Arcadis Program and Construction Management is also project manager for the $125 million Roger L. Putnam Technical Vocational School building project in Springfield.
SOUTH HADLEY – Plains Elementary School, which serves children from pre-school to first grade, has taken a big step toward a new life.
The current Plains school is small, cramped and, in some parts, windowless. Though the playground is fenced in, it’s located at one of the busiest intersections in town, Route 202 and Lyman Road.
Now, using a combination of a state grant and funds voted by Town Meeting, the South Hadley school building committee has hired a project manager to coordinate the updating of Plains.
Its choice is Arcadis Program and Construction Management, an international company with offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Arcadis is also project manager for the $125 million Roger L. Putnam Technical Vocational School building project in Springfield.
“We want to explore all possibilities,” said Arcadis manager Richard Sitnik, who, with co-manager Nicholas Macy, met with the school building committee in South Hadley recently.
Those possibilities include renovation and expansion as well as replacement of the 80-year-old Plains building, said Jillayne Flanders, principal at Plains.
Committee member Edward Boisselle said the town has purchased land behind Mosier Street School that might serve as a site for a new building.
The school building committee has been pursuing funding for Plains for years, submitting audits and statements of interest (SOMs) to the Massachusetts School Building Authority, making appearances before town officials. Lately, it has been meeting every week.
Its efforts were delayed when, several years ago, the School Building Authority worked on a new system for processing applications.
Last year, Town Meeting approved the committee’s request for $750,000 to hire a project manager and an architect for Plains. Once that appoval came through, the School Building Authority agreed to reimburse 60 percent of it, said Flanders.
These funds are separate from funding for the rest of the project. They pay for only the next 10 months, during which the project manager and architect will come up with options for the school.
Then, in May, the committee goes back to Town Meeting for permission to proceed. By then, Flanders plans on having an architect’s drawing of what the proposed school will look like. “That’s what keeps us going,” she said.
A member of the state School Building Authority will be working with the committee all along, she said, and will help them make a new application based on what Town Meeting decides.
In September, said Flanders, “my staff here at Plains will be very much involved in sharing their dreams about a new school.”