EASTHAMPTON — A final public forum will be held on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Easthampton High School to discuss plans for a new consolidated school.
There’s been no shortage of discussion among Easthampton residents as the May 22 vote approaches to decide whether to replace the White Brook Middle School and three elementary schools — Maple, Center and Pepin — with a single new facility on the site of White Brook, 200 Park St.
The forum, the fifth one held in advance of the vote, comes a week after school tours were held of the existing schools. Maple Elementary was built in 1896. Center Elementary was built in 1902 and Neil A. Pepin Elementary was built 10 years later in 1912. White Brook Middle School, built in 1975, has had to replace its roof twice since.
At tours held last year of the four existing schools, a host of inefficiencies came to light, including lead paint buried under layers of other paint, coat closets being used as office and learning space and asbestos in floor tiles, counter tops, pipe insulation and boilers.
Debora Lusnia, former chairwoman of the Easthampton School Committee, is now the co-chair of the Committee for Building Easthampton’s Future, which was created for the express purpose of supporting a new PreK-8 school building project.
Lusnia said around 30 people made it out this year to the school tour of White Brook Middle School last week, and slightly fewer people came to see the elementary schools. She said she was grateful that Easthampton residents had the chance to see the schools for themselves ahead of the vote.
“I hope they got a firsthand view of the challenges that exist in our buildings, how difficult it is for our teachers and how the learning environment is very challenging for both teachers and our students,” Lusnia said.
The committee is planning several more events to support the proposed school project, including a “rally on the rotary” on Saturday, May 12, and will be knocking on doors around the city as the school vote approaches.
Also last week, School Committee members heard about ways to address increased left turn wait times that would come with traffic at the proposed new school. The left turn out of 200 Park St. already has an “F” rating considered “unacceptable” by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, according to a traffic report prepared by Berkshire Design Group Inc., indicating that the traffic problem predates the proposed new school.
The committee voted to fold in costs for a proposed Park Street roundabout to address the traffic concern, but said the roundabout would not raise the cost of the overall project.
A March report from project managers and architects estimated that a new 176,155-square-foot consolidated facility would cost $109 million, with the district covering approximately $59.71 million of those costs.
The report estimated that repairing the existing four schools to bring them up to code would cost $135.85 million, an estimated $105.84 of which would be paid by district residents, and gave other estimates for scenarios where only some of the schools are repaired.
M.J. Tidwell can be reached at mjtidwell@gazettenet.com.