The Fontaine Bros. construction company has been selected as the general contractor to build a new, 550-student middle school in Holyoke on the site of the former Peck School, which was recently demolished to make way for the new building.
While the former Peck School no longer exists, 36 bricks from the old building were saved and set aside to be used in a future fundraiser organized by school leaders or a parent organization.
Fontaine Bros., with offices in Springfield and Worcester, was the lowest qualified bidder out of seven companies that were pre-qualified to bid. The bids were reviewed by the City of Holyoke, members of the School Building Committee, as well as the consultant team of Mount Vernon Group Architects and Anser Advisory.
Construction will begin, on schedule, in late February. The abatement, demolition, and site preparation work was completed in late December 2023 by American Environmental Inc., a Holyoke Company.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Fontaine Bros. in the construction of a new middle school in Holyoke,” said Mayor Joshua A. Garcia. Since their founding in 1933, the company has built numerous schools in the Pioneer Valley, including schools in Holyoke, Chicopee, Granby, and Springfield. The Goodnow Elementary School in Marlborough was built by Fontaine Bros., from which Holyoke’s middle school design is based as part of the Model School Program offered by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Fontaine’s most recent project in Holyoke was the expansion of the Holyoke Library.
The new middle school is an important component of Holyoke’s efforts to strengthen learning opportunities and reimagine the middle school experience. The new middle school will replace the poorly designed, energy-inefficient Peck Middle School that no longer met the needs of a modern education.
More information is available on the district website.