SPRINGFIELD – The room in which a community meeting was conducted about a new Homer Street School represented the problems the existing building – built in 1898 – presented to it students and educator.

The space is used as both a cafeteria and as a gym.

Mayor Domenic Sarno, state Rep. Bud Williams, School Superintendent Dan Warwick and School Committee members Barbara Gresham, LaTonia Monroe Nayor and Christopher Collins attended the meeting to answer questions from parents and neighborhood residents on Nov. 12.

The plan is to replace the existing school with one that would be built on the campus of the William N. DeBerry Elementary School. There would be a new DeBerry school built there as well. The plan described two schools that would be separate entities but would share a parking lot, a cafetorium and a media resource center.

Each new school would have three classrooms per grade level and three full day Pre-K classrooms – with the program starting at age 4. The community space in the schools would be designed to allow for after-hours meetings and programs.

Warwick said the plan would “maintain a small school feel.”

He noted that Homer Street has a size of 48,000 square feet while DeBerry has 44,000 square feet. The new school complex would have 166,000 square feet in a three-story structure.

Once the two new schools are finished, the existing DeBerry School would be razed so a new parking lot could be built.

The parkland next to DeBerry would be moved to city property on Wilbraham Avenue, about a half mile from the current location. The city plans to have that park operational by the fall of next year.

The time line for the new school complex is as follows: Approval from the Massachusetts School Building Authority would be on Dec. 11 with the design work finished by July 2021; construction work started June 2023; and occupancy in August 2023.

There were some concerns and questions about the projects. Several residents wanted to make sure the new school complex would not eliminate the ability for residents living on Union Street across from the school to park on the street. Others were concerned about the impact of bus traffic at the intersection of Monroe Street and Eastern Avenue.

Several people mentioned the need to have African-American and Latinx teachers in the two new schools. Warwick acknowledged that need.

Since the school boundary lines are being redesigned for the new school, several people mentioned there are concerns about the safety of walking students.

There was also a discussion about the amenities at the new park, specifically if there was going to be a baseball diamond, a football field or a soccer field there. One resident emphasized the need for a football field as a traditional activity to assist at-risk youth, while another person said that residents with a Caribbean heritage in the neighborhoods abutting the park have called for a soccer field.