HADLEY — An overhaul of the two locker rooms at Hopkins Academy is expected to be scaled back as the result of rising costs associated with the project.

With voters in December 2023 approving a $1.07 million debt exclusion to cover the refurbishing of both the girls and boys locker rooms at the school, the School Committee at its Nov. 25 meeting agreed to have the project instead mostly focus on the girls side.

This came in response to information from Chris Desjardins, director of finance and operations for Hadley public schools, who told committee members that the cost is going up dramatically, based on the renovations program prepared by Clough, Harbour & Associates, LLP of Boston. Those plans show that the project is about $1 million short, and that even taking out various elements to save money caused the prices to rise by $400,000 beyond initial projections.

“The end result of this is that we don’t have the funds to do the entire project of both sides of the locker room,” Desjardins said.

In rethinking the project and cut in half to meet the budget, Hopkins would still see a complete overhaul of the 2,080 square feet in the girls locker room.

“By far the worse of the two locker rooms is the girls side,” Desjardins said.

On the boys side, limited work would be done on 1,018 square feet. This would include the creation of two gender neutral bathrooms that would be used by spectators at sporting events both inside and on the athletic fields outdoors, allowing the removal of the sani-cans that are currently there.

The work would also create an athletic directors office that would become the changing room for officials, and would mean better securing the rest of the building. Officials currently use another room in the school to change, leaving hallways open during games.

Desjardins said $1.08 million is estimate for all the work, which is slightly above the money authorized by voters, though contractors’ bids could come in higher or lower.

School Committee Chairwoman Humera Fasihuddin said residents have been told that both locker rooms would be done, giving her worries about a partial plan without going back to the town.

“In essence do we do this in a way that is transparent with the town and revisit, or go with the partial and run the risk of ‘wait a second, you promised this and then you gave us this,’” Fasihuddin said.

School Committee member Christine Pipczynski said the girls locker room can’t be put off any longer and residents will understand the situation. “It’s the girls locker room that needs the work done, and it’s been promised for far too long, and people haven’t come through on it, and I don’t want to do that again,” Pipcsyznski said.

School Committee member Tara Brugger said it seems to be a matter of communicating with town officials and letting them know that the schools don’t have the money to do both, and will only get the girls side done and make some adjustments to the boys side. The remainder of the boys locker room improvements would instead be added to a future capital plan

Fasihuddin observed that the project began as a girls locker room improvement that later expanded to doing the boys locker room, though the boys side has had some work done over the years.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.