Plans to consolidate two middle schools in western Massachusetts received overwhelming affirmation in the face of opposition during a town meeting in Longmeadow this week.
Tuesday’s special fall town meeting featured almost 30 articles in need of votes, ranging from a transfer of $314,000 to cover mold cleanup work at town and school buildings (approved 461 to 26) to authorizing the select board to establish a municipal light plant, paving the way for a town fiber optic system (approved 396 to 27).
Among the items, though, was a lone citizen’s petition: one dealing with ongoing efforts to potentially combine the town’s two aging middle schools.
“We all know the center of Longmeadow - we have the high school, the middle school, the elementary school, the only supermarket, all the restaurants, businesses - it's too much for a small area that we consider the center of town,” said William DeGiulio.
DeGiulio and a handful of others made their case against building a new facility on the site of the current Williams Middle School - which would merge with Glenbrook under a plan that's been under development.
It was the subject of Article 6, which asked those at a special fall town meeting to "move that the town vote to authorize the continued expenditure of funds for the further planning and design and/or for the construction of a single, combined Middle School on the present Williams school property."
"This motion shall not restrict the expenditure of funds by the town for activities related to the rehabilitation, renovation or reconstruction of the present Williams Middle School at the current scale and enrollment level,” resident Michael Kallock read as he presented the article. “… or for activities related to the construction of a combined Middle School at another site."
The wording of the article was the subject of some confusion - with a "yes" vote effectively being affirmation of the town's continued pursuit of the project, while a "no" appeared to be a rejection of the effort.
Kallock said he believed the motion was non-binding. Town Meeting Moderator Rebecca Townsend also noted it was a non-binding resolution when answering a question from a meeting attendee.
Regardless, opponents of the project’s location like DeGiulio, whom Kallock introduced after speaking on the article, argued the spot, effectively 410 Williams Street, was too close to an area that already sees heavy traffic – adding that it would be exacerbated by a new school that would house over 600 students, rather than Williams's current 310.
“… if you have 650 students coming, and a lot of them now, the new students are coming from the Glenbrook area … at a minimum, half of these students are going to be dropped off by parents,” DeGiulio said while giving a presentation. “So, let's say for a nice, conservative number: 300 vehicles - and if there's only one way in and out of this property, people are coming in on Williams, they're going to go up around the parking lot, they're going to drop off in front of the school, and then all these cars are exiting onto William Street.”
Other opponents raised pedestrian safety concerns – something Longmeadow Superintendent Marty O’Shea addressed, among other things, as others at the Town Meeting responded.
O’Shea noted how $1.6 million had been appropriated for a feasibility study at a previous town meeting in October 2022. All the while, a school building committee held around 18 public hearings as the project came together.
Officials eventually arrived at plans to build a consolidated middle school after it became clear that the work and funds needed to repair and bring Williams and Glenbrook up to code, both schools that are about six decades old, would not be cost effective.
Instead, plans for a modern school on the targeted 16-acre site offered the best opportunity for the town of 15,600 residents.
“I believe we have an opportunity to create a safe, modern campus at the Williams site, and with the redesign of the roadways with dedicated bus lanes, with new and improved pickup and drop-off zones, with separate staff parking,” he said. “We have an opportunity to create a safe campus.”
Adding to O’Shea’s point was Middle School Building Chair, Armand Wray.
“From a traffic perspective, I agree - the traffic at Williams is horrendous. The traffic at Glenbrook in the morning wasn't much better, until we opened up the bottom road a few years ago when my kids went there - we're talking about a 1950s traffic design in 2024: it can only get better,” Wray said. “And with the expertise that we have at Tighe & Bond, at Colliers, at JWA, working together with the committee, it's going to get better.”
Ultimately, the motion passed, with 434 “yes” votes compared to 96 “no’s” and 12 abstaining.
According to a timeline outlined in a preferred solution report presented to and approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, schematic design is slated to start soon for the project, with mid-2026 as a potential construction start date.
The same report suggested project costs could be around $150 million, with significant reimbursement from the MSBA anticipated.
