Cathedral pays $360,000 yearly to lease Memorial School.
Memorial School in Wilbraham, which is being using by Cathedral High School as temporary quarters following the June 1 tornado. WILBRAHAM — Selectmen said Monday night they favor leasing Memorial School to tornado-damaged Cathedral High School, but want the town, not the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, to get the yearly revenue.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has announced that the reopening of Cathedral High School on Surrey Road in Springfield in the aftermath of the June 1 tornado will take longer than expected due to an impasse between the diocese and its insurance company. The diocese wants to replace the building on Surrey Road in Springfield; the insurer wants to repair it.
Cathedral now leases Memorial School from the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District for $360,000 per year, and Cathedral has asked that the lease be extended until July 1, 2014.
Selectmen said they support extending the lease with Cathedral, but said the building is a town building and should be returned to the town so the town can lease it to Cathedral.
Selectman James Thompson said that if the school district no longer needs the building for education, then it should be returned to the town. “I would like to see Wilbraham take back the building,” Thompson said.
“As a graduate of Cathedral, I don’t want to see Cathedral out on the street,” Thompson said. He said the town should realize the $360,000 in yearly revenue, not the school district.
School Committee member Peter Salerno said the school committee has been advised by its attorneys that the rent which Cathedral is paying should go to the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District.
“Our attorney will meet with your attorneys,” Thompson told Salerno.
Selectman Robert Boilard said he agrees with Thompson.
“I don’t want to see Cathedral out, but I want to see the town take back the building,” Boilard said.
He said that if the building is no longer being used as an educational building by the regional school district, the building should revert to the town of Wilbraham.
Hampden-Wilbraham School Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea said the regional school committee wants to contract a consultant to do a demographical study on the projected future school population.
Selectmen Chairman Patrick Brady said it appears that class size in Wilbraham has dropped from 300 high school seniors to fewer that 200 students projected in kindergarten next fall.
Thompson said that when the school district made a decision to close Memorial School in 2010, it appeared that the district did not need the building.