EAST LONGMEADOW – At a well–attended meeting on Jan. 7 filled with concerned local parents, the East Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent Gordon Smith shared that East Longmeadow was not chosen by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) as a project for a new High School for the fifth year in a row.

Smith explained at the School Committee meeting that the “core program” run by the MSBA looks at high schools and their potential for a new building following a statement of interest that is submitted by the Superintendent and School Committee.

“Each year, you log in and begin to answer their questions around roof, boiler system, HVAC, plumbing, all the different systems you have making up a building in addition to basic facts. What year the building was built, how many students,” Smith explained to the audience. “For the last five years, each year we’ve submitted a statement of interest for a core project at the high school. Unfortunately, in the last five years, somewhere in late December we’ve learned that they have not invited us into the eligibility period.”

In April of 2018, the fifth statement of interest was submitted. In the summer the district completed an infrared thermal scan of the roof, and submitted that report to the MSBA to bolster the district’s statement of interest. In addition, Smith noted that he met with two local state representatives and the state senator to discuss their support of the project. Both representatives and the senator submitted letters of support to the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the MSBA, Deborah Goldberg.

“After the holiday break I did speak with our liaison, Diane Sullivan, from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. As she’s done the last few years, she broke things down,” Smith explained. He continued, sharing that there were 70 projects submitted this past year and only 12 projects were invited into the eligibility period. He noted this was less projects than last year, where 15 projects were invited. Smith speculated that this could be due to the rise of construction costs.

“She also said that our statement of interest was competitive and has been competitive each of the last five years,” Smith added.

He continued to share that while East Longmeadow High School (ELHS) is an aging building and there is an impact to academic programming, enrollment is not growing in the district. Additionally, if a portion of the building was condemned, this would jump the school up the list of projects.

Resident John Harding came before the board during the questions and comments portion and explained that he and his wife moved to town only five months ago. He expressed that he wants his children to be able to be competitive academically with other local schools, naming Longmeadow and Wilbraham.

“What can the community do to help, how can we get there?” Harding said. “While I really don’t care about the cosmetic look of the school, the technology and whatnot, the kids need to be able to compete. I and a lot of folks behind me want to be part of the solution.”

School Committee Chair Richard Freccero responded, stating that what makes this challenging for the district is that they must take care of current students.

“We can’t just let the building run down, we can’t stop doing repairs, we can’t stop doing necessary revisions to the building because we have to take care of our current students, but that does affect us in the future,” Freccero said. “Some school districts, they just very carefully let their buildings run down. They sacrifice the present for the future.”

Smith added that the MSBA has been to the High School twice, along with the representatives and senator. Resident Stephen Chrusciel asked if the statement of interest is publicly available, to which Smith said he could make it available on the schools website.

“I’m not making excuses, this is the process we have,” School Committee Vice Chair Gregory Thompson said. “It’s not unusual for districts to apply six, seven, eight times. Longmeadow got in when there was more money, Wilbraham had other regional issues that helped them out.”

A resident and parent questioned whether or not parents could write letters and contact the MSBA directly, to which Thompson responded that yes, the MSBA “needs to hear from other people aside from us.”

“It’s frustrating, because in a way we’re being punished for taking care of our buildings and others are not,” commented School Committee member Elizabeth Marsian–Boucher.

Resident Lauren Parzivand shared with the Committee that she grew up in East Longmeadow and then moved back five years ago. She explained that her mother is employed in Longmeadow and that all her life she has heard of renovations to the schools being completed in that town. Parzivand questioned whether or not the Committee had asked Longmeadow how they’ve received funding over the years.

“Every year I consult with local superintendents who have received a project,” Smith responded. “Five years ago I sat with the West Springfield superintendent, the Longmeadow superintendent at the time, and the Hampden Wilbraham superintendent and looked at what they had written that had finally gotten them in. The interesting thing…much of their statements of interest had less detail than the statement of interest we’re submitting. So it didn’t give us something that, at the time, I could say, ‘oh my gosh, I missed that, I should have that in.’”

As the meeting continued, Freccero addressed the level of education students are receiving at the high school, maintaining that despite the building; the quality of education is still high.

“The quality of education in this building is still first–rate. Believe me, the things that our students are doing in this building, our senior projects, to the type of work the career center is doing, to our test scores–we still have a high education here,” he said. “I’m feeling the same anxiety that everyone else is feeing, especially like someone such as I who was hired in here at 1987, I know we need a new building, I know we do.”

The next statement of interest is due in late April according to Smith. The School Committee will have to vote that they are supporting another statement of interest. From there, they will go in front of the Town Council to receive their support through a vote. Once both of the votes are received, the document is finalized and sent in.