The final bell has rung and students at West Street Elementary School have cleaned their desks and packed their bags for the last time. The 76-year-old school has closed for good. In August, 224 students will be headed to the new wing of East Meadow School.
“West Street has been a part of the community for a long time,” said Principal William Lataille, who has overseen the two schools for the past two years. “The building has seen so many people, their parents and grandparents, they all went there, but at the same time people realize it’s time to move on.”
In 2014, budget constraints prompted discussions about closing West Street School, and in March 2016, Town Meeting voted in favor of building a $34.2 million addition to the existing East Meadow School to replace West Street and to renovate the rest of the school. East Meadow, located next to the high school on East State Street, will serve students from preschool through sixth grade. Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders will occupy the newly renovated side of the building, while students in lower grades will occupy the new half.
Closing the West Street School building, which is riddled with structural problems, and reconfiguring the administrative staff is a cost-effective way to serve Granby students, Lataille said.
“The building has some unique character traits,” Lataille said. “That brings with it a lot of fun things and a lot of history and also the reason why it’s time to move on, probably.”
A failing septic system, drafty windows and faulty heating and ventilation systems were problems too expensive to be worthwhile, according to Lataille.
Several parents say they suspect there is asbestos and lead paint in the building, and are happy to see their children moving out.
“Nothing has changed since we’ve been here,” said Dan Warren, 31, who graduated from West Street in 1995. His son attended first grade in the building this year.
According to the 1968 history book on Granby written by Margaret Dickinson, it cost $60,250 to build the school in 1942, which was first occupied by 160 students filling six classrooms. As the population grew, six rooms were added in 1952, and the town approved another eight classrooms, a cafeteria, kitchen and activities room for $375,000 in 1955.
Alice Denette, 87, who taught at West Street School for 35 years, started teaching second grade there in the late 1950s. She remembers teaching the students how to make root beer, taking them on walks to a nearby pond to write poems, or through the woods to count butterflies.
“There was so much hands-on back then,” Denette said. “Decorations on the walls, decorations kids made.”
During recess, she remembers students fighting to use the school’s only baseball.
“I loved teaching,” she said.
Attitudes about education were different back in the school’s early days. Some recall a strict approach not seen in schools today. Whacks on the knuckles with a ruler, or locking a misbehaving student in a closet are disciplinary measures some recall, though not everyone remembers them as bad.
“The teachers we had at West Street School were keenly interested in us kids,” said George Randall, a West Street alumnus and local historian. “They made sure we got a wonderful education, that we could read, write, spell and do math. Yes, they were strict at times, but that is what was needed back then.”
Randall, a 1968 graduate of Granby High School, says he was forced to hold his dominant left hand behind his back while he learned penmanship with his right.
While some recall one bus driver who was known to kick unruly students off the bus to walk the rest of the way home, they remember teachers earning students’ trust with homemade sweets and field trips.
A 1974 graduate of Granby High School, Sharon Scott grew up on a military base in England before her father was transferred to Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee in 1963. She went to school on base in a diverse classroom with students from all over the world before moving to West Street in the third grade.
“Everybody was the same color, except for one kid, an Alaskan Eskimo,” Scott said. “He was picked on all the time, so I became his friend.”
Still, Scott remembers her elementary school years fondly. “It was a nice time to be alive,” Scott said. “It was very simple.”
There are no plans for the old school building yet, but in December voters at Town Meeting agreed to spend $31,100 on an engineering study to assess its condition and potential future functions.
“I hope they can save it,” said Heather Houle, 28, a mother of a rising fourth-grader. “I’ve seen a lot of abandoned buildings around lately.”
Randall thinks the building is structurally sound, and says it would make a good Town Hall, centrally located with ample parking and office space for various departments.
“Over the years, the town has neglected this complex, as they do for many of the other town buildings,” Randall said. “The exterior woodwork has been neglected, paint is peeling and little to no efforts were used over time to make the building energy efficient to the town.”
Steve Marion, a Granby police sergeant, said he would like to see the lot turned into a sports complex, while other parents have suggested a senior center, gym, Boys and Girls Club, or a pool.
“It’s on an awesome plot of land,” said M.J. Furnia, a 30-year-old mother. She wonders what will happen to the student murals and artwork in the building if it were torn down.
On a recent morning, West Street students and parents celebrated the old school’s final field day with games and a barbecue. Students tumbled, crawled and crab-walked through a game of limbo, while others played with a giant rainbow parachute. They threw water balloons, ran relays and ate burgers while parents and kids mused about the new addition at East Meadow School.
“It looks great and I think it will be a lot better for the kids,” Houle said.
Brenna Moreno, 9, said she is most excited for the new Chromebooks computers promised at the East Meadow School.
“Cleaner,” said 8-year-old McKenna Zumbruski when asked what she thinks the new building will be like.
“I’m very excited and I’m really hoping to be next to my teacher right now,” said 8-year-old Eleanor Szlosek. “And I just feel excited.”
With 224 students currently at the elementary school, Lataille, the principal, says the new school will be able to serve a growing elementary school student population. He looks forward to the new educational opportunities available at East Meadow, like peer mentoring and building stronger and longer-lasting relationships between students and teachers.
“The teachers are so grateful to be able to move into the new building with the new tech and new resources,” Lataille said. “Several have made comments that they never thought this day would come.”
Mike Regan, a 35-year-old father of four, had considered sending his kids to a private school, or leaving the district through school choice.
“Seeing that the town is investing in kids is a reason we decided to stay,” Regan said. “Seeing that new school go up is what is keeping my tax dollars in this town.”
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com.