Mosier Elementary School in South Hadley.
Republican file photo
SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley Elementary School Building Committee will host a community meeting and Mosier School tour on Feb. 5, according to the town.
The in-person Mosier School tour will start at 5:15 p.m. and will be followed by a community meeting, presentation and Q&A at 6 p.m.
A virtual option will be available for the 6 p.m. meeting via the project website at southhadleyschools.org.
Free childcare will be provided at the Mosier Gymnasium.
The tour and community meeting come at a time when the town wants to replace or renovate the school building. Right now, it is a multi-year project, and community input will continue to inform decision-making throughout the process. The project is currently in the feasibility study and preferred schematic report phase.
After submitting a statement of interest for a new school building in April 2023, South Hadley was invited in MSBA’s eligibility period in December 2023, which was the first step in securing state funds for a replacement of the school building.
The School Building Committee hosted a community meeting on Dec. 11, 2025 to share updates on the project and hear questions from the community.
The meeting included a tour of the existing Mosier Elementary School, followed by a presentation reviewing the project’s partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the educational vision guiding the work, existing building conditions and preliminary design options under consideration.
Based on the questions asked, the committee has gained more clarification on the process.
The district is evaluating a grades 1–5 configuration for the new Mosier Elementary School in addition to the current grades 2–4 model. Fifth grade is still considered developmentally elementary, a configuration that aligns with current educational practice in many districts, according to the town.
A grades 1–5 elementary school can be designed with smaller, grade-level “neighborhoods” that support age-appropriate learning with shared resources, according to the town. The proposed designs also allows students to remain grouped with peers of the same age.
Many communities use this neighborhood-based model, including South Hadley’s Skala School, Mountain View School in Easthampton and Barrie Brook Elementary School in Ludlow. This approach allows schools to share resources efficiently and has become increasingly common over the past decade, including in projects supported by the MSBA, according to the town.
Based on December 2025 preliminary design program cost estimates, the current total project for code upgrades and basic repairs is estimated to be $50 million to $55 million.
Addition/renovation on the Mosier Elementary School site is estimated to be between $80 million to $115 million. New construction at Mosier Elementary School site would be $90 million to $124 million.
The estimates are preliminary and will be refined as the project advances through the MSBA process.
South Hadley’s base MSBA reimbursement rate is 61%, but this applies only to eligible costs. The MSBA sets caps on eligible construction and site costs, meaning the effective reimbursement rate will be lower than 61%. The final MSBA grant amount and the town’s share of project costs will be confirmed later in the process after further design development and review.
If a grades 1–5 option is selected for Mosier, Skala Elementary School would transition into an Early Childhood Center serving preschool and kindergarten. This option would allow the district to expand early childhood programming, potentially increase preschool availability to five days per week and improve access for families, according to the town.
In this scenario, Mosier Elementary School would serve as the district’s elementary school for Grades 1–5, organized in a grade-level neighborhood cluster setting. All options remain under consideration by the School Building Committee, and no final decision has been made. According to the South hadley Public Schools website, the hope is to have a preferred project route for Mosier school approved by MSBA by June.
More information and past meetings can be found on the project’s website.
