HJMS Breaks Ground on Final Phase of Construction and Renovation

Monday, June 10th was the official School Renovation and Addition Project groundbreaking event at Henry James Memorial School (HJMS). HJMS student representatives were joined by officials from the Town of Simsbury, the Simsbury Public Schools, and key personnel involved in the construction.

Six HJMS students were selected by their teachers to represent their team and pitch in with a shovel during the groundbreaking, seventh graders Olivia Jarvis, Abby Slater, and Aiden O’Brien, and eighth graders Elena Bontatibus. Kaeden Stefanik, and Niles Arango. The groundbreaking marked the final phase of a $23.9 million renovation project at HJMS, updating and improving a facility containing instructional spaces some of which had not been updated since 1957. Highlights of this final phase included modernizing science classrooms, transforming the school library into a modern learning commons, upgrading fire protection, and building a brand new auditorium not only for HJMS’s award-winning music and performing arts program to utilize, but to be used as a shared space with the community.

Board of Education (BOE) Chair Tara Donohue Willerup was one of the speakers at the ceremony, and a former graduate of HJMS. She said, “Henry James is an amazing school with teachers and staff dedicated to supporting and inspiring seventh and eighth graders to believe in themselves and to be curious and proactive in their education, to start owning who they are and preparing to be who they want to be.”

HJMS Principal Scott Baker gave credit to former HJMS principals Erin Murray, Sue Homrok Lemke, and Brian White, who all worked to help make this project a reality. Said Baker, “We have begun the work to create the middle school our community deserves and needs. We’ve recognized that our current building cannot deliver on what we are asking our students to do in science, technology, and research. Six to eight months from now, where we are standing, will be a 21st century hub of learning.”

After a long journey of almost 10 years, the groundbreaking was a culminating event attended by, as Superintendent Matt Curtis put it, “many people who got us where we are today.” Those included BOE Chair Tara Donohue Willerup and BOE member Tom Frank, HJMS Principal Scott Baker and Assistant Principal Anjanette Belmonte, former HJMS Principal Brian White, Town Manager Maria Capriola, BOS members Mike Paine and Cheryl Cook, BOF member Lisa Heavner, Public Building Committee (PBC) Chairman Richard Ostop, architects Brian Solywoda and Jennifer Mangiagli, and representing Downes Construction, Chuck Grabowski and Mark Wichmann.

Simsbury Town Manager Maria Capriola noted in her remarks that the caliber of Simsbury’s schools was one of the driving forces why she decided to move to town. Her now-four-year-old daughter will eventually reap the benefits of HJMS’s new space. Current seventh graders like Olivia Jarvis are eagerly looking forward to the project being complete.

Said Jarvis, “I’m looking forward to the auditorium’s comfortable seating. No more sitting on hard bleachers in the gym!”