CHICOPEE — After years of talk, the city will invest in reimagining the Anna E. Barry School.
The City Council last week OK’d the transfer of $1.25 million from the stabilization fund for a feasibility study for a new school, a key step in securing state help.
The study will be conducted by the Anna E. Barry School Committee. The council vote Thursday was unanimous.
Conditions at the school have been a concern for years. Officials originally proposed replacing the windows until problems with asbestos and the building’s structural design arose. The school has five levels and is not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Providing money for the study is the final item needed to complete Massachusetts School Building Authority requirements outlined in the eligibility phase, Carissa Lisee, chair of the Anna E. Barry School Building Committee, told the council.
The MSBA voted unanimously to invite Chicopee into the first phase of the process and pledged to pay 80% of all eligible costs.
Staff
This agreement, however, put the city into a 270-day process to complete several tasks, one of which was to provide funding for the feasibility study.
“The city needs to show the MSBA that they are committed,” Lisee said.
For former students of the school, such as Ward 3 City Councilor Delmarina Lopez, the feasibility study will be money well spent.
She said even years ago, she and classmates knew the school was in bad shape. “It’s always been a mess for as long as I remember,” she said. “I’m happy to see this project move along. It’s about time that we get a new school.”
Lopez said residents should prepare for the city to tackle school projects. Other schools are in the same state of disarray, she said.
“All of our students deserve to be in safe schools that are free of asbestos or mildew,” she said.
School Maintenance Director Scott Chapdelaine points out an area in Garrity Grove Park where he ideally would like to build a new Anna Barry School during a March 14 tour of the building with School Committee and City Council members. Behind him, from left, are Councilor Shane Brooks, School Committee member Sam Shumsky, Councilors Joel McAuliffe and Frank Laflamme and School Committee member Timothy Wagner. (Jeanette DeForge/Republican staff)
Robert Zygarowski, the council’s vice chair, said he has visited the Barry school and supports the city building a new one.
“It’s got to be one of the few schools in the state of Massachusetts or in the country that has a gym on the second floor,” he said. “I know my boys used to play basketball (there) and I couldn’t believe that they had to go upstairs to play basketball.”
He said he hopes a modern school will take shape, but noted it will take five or six years to achieve that.
