BELCHERTOWN — Town officials last week took a major step in replacing the aging Jabish Brook Middle School with a new building that is estimated to cost between $117 million and $121 million if residents approve the project at Town Meeting next June.
After examining three design options — two that called for a new building and one that would renovate and expand the current school — the Jabish Brook Middle School Building Committee chose the option that its members felt would best meet education program goals and communal space needs, while also limiting the amount of disruption to students during construction.
If the project comes to fruition, the district would also close Cold Spring School and redistribute students in the K-8 schools.
“There’s so much to get done but I feel like we have really great people on this program and I’m excited to share it with the town,” School Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst said.
The project now advances to the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which in 2020 accepted Belchertown into its Core Facilities Program and made it eligible to receive state funding for a new school building. The town expects to receive about a 30% reimbursement from the state for the project, which, if approved, would bring the town’s cost to construct the new school to between $86 million and $90 million.
The building committee said in a public presentation last Tuesday that the exact cost of the building and the impact to taxpayers will be determined when more details are finalized. Once that happens, the project would advance to next June’s annual Town Meeting, where voters will decide whether they want to increase their property taxes to pay for the project.
The new three-story school would accommodate 475 students and be built on the site of the current school between North Washington Street and Springfield Road. The floor design parallels the grade readjustments, with sixth grade on the first floor, seventh grade on the second floor and eighth grade on the top floor. The project also calls for a new overlapping baseball and soccer field for town recreation.
Project Manager Christopher Lee of Lamoureux Associates noted the biggest unknown financial factor is the soil on the field, which he said is “great for fill, but not so great for building on.” Depending on the severity of the soils, costs could rise.
Skanska, the project’s contractor, hired Lamoureux Associates to conduct a feasibility study and to design several options, including base renovations to the existing school and what a new building would look like. The feasibility study revealed that the school’s roof, heating systems and materials are not up to code and need a complete replacement.
“The building is 50 to 60 years old, so it’s typical for a building this age for a lot of systems, a lot of materials nearing its (end of its) life,” Lee said.
The building is extremely energy inefficient, allowing heat to escape easy, and has no fire suppression system. Gutekenst said the structure has reached absolute capacity for electrical usage; without enough power, school staff struggled to get students proper technology during the transition to in-person classes after the pandemic.
“To access any of the [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] system, you have to pull up the floor boards and crawl into these tiny spaces,” Gutekenst said.
The approved design option is partially based the amount and size of rooms MSBA believes are appropriate for middle school learning. However, Gutekenst said the communal spaces, such as the gymnasium and sports fields, are larger than MSBA suggestions because of the town’s needs. These areas will receive less state reimbursement.
Other factors considered during design are needs of teachers, students and community members. Parents at Tuesday’s meeting asserted their concerns about the lack of music and choir space in the new designs, which opted for a cafeteria auditorium as the music space over a classroom.
Megan Carr, a music teacher and life-long resident of Belchertown, says she currently teaches music for a different district in a cafetorium, and she cannot teach music for three of the seven periods when lunch occurs.
“The advantages that currently exists for our students in both sports and arts is an advantage here in Belchertown,” parent Fritz Kuhnlenz said. “It just seems odd that we would be sort of going off the most basic rations of this when what we’re taking about is still within the margins of our building costs. Were not talking about a $10 million addition, we’re talking about $1.2 to $3 [million] amortized over a 20-year bond package … It’s about being able to provide the next generation of students everything that they want in terms of their options.”
The committee added a classroom for music in the approved design.
When the school is complete in 2027, the district will close down Cold Springs School and redistribute grades among the remaining buildings.
Students currently attend Cold Spring School for kindergarten and preschool; Swift River Elementary for grades 1-3; Chestnut Hill Community School from grades 4-6; Jabish Brook from grades 7-8; and the high school from grades 9-12.
Under the proposed redistribution, Cold Spring students would merge into Swift River Elementary in a pre-K to grade 2 building; Chestnut Hill would serve grades 3-5; and the new middle school would serve grades 6-8. The high school would not be affected.
“We felt like if we move sixth graders up to seven and eight, that would allow them to be part of the STEM program, part of the foreign language program, give them some exposure to the middle school,” Superintendent Brian Cameron said.
Cameron notes that very little renovation is required for Swift River and Chestnut Hill to accommodate this change.
Gutekenst said Cold Springs is the oldest building in the district, not MSBA compliant and the most expensive to operate. Closing the building provides potential savings for the district.
If the project doesn’t pass during Town Meeting, Jabish Brook will undergo base renovations to bring the building up to code. A new roof and building envelope, as well as an additional fire suppression system and other upgrades, will cost the town an estimate $87 to $89 million. The base renovations are not eligible for the MSBA grant.
Emilee Klein can be reached eklein@gazettenet.com.
