EASTHAMPTON — A new design for a consolidated pre-K through grade 8 school requires the city’s two-year-old football field to be reconstructed.
Tom Brown, a member of the School Building Committee, said that officials originally intended to have the new school built on open space at the White Brook Middle School property, which would not affect the existing school or the football field.
As design of the new school developed, however, it overlapped with the footprint of White Brook Middle School — an issue that would require additional $2.7 million, mostly for temporary utilities.
“We’re trying to squeeze the price tag of this project,” Brown said. “So $2.7 million is a lot.”
The existing school, football field and surrounding wetlands make space for a new building tight.
The next option would be building over the football field, Brown said. Upgrades to the field were completed in September 2015 using over $300,000 in public and private funds.
“We had a lot of discussion about the blood, sweat and tears put into the football field,” Brown said.
But he said building a new field would be the most fiscally responsible option.
Brown said the city could spend slightly less than $2 million on a synthetic field, or about $1.5 million on a grass field. He added that the committee will be discussing options with the group Easthampton Friends of Football.
Brown said the school could be without a football field for two seasons, possibly starting in the 2019-20 school year.
The consolidated school, intended to house all the city’s elementary and middle school students, is projected to cost between $101 million to $109 million. Roughly half the costs would be covered by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, leaving a total bond debt for the project at $61 million. A vote on the new school is set for May 2018.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.