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July 13, 2018
Furniture, supplies arrive at new Pope Francis Preparatory High School
REGIONAL
By Sharon Roulier
The new $54.5 Million Pope Francis Preparatory School at 99 Wendover Rd. in Springfield will open to students the week of Aug. 27. This past week saw one of several large-scale moves of office and classroom supplies from the school’s former location in Chicopee to the new site.
SPRINGFIELD — Moving trucks lined the entrance to Pope Francis Preparatory School this past week as several hundred boxes containing everything from office supplies, sheet music and trophies, to transcripts, art materials and computer monitors were delivered from the old Pope Francis on Springfield Street in Chicopee to settle into the new school at 99 Wendover Rd. in Springfield.
Moving delivered classroom and office supplies and furniture to the new Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield as finishing touches are being put into the school set to open in late August.
This was one of several large-scale moves happening during this summer, said Ellen Dziura, who is leading the effort to coordinate the packing and moving of the contents of the Chicopee campus to the new Springfield location.
“Everything went very smoothly with the move this week,” said Dziura, as she mentally checked off completed items that had arrived safely and securely.
“We moved all of the transcripts and guidance records going back 60 years,” she said. “And the guidance office had immediate access to them on Monday morning.”
Also included in this round of relocation were student technology, monitors and hard drives for the media center, 45 boxes of old sheet music from the former Cathedral High School, as well as alumni memorabilia such as trophies, yearbooks and pictures.
The old art rooms at the Chicopee location were also packed up and 120 boxes for the ceramics class and regular art classes were delivered to their new rooms on the third floor of Pope Francis Preparatory.
Deliveries of new office and classroom furniture also arrived this week.
This week also marked the first week that administrative staff officially relocated to the new building.
Dziura said two more large moves are scheduled in the next two weeks.
Faculty furniture that was purchased two years ago in anticipation of the new school, was already being used at the old location. She said it is being disassembled and moved to the new school to be used in two specially designed faculty rooms.
Hundreds of boxes delivered to the new Pope Francis Preparatory School will be sorted and unpacked before the 2018-2019 academic year begins at the end of next month.
During the week of July 23, three pianos will be moved from three separate locations to Pope Francis and will be placed in the chapel, auditorium and music room. Also, the altar and tabernacle will be moved into the new chapel.
The creation of Pope Francis Preparatory School was announced in the spring of 2015 when Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski revealed that Cathedral High School and Holyoke Catholic High School would merge into a new school, named in honor of the current pope. While the official merger coincided with the 2016-2017 academic year, the two schools joined their athletic programs in 2015.
Construction of the 122,000-square-foot facility began September 2016 and the building will open to students the week of August 27.