CHICOPEE — The School Department is working to repair the ventilation system at Patrick E. Bowe School with the hope of being able to return some children to the classroom in three months.
“We are pushing for a Feb. 1 deadline but there is a lot of work to be done,” Scott Chapdelaine, the city maintenance director, told the School Committee in a recent meeting.
The city has gone out to bid to find a contractor to do the work. Engineers and architects estimated the cost at $300,000, but the city will not know the exact price until bids are opened on Nov. 4, Chapdelaine said.
Proper air circulation is considered essential to preventing the spread of the coronavirus indoors. All schools in the district were tested for air quality before the start of school, Chapdelaine said.
Bowe School has not been part of the district’s in-person learning plan because a study of the ventilation system determined there was not enough airflow unless the windows were open and an air filtration system was used in each classroom. Administrators agreed they could not bring children back if they were required to keep the windows open in all weather.
Most Bowes students are now learning remotely, but families of at-risk students had the option of sending their children to Gen. John J. Stefanik School.
The School Department started a phased-in plan to return children to in-person classes Sept. 1. The first students to return were those considered high-risk because they have learning disabilities, are learning English or have other issues that make it difficult for them to learn by computer. High school students in the Career Technical Education program are also attending in-person vocational classes two days a week.
The second phase began on Oct. 5, with the youngest grades in each school learning in person full time.
The next phase, which would have added grades two, three, seven and 10 on Oct. 26, has been put on hold because increasing COVID-19 infections have put the city in a high-risk category. Officials will decide the new start to the third phase based on a decline in infections.
All families who elected to have their children attend school fully remotely instead of phasing into in-person learning with their classmates are doing so until Feb. 1 at least. Chapdelaine said he hopes the ventilation work can be completed by that date.
To speed up the improvements, city maintenance employees are doing as much as possible to prepare the building, he said.
“It would be good for the kids in the neighborhood to get back in classes,” said Mary-Elizabeth Pniak-Costello, a School Committee member.
The project likely will be paid for with money the city received from the federal CARES Act designated to help communities with COVID-19-related expenses. The city is eligible to receive more than $4 million from the act, Mayor John L. Vieau said.
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