Agawam officials outline phased plan, timeline and traffic impacts for new high school project

Agawam School Committee members, district staff and project designers provided a multi‑point update on the town’s new high school project, saying major site work is expected to begin in June with construction staging set to start during the April school vacation week.

The update matters to students, parents and athletic teams because project leaders said the building will be constructed in phases, about 100 parking spaces will be unavailable during work, and several athletic and traffic adjustments will be required during the school year. Superintendent Martin and project representatives described early bid packaging for long‑lead electrical components, the use of geothermal wells for heating and cooling, and an expected timeline that targets occupancy of the community wing in early 2027 and full completion in 2028.

Project scope and phasing Project speakers described the new campus as roughly 211,000 square feet for the high school with a separate early childhood center of about 21,000 square feet created by renovating a portion of the existing building. The project is being advanced through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) process and has moved from schematic design into the construction‑document phase. The team said MSBA returned only minor comments on the design development (DD) submission and that further approvals were expected imminently.

Officials said the work will be carried out in multiple phases. The community wing will be constructed first, followed by the academic wing; demolition of portions of the existing high school will occur in later phases, after connections to the new wings are in place. Early bid packages will be issued to secure long‑lead electrical components and to package site setup (laydown) work; separate early bids for excavation and foundations are planned and excavation is expected to start in June. Steel and other above‑foundation work were described as likely to follow bids opened in late summer or early fall.

Parking, traffic and athletics Superintendent Martin and the project team said about 100 parking spaces will be lost during construction and that parent and bus drop‑off routes will be rerouted beginning in April. That loss will require reassigning some parking and using additional offsite or alternate spaces; the district is inventorying current usage to refine plans.

Athletics will be affected: the practice field will be removed and replaced in a later phase, and two softball diamonds and a replaced track area are included in the design. For safety and scheduling reasons, teams will share the turf field for practices; the district said it will provide grass practice space at the junior high when home events are scheduled. Home softball games “will be changing to field as needed,” the district said, and coaches are working to schedule home games early in the season where possible.

Design, sustainability and site details The presenters said the site design includes a two‑way roadway around the campus, maintained access on Mill and Cooper streets, and a lit, well‑defined community entrance with a plaza. The team described subsurface investigations that showed “excellent” conditions for traditional foundations, reducing the need for special foundation work. The district also reported it expects to drill approximately 165 geothermal wells to serve the high school and early childhood center using a single geothermal system, an approach chosen after test wells showed favorable soil and groundwater conditions.

Officials noted environmental and code constraints the project must meet to secure MSBA reimbursement: the project is targeting LEED Silver certification and will comply with the state’s stretch energy code plus other energy requirements. The team said window percentages, insulation values (walls at about R‑30 and roofs at about R‑50) and triple‑glazed windows are part of the design strategy to increase energy efficiency.

EV‑ready parking and utilities The presenters said state law requires 10% of the anticipated total parking area to be EV‑ready. The district estimated that equates to roughly 56–58 EV‑ready spaces and is weighing whether to distribute conduit runs across three site locations rather than place all EV‑ready stalls in one area. They emphasized the code requires conduit and wiring to be in place but does not require charging stations at construction.

Schedule and next steps The team said the first early bid packages will go out soon, with staging of the site during the April school vacation week and excavation/foundation work beginning in June. The community wing is expected to be substantially complete and occupied for the spring semester in 2027; full construction work continues through 2028 with a target completion and full‑site ribbon in the fall of 2028. The project schedule and several design details will be reviewed with constituent groups over subsequent days and the team intends to bring a site‑plan package to the Planning Board as a courtesy in early March.

What officials said Superintendent Martin: “The first early bid package is going out…that will include the lay down of the construction site, which is anticipated to begin during the April school vacation week, and ordering a number of electrical components that have tremendously long lead times.”

Project representative (design/OPM): “We may include the steel for the community wing as part of the early bid package depending on whether we can get the construction documents done in time.”

Ending Committee members praised the level of detailed planning and said staff and the building committee will continue constituent outreach and fine‑tuning as the project moves into construction documents and early bidding. The team asked the public to expect traffic, parking and practice‑field updates in coming weeks as logistics are finalized.