SOUTH HADLEY — A $124 million plan to build a new Mosier Elementary School is facing pushback from neighbors who say the proposed traffic pattern would usher vehicles to exit onto a single residential road, backing up traffic on nearby streets.
Residents in that area aired their concerns last week at a public information session organized by the 18-person Elementary School Building Committee. In February, that committee voted to build a school housing 590 first through fifth graders on the athletic fields next to the current building.
The proposal — paid for partially by the Massachusetts School Building Authority — was one of seven potential building options. In addition to the option chosen, the committee examined bringing the building up to code, making additions to the current building, or constructing a new school across the street and behind the existing Michael E. Smith Middle School.
When news of the vote broke, residents along Parkview Drive, which abuts the athletic fields, and nearby streets took to social media to speak out against the project. A petition began to circulate to request the Select Board approve an article for special Town Meeting to remove the site plan from consideration. A total of 32 petition papers with 248 signatures were turned in, according to a statement from the Town Clerk’s office. The board voted to take no action on the petition.
The debate prompted the Elementary School Building Committee to organize the public information session on March 18, where 26 attendees aired their grievances about school traffic affecting traffic flow onto adjacent streets.
“I respectfully suggest that we’re creating an avoidable hazard, that, as a practical matter, is a solution that’s not going to work,” resident Robert Shute said.
While building committee members discussed traffic in making their site selection, members felt the chosen design best addressed other safety and education considerations. The new Mosier would adequately reduce disruption to student learning during construction and reconfigure grade levels to create a new vocational program. Most importantly, this option is the safest for evacuation in case of an emergency, they said.
“I want to see the traffic study because I don’t want to create a bigger issue for the community,” said Tracie Kennedy, a building committee member. “But we have to find a solution that is the best for the entire community, best for the students and protects the schools, and option five is the best option that was in front of us to do all of those things.”
Kennedy describes the current drop off and pickup configuration at Mosier as “an absolute nightmare.” Students cross four lanes of cars and buses to get to school, leaving them vulnerable to getting hit. While police and administration do their best to direct traffic, Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen said the process is very unsafe.
“I’m certain any plan that you do would be an improvement to now,” Gundersen said.
The proposed design for traffic flow would direct parents to drop off and pick up their children at the back of the building before existing out onto Parkview Drive. Buses would have their own traffic loop in the front of the building, with an exit also out to Parkview.
“The goal here, as part of the MSBA requirement, and part of our designs, is we want to separate bus and parent pickup and drop off,” said Chris LeBlanc, the project manager from Mount Vernon Group Architects, the Wakefield-based firm designing the project. “We’re not having this site to be a huge traffic issue. We want to make sure it’s well controlled, typically one way.”
As LeBlanc presented the designs, those in attendance shook their heads and sighed. Parkview Drive is a no-exit road that feeds into West Parkview and East Parkview drives, Ashton Lane and Blueberry Bend. Additionally, St. Theresa of Lisieux Roman Catholic Church on East Parkview Drive conducts morning mass and a day care, which resident Odette Turcotte said would mix with school traffic once the school opens.
A traffic study for this site will be conducted within the next couple months, LeBlanc said. The study will examine not only the site itself but also the impact on surrounding streets. The committee can make changes to the site plan based on the study’s results, or choose a new option all together.
Abutters expressed favor for the other six site plans, particularly the option that moves the school behind Michael E. Smith Middle School.
“It will enable buses [and] parents the efficiency to move and drop their students off on a better basis,” resident James Buckley said.
Gundersen, however, said students and staff from both schools would not have a safe place to evacuate in the case of an emergency. In addition, in such a situation it would be easy to lose sight of students and potential perpetrators in the nearby trees, the chief said.
“Needing to evacuate 1,000-plus students and also staff from one area would certainly be problematic,” Gundersen said.
Since South Hadley was accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority grant program in October 2023, the town has been planning to replace the current 73-year-old Mosier building. When the Henry J. Skala School — then known as Plains Elementary — entered the MSBA program in 2012, Elementary School Building Committee Chair Diane Supczak Mulvaney noted that while the town wanted to renovate both schools, they were forced to choose one.
“We were sending our children to a school with dirt floors,” Supczak Mulvaney said. “We had to do Plains.”
Now that the School Building Committee has selected a site plan, the design will go to MSBA for final approval before moving to the schematic design phase of the project.