New West Side Pittsfield School Five Years Out
PITTSFIELD, Mass.— A new consolidated elementary school in the West Side would not open for at least five years, officials say.
On Tuesday, the School Building Needs Commission heard an update from the owner's project manager, Skanska, and endorsed a draft schedule that runs from 2026 to 2032.
"I want to be clear that this timeline means that the earliest we would be opening the building would be school year 2031-2032," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said.
"So we would have five school years leading up to the doors opening."
Co-Chair Frank LaRagione explained they are making this the baseline schedule, "Not meaning it can't change, but at least this is the base that we're going to work from going forward."
School officials in 2024 toured the 69,500-square-foot Silvio O. Conte Community School, which opened in 1974, and the 69,800-square-foot John C. Crosby Elementary School, which opened in 1962. At Conte, they saw an open-concept community school that is not conducive to modern-day needs, and at Crosby, they saw a facility that was built as a middle school and in need of significant repair.
The district is seeking up to 80 percent reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a combined and consolidated school on West Street.
Skanska Program Manager Nick Lobik reported that they are working to start a feasibility study in September. This phase includes submissions to the MSBA for the preliminary design program in February, and later a preferred schematic report.
There will be a minimum of seven options with cost estimates to consider, and those will go through an educational visioning process and community meetings. The preferred schematic report will further narrow down the options until one is selected to proceed to schematic design.
The School Committee will need to determine the enrollment before the schematic design phase, which means deciding if Stearns will be included in the building.
When reviewing a map that roughly estimates the attendance zones last year, concern arose when it was observed that Stearns Elementary, on Lebanon Avenue, is an outlier and would be absorbed into the new building.
The district then clarified with the MSBA that Stearns isn't included in the plans, but could be explored.
From the preferred schematic report, the School Building Needs Commission and School Committee select one option to move forward, and it will go before the MSBA's Facilities Assessment Committee in the summer of 2027.
Following this, the construction budget is finalized along with all soft costs such as designer fees and furniture. After another approval from the MSBA, the city receives a project scope and budget agreement.
The budget agreement is estimated to happen in the spring of 2028, with the expectation of construction beginning in the summer of 2029. Students would be in the building for the 2031-2032 academic year under this timeline.
Last month, the SBNC created a designer selection committee to guide the next actions. It was suggested that they meet in July to review designer submissions.
Tags: Crosby/Conte project, school building committee,
