Committee backs Chestnut Street site and MSBA boundary submission for new Horan school, pledges more community outreach

The Springfield School Committee approved a proposed site at 495 Chestnut Street for a rebuilt Horan school and voted to submit a boundary adjustment proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), while directing staff to expand community outreach and complete traffic analyses.

Superintendent Dr. De LaRue described the chosen location as the former Chestnut Middle School site and presented conceptual plans including a three-story school, staff parking and green space. "495 Chestnut Street is the old Chestnut Middle School," Dr. De LaRue said, noting the site places the new school in the North End where the committee wished to retain Horan.

Design and facilities staff said the recommended lease and site program assume an initial school capacity in the range of about 850 students (staff referenced 850, 853 and 854 at different points in the presentation) and emphasized that traffic studies, redistricting and transportation planning would follow to inform how parents, buses and staff would circulate. The presentation noted an enrollment planning exercise projecting roughly 133 students from four impacted nearby zones plus districtwide recruitment of about 123 students, together helping reach the enrollment target.

Multiple committee members pressed staff to expand outreach to Spanish- and Somali-speaking residents, to host meetings in neighborhood venues (for example at local churches), to provide translated notices and to use radio and community networks to increase attendance and input. "Community input is so incredibly important to us," said Donna Denisco, who noted targeted flyers and translators will be part of the outreach plan.

After deliberation, the committee voted to approve the site and to submit the Homer/Horween (Horan) boundary proposal to the MSBA and to begin the community engagement and traffic-study processes; the boundary submission vote was recorded as passing by a four-to-three margin. Staff said the MSBA submission is required to keep the project on the state funding track and that MSBA reimbursement (previously discussed) is a material consideration in schedule and site decisions.

Next steps listed by staff include conducting traffic and circulation studies, finalizing enrollment projections tied to redistricting, and scheduling neighborhood meetings with multilingual outreach materials to gather community feedback prior to final design approvals.