North Adams Transcript

ADAMS -- The Adams-Cheshire Regional School District took a big step Monday toward finalizing a plan to deal with the mothballed Adams Memorial Middle School.

The state School Building Authority’s Designer Selection Panel named its first pick for a design firm to conduct the feasibility study to determine how the district will deal with Adams Memorial.

The panel picked Tessier Associates Inc. of Springfield as its first choice. The school district will now have to negotiate with Tessier on a price before beginning to study the school buildings in both Adams and Cheshire and develop a long-term plan on how to serve all the students.

The study is being funded by $400,000 both towns allotted at annual town meetings in 2008.

Adams-Cheshire Superintendent Alfred Skrocki said he was pleased with the selection of Tessier Associates as the primary option because the firm did work on designs for Adams Memorial back in 2004. He said the plans Tessier came up with included an expansion that would have put the Adams fifth and sixth grades at the middle school, along with the seventh and eighth grades from both towns.