PITTSFIELD — As the sun sets on Morningside Community School, which held its last-ever day of classes on Friday, one city councilor is already pushing to consider what’s next for the building.

City Councilor Cameron Cunningham said Tuesday he plans to ask the City Council to consider converting the former elementary school at 100 Burbank St. into new headquarters for city police, as well as a community resource center.

City Councilor Cameron Cunningham, of Ward 2, said turning the former Morningside school building into a police station "seemed like the most viable option.”

“Having talked to different people in the city and knowing how the vote, I think, will fall on the Council, the police station seemed like the most viable option,” Cunningham told The Eagle.

Cunningham’s petition calls for a study into what it would take to convert the former school building into a hub for policing and community resources, including how much it would cost to repurpose the building and how long it would take.

The announcement came as Morningside students and families braced for the loss of the elementary school, which served as a key resource in a neighborhood facing economic need.

Morningside was built in 1974 and has served elementary school students from preschool to fifth grade. The city’s School Committee voted in April to close Morningside as leaders grappled with a potential $4 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year.

The proposal also comes in the wake of a June 18 shooting near the intersection of Tyler Street and Pleasure Avenue, which killed 29-year-old Justin Crawford and injured another unidentified man. Police have not yet arrested 35-year-old Terry Martizna, the primary suspect in the homicide, at the time of publication.

“I see there's more and more violent crime anecdotally happening in my ward,” Cunningham said. “I'm also noticing that they are getting more and more consequential.”

Kids ride on the sidewalk past the car wash on Tyler Street in Pittsfield. On June 18, a shooting took place on Tyler Street in Ward 1, just on the cusp of the border with Ward 2, where one city councilor is proposing to put a new police station.

To that end, he envisions a new center in the neighborhood for police, as well as a community center with violence prevention resources and after-school programming, as a way to address the problem.

Cunningham oversees Ward 2, which includes Morningside Community School and parts of Tyler Street. The shooting took place in Ward 1, just on the cusp of the border with Ward 2.

Kenneth Warren, the city councilor for Ward 1, said he wouldn’t be against the former building being used for a new police station and community center — but he felt Cunningham had acted too early by partly basing his petition on recent acts of violence.

“I think his petition’s too premature,” Warren said. “I think he's conflating two issues and combining them into one where I don’t think they should be combined.”

“They haven't even gotten this year's schoolbooks out of the door before we’re talking about what we're going to do with [the building],” he added.

Mayor Peter Marchetti said he wanted Morningside’s last days to focus on students and their memories, not the building’s potential future as a police station. But now that Cunningham has started the public conversation, Marchetti said he’s open to the idea of moving the city’s police force there.

“If we look at the space over at Morningside, there [is] the front parking lot, the back parking lot, the back field,” he said. “It offers some of the things that we would need.”

The idea to bring a police station and community resource center to Morningside isn’t new among local officials. School Committee member Daniel Elias expressed a desire in April to see the building converted for those two uses, and Marchetti has previously pledged to retain part of the building to provide community resource programming to the neighborhood.

Police Chief Marc Maddalena said the department is looking to expand beyond its current headquarters at 39 Allen St., and would be open to looking into whether Morningside is a viable option.

“We are in an aging facility that structurally no longer meets the operational demands of modern policing, let alone our needs for the future,” Maddalena said in an emailed statement to The Eagle. “Having said that, the department is open to exploring options that improve our operational capabilities and strengthen our relationship with the community.”

“If the City Council moves forward with requesting a formal feasibility study for the Morningside location, the department will fully participate in evaluating the site,” he said. “Until that formal process begins, it would be premature to comment on the prospect of a relocation as there are still many conversations yet to be had and questions to be answered.”

Amy Jones, a special education teacher at Morningside, felt optimistic about the possibility of a police station in the neighborhood.

"I think, in one way, it's a good way to build a good relationship, to know that law enforcement is here to help," she said. "They're not the enemy, and they're in literally arm's reach now."

In the meantime, the idea has some residents concerned about city leaders’ priorities.

“It misses the moment that we’re in as a city,” said Kamaar Taliaferro, a community activist and Pittsfield resident. He expressed dismay at the idea of putting more resources into policing instead of other areas, such as housing affordability.

“It becomes to me, really difficult, to justify the level of investment necessary to turn what was once a neighborhood school, community school, in one of the poorest wards in our city into a police station as opposed to so many other things,” he said. “And that really, I think, is what makes the proposal insidious.”

Taliaferro also said he was concerned about the idea of increasing police presence in a neighborhood with a higher proportion of residents of color, which he worries could lead to those people being unfairly targeted.

Marchetti acknowledged “mixed reactions” from people he’s spoken with about the potential reuse.

“I think the police department is trying to really make inroads and develop better relationships,” Marchetti said. “I don't think there's any intent on behalf of the [police department] to come in and over-police or to create a negative environment. If anything, I think this would be the opportunity for some outreach and some better relationship development that could take place within that neighborhood and others.”

Marchetti said the process, if it moves forward at all, would be open for community input.

“We’ll definitely have community meetings, most likely at the school, so that folks can come and voice their concerns,” he said. But, “I think that before we get to that place, we need to have some solid decisions" in the form of a concept or design proposal that can be shared with the public.