Elementary School Building Committee - NEWS RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
CONTACT: CHARLES T. BLANCHARD
chasblanchard@msn.com
508-277-9057
508-347-7285

UPDATE SET FOR BURGESS CONSTRUCTION

Decades-Old School Would
Modernize, Expand with State Funding

STURBRIDGE — The community-based Elementary School Building Committee announced today a public information meeting to spell out plans for construction and renovation of the 59-year-old Burgess Elementary School at 7:30 P.M. Wednesday, June 17, in the school building’s north cafeteria.

Opened in 1950, last expanded in 1972, and most recently structurally improved 19 years ago, the Burgess Elementary School has qualified for state reimbursement of a portion of construction costs of the projected 129,000-square-foot facility. It would occupy the present Burgess School site, off Cedar Street.

With an October 1, 2008, enrollment of 824 K through Grade 6 students plus the faculty and staff, Burgess is among the largest and least modern elementary schools in Massachusetts.

School Building Committee Vice Chairperson Charles T. Blanchard, in announcing the public information meeting, emphasized that “The faculty continue struggling admirably to bring to students the latest proven teaching approaches, and the staff are always striving to deliver support services in an outmoded schoolhouse that is fraught with gerry-rigged and piecemeal ‘fixes.’”

The information meeting will show a computerized ‘flyover’ illustration of the exterior, the floor plan and a side-by-side comparison of the building’s current limitations and the plan’s features.

Mr. Blanchard noted that “The plans that the School Building Committee will present at the information session fit the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s comprehensive, specific, detailed and interrelated guidelines that are calculated according to the state’s projections for Sturbridge’s future elementary school student census.”

Anticipating present conditions, Sturbridge voters established the Elementary School Building Committee seven years ago.

While the committee’s membership has changed somewhat over the years, its current composition includes: Mr. Blanchard, who is a former Sturbridge Selectman and current Town Administrator of Paxton; Dr. Daniel J. Carlson, Principal, Burgess Elementary School; William Chamberland, a facilities manager with building and maintenance experience; Elementary School Building Committee Chair and former School Committee Chair Angela Cheng-Cimini; Daniel G. Durgin, Superintendent, Tantasqua/Union 61 School District; Burgess Elementary School teacher and former Selectman William A. Emrich; Selectman Scott A. Garieri; Planning Board member Sandra Gibson-Quigley; Town Administrator James J. Malloy; Finance Committee member Laurance S. Morrison; Lisa O. Noonan, a Parent Teacher Organization leader and community activist; Dawn L. Pratt, a School Committee member; David Travinski, a Department of Public Works employee; and former Finance and School Committee member Holly O’Neil-Turley. Supporting the committee is Barbara Barry, the Sturbridge Finance Director, who is a Massachusetts Certified Public Purchasing Official.

Joining the School Building Committee members in presenting the plans at the public session will be architect Carl R. Franceschi, AIA, of the firm Drummey Rosane Anderson, of Newton Centre, and the project owner’s manager, Eric D. Moore, AIA, of the architectural firm Lamoureux Pagano Associates, of Worcester.

In reflection of the complexities that shape public construction, the School Building Committee remains in conversation with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Mr. Blanchard said that he foresees a resolution of the talks in time for the state to decide whether to award final approval, which would lead to a Sturbridge Special Town Meeting, probably this fall, when voters would be asked to authorize a bond issue. The specifics of funding, he explained, will result from those talks.