Future of Park Street School building

Springfield should tear down the original 1895 portion of the Park Street School building to make the rest of the building more economical to use and operate, Springfield Select Board member David Yesman said last week.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150302/NEWS02/703029929

Published March 2, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Future of Park Street School building By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Springfield should tear down the original 1895 portion of the Park Street School building to make the rest of the building more economical to use and operate, Springfield Select Board member David Yesman said last week. Yesman, a member of the town and the school district’s joint Park Street School Committee, told fellow board members that demolishing the left-hand side of the building and leaving the more recently constructed 1929 section made sense. Yesman, who is running for re-election to the Select Board on Tuesday, said that razing the 1895 portion of the building would create much-needed parking space for any re-use of Park Street School, and it would also reduce the heating and operating costs of the building. The town and school have been struggling for several years about what to do with the building. At one time it housed the town’s high school. Currently, it houses the school district’s administrative offices. Townspeople voted in 2010 to close the school, and either sell it or give it away. Yesman’s suggestion met with mixed reaction from the committee members at a noontime meeting at the Town Hall. Stephen Greene, a local builder and owner of several Main Street properties in Springfield, said the suggestion to raze a portion of the building could make sense, but that he has never toured the building. Ed Caron, a member of the Springfield School Board, said the board did not want to be in the property management business, and the school district was most interested in finding a developer. Caron asked Greene to help him come up with potential tenants. The building has never been put on the real estate market, Yesman said. Greene said the key to redeveloping the former Springfield High School and elementary school was making sure there was enough of a revenue stream from tenants to support the community aspects of the building — the gymnasium, the auditorium and the ground floor cafeteria and kitchen. Caron said one big issue was the heating system in the school, describing it as teetering on the brink of a permanent breakdown. Yesman said the 1895 portion of the building was close to 30,000 square feet, or one-third of the total building. By razing the building, there would be substantial cost savings in the school’s annual $86,000 heating bill, he said. While the town voted in 2010 to close the building as a school, the building is still in active use. The school district’s administrative offices are located in the building, along with some other school programs. The building also is used for storage, Yesman said. Caron said the school administration had postponed its earlier announced departure from the building because of the costs of moving. Now, he said, the school district is looking for a 2016 departure to another location in town. He said the school district only needs 11,000 square feet of space. According to Yesman’s calculations, it currently uses about 50,000 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot building. Caron also noted that the school district was not interested in paying for either the auditorium or the gymnasium to remain open. Yesman said the gym is used by the town’s parks and recreation department and the auditorium was only rated to be used by 50 people at most, because it was covered by a fire sprinkler system. Yesman, who said he went to school in the building, said town meeting used to be held in the auditorium. Committee members Kristi Morris, chairman of the Springfield Select Board, and Stephen Karaffa, a member of the Springfield School Board, did not attend the joint meeting.