which would conduct a feasibility study, as well as a 10-year projection on enrollment. He said ultimately, the MSBA will decide whether to combine the two schools or rehabilitate or replace one of them. The city’s decision would likely follow whatever MSBA allows.
“Even if they gave you 70%, a new regular high school costs $250 to $300 million,” he said. He said the School Committee will also need to know the bonding capacity of the city.
He said an application to the MSBA would need to be reviewed at the Facilities Subcommittee meeting in February, then approved by the School Committee at its first meeting in March, and then approved by the City Council before the MSBA’s April application deadline.
Czaporowski said by February, the committee could look at what projects to include in the capital plan. He said the administration will be meeting in January and February with the building principals.
