BELCHERTOWN – With the Jabish Brook Middle School project design being sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority, Superintendent Brian Cameron and School Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst met with the Select Board at its Oct. 23 meeting to set two important dates.

The Select Board approved a special town election to take place on June 17, 2024, and special Town Meeting to take place on June 24, 2024.

Cameron and Gutekenst added that they worked with Town Administrator Steve Williams and Town Clerk Terry Camerlin to pick the best dates.

On Oct. 12, the Jabish Brook Middle School Building Committee hosted a public hearing to present three design options.

The building committee decided on one the design that includes building a new three-story school that would be able to accommodate 475 students and each floor would be dedicated to one grade.

The proposed design shows that it would also be built on the site of the current school between North Washington Street and Springfield Road.

Cameron added, “In order for us to move forward with this project, ultimately we need the town vote and Town Meeting.”

For the election, the ballot will feature one question to see if residents will approve the Jabish Brook Middle School project.

Williams said that the question is more of a referendum vote and will ask the town if they are in favor of building a new middle school at the proposed cost.

He added that the estimate for how the project will impact taxpayers is also not due until the end of April.

If that ballot passes, then the following week the community will get together at a Special Town Meeting to once again discuss the project and cost.

The proposed project needs to pass twice in order to be approved.

According to Gutekenst, the reason they are having the election first before a Town Meeting is because if the ballot question does not pass, it would be easier to host a quick Town Meeting and immediately vote to adjourn since the ballot did not pass.

If you conducted the Town Meeting first and the vote failed, you would still have to have the election even though the vote at Town Meeting failed because you cannot cancel an election.

She added, “The order was a conversation we had. You can cancel a Town Meeting, but you can’t cancel an election so if the Town Meeting was first and failed then you would still have to have the election with the polls open all day versus the other way around if it fails at the polls, then you can cancel the Town Meeting or close it with quorum.”

Gutekenst and Cameron said the potential project cannot be discussed at Town Meeting or the election in May because the MSBA is not able to meet that timeframe.

Gutekenst said, “It was too early for the MSBA timeline. MSBA has dates for us and it falls after the Town Meeting and before anything else. MSBA is giving us permission to go now even though now is still a little bit early.”

Since the estimate for how the project will impact taxpayers is also not due until the end of April, Cameron said that wouldn’t have given the town a lot of time to present it to Town Meeting.

Cameron added, “I think the important thing to mention is we are not going to have the information for the public to make an educated guess in May. We know it would be easier and we tried for May, but it wasn’t possible. I would not feel comfortable being part of it not having the accurate information for the citizens of Belchertown to make this huge decision.”

The presentation can be found on the Jabish Brook School Building Committee website at www.tinyurl.com/mr2hnzuw.

Gutekenst and Cameron said the past public hearings will be made available on BCTV and there will be “many more” public hearing for residents to see the proposed design for the school before June.

Based on the presentation, the total project is estimated to cost between $117-$121 million but since the project was accepted into the MSBA program, the town could receive about a 30% reimbursement from the state for the project, which would bring the town’s cost to construct the new school to between $86 million and $90 million.