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With timeline for Pittsfield school project growing, interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips weighs future of Crosby, Conte.PITTSFIELD — It will take longer than earlier hoped to build a new elementary school for the city’s West Side families — a discovery that might lead to a decision about Conte Community School’s near-term future next year.Interim schools Superintendent Latifah Phillips on Wednesday informed the School Committee about a new timeline set for the West Side elementary school construction project, now in a feasibility study, by the city School Building Needs Commission.Earlier this week, the School Building Needs Commission learned from its consultant, Skanska USA, that the soonest the students and teachers could move into a new building — likely replacing Crosby Elementary School, Conte Community School and possibly Stearns Elementary School — would be 2031.The study is examining whether the city should build a new elementary school on the Crosby campus, on West Street.Crosby, built in 1962 as a junior high, is in poor physical condition; Conte, built on West Union Street in 1974, has struggled academically due to its open floor plan.Earlier estimates suggested a new building could be finished by 2030.During the district's budget process, the open floor plans at Morningside and Conte, and the obstacles they pose to educating students in the city’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, led Phillips to propose greatly expanded operating budgets for the two schools to achieve equity with the other elementary schools.But Phillips was then asked to consider closing Morningside altogether and rededicating funds to supporting its students at schools with traditional classrooms.She recommended that plan, and the School Committee voted to close Morningside in April.That leaves Conte's open floor plan still in the mix.“Next year, one of the priorities that we will add to our work is really thinking about Crosby and Conte, and what are their needs,” Phillips told the School Committee on Wednesday.“We will bring a proposal for what might our recommendation be between now and 2031 for, or at least for Conte and Crosby.” Phillips did not explicitly say she was considering sending Conte students to Crosby at some point in the future.But she acknowledged in an post-meeting interview that is a possibility she wants to study — while keeping concerns about Crosby’s poor physical condition in mind.“I think the conversation will be different because Crosby is very close to Conte, and there's already a plan” for consolidating the schools in a new building, she said.But Crosby’s physical condition will be “part of the discussion,” she added.The district will be collecting data on Morningside students' experience at their new schools — from academics and attendance to behavior and sense of belonging — to make sure the transition is working.But that experience will also "provide valuable insights as we engage in community and school conversations about how best to support students at Conte Community School," Phillips said in an email Thursday."We recognize that change can be challenging, but as a school system, we are embracing this opportunity to learn, grow, and continuously strengthen our efforts to achieve more equitable outcomes across all schools," she said.A project timeline, presented to the School Building Needs Commission earlier this week, notes a feasibility study end date of June 30, 2027 — by which point the commission will make a final decision on which schools would consolidate into the new building.A schematic design would follow, with delivery by March 1, 2028, with a budget agreement with the city due two months later.Design development and construction documents would be developed in the 2028-29 school year, with construction starting in summer of 2029 and lasting two years.The Massachusetts School Building Authority made the project eligible for its funding program in late 2024 and signed off on the feasibility study in December.If the project moves forward as expected, MSBA would pay about 80 percent of the construction cost, with the city funding the rest.Phillips told the School Committee that Crosby is currently being used at between 40 and 50 percent of its capacity.Built at the height of the baby boom as a grade seven to nine junior high, Crosby became a grade six to eight middle school in the early 1980s.It was repurposed as a grade school after Pomeroy Elementary School closed in 1985.While Crosby’s classrooms have the walls and doors Conte’s instructional spaces lack, the building shows its age and poor condition in multiple ways.When its windows break or crack, they must be boarded over or taped, as the asbestos in the casements prevents their removal and replacement.Its doors, stairways and fixtures were built for growing teenagers, not young children.