Adams-Cheshire Schools Planning For Future Construction
CHESHIRE, Mass. — School officials are hoping to resurrect a Capital Review Committee to plan for future renovations.Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee member Gloria Lewis is leading the effort to form a new Capital Review Committee in the next month to be in time for this upcoming budget process.
The new committee, likely to feature a selectman from each town and a few School Committee members, will lay out a five-year plan to tackle about $2.8 million worth of repairs at Cheshire Elementary School and about $800,000 at C.T. Plunkett in Adams.
Hopefully, the towns will be able to start setting aside some money for them, Lewis said on Monday, but how much the towns should set aside will be determined by the committee.
"These are things that we've identified that have to be done," Superintendent Alfred Skrocki said. "We're doing this so that we're working more in collaboration and not in isolation with the towns."
The repairs range in priority. The school district is not sure if the state will approve a major renovation of Cheshire Elementary.
Committee member Edmund St. John IV is hoping the repairs can start quickly because the cost will increase over time. The committee has estimated the rising costs for five years.
"The costs are just going to go up and go up and go up," St. John said. "If we think the state is going to start providing more assistance to the district in the next 15 years, we're mistaken. We need to start adding this projects into [the budget]."
The committee will keep the towns abreast on the capital improvements, and will show the amount of maintenance work that is already budgeted, Skrocki said. He added that the perception that a new school would not have been needed if the maintenance had been kept up is not true.
The proposed investments that are currently outside of the budget include roofs, electrical work, bathroom renovations, asbestos abatement and new carpeting.
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