Select Board discusses possible K-8 school model at meeting

March 29, 2018 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

Superintendent Martin O'Shea and School Committee Vice Chair Russell Dupere presented the Middle School SOI's to the Select Board on March 19.
Photo Credit: LCTV.

LONGMEADOW –  On March 19 Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent Martin O’Shea alongside School Committee Vice Chair Russell Dupere came before the Select Board for approval of their submission to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) regarding the Middle School’s Statement of Interest’s (SOI).

Both Glenbrook Middle School and Williams Middle School were the topics of discussion as the School Committee and superintendent have put together a SOI to be sent to the MSBA addressing the needs at both middle schools. According to O’Shea, last year there was an application sent to the state which garnered “some level of attention” but ultimately the Longmeadow schools were not invited to the program.  This year, the School Committee plans to send out two SOI’s.  

O’Shea explained that while both schools are well cared for and well maintained, the needs of the schools currently exceed regular maintenance and custodial care.

“Neither buildings have experienced renovations in their 50 years of existence,” O’Shea stated.

He continued to tell the Select Board that there is a certain level of ambiguity that must be tolerated when you submit an SOI while keeping the end-goal in mind since the SOI is “the beginning of the conversation.”  

Select Board Chair Thomas Lachiusa asked Dupere if the School Committee knew of any new ideas have surfaced to share with the Select Board. While it doesn’t directly deal with the SOI, Dupere stated that in some conversation that the School Committee has had discussion of the potential of having one building; in addition, they’ve lightly discussed the “K-8 model.” This model includes having kindergarten through eighth grade students stay in the same building.  In recent years, multiple studies have come about which show that students who attend a new school for the “middle” grades could potentially show an academic decline.

“There’s some research that actually said that’s [K-8] a better model, the less transitions between schools the better. Physically it could be a better model too because you only have three buildings instead of five, so the dilemma we have in our town, and I think that’s something MSBA probably should look at, is the amount of space we have at each elementary school. We’d have to add on and there’s not a whole lot of space, at Center, for example,” Dupere shared.

“Abundant evidence indicates that the seed that produces high school failure are sown in grades five through eight (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000). In far too many cases, U.S. middle schools are where student academic achievement goes to die,” the April 2006 edition of Educational Leadership stated.

Dupere said that MSBA would come in, look at all of the different options the district has and give the district the best approach.  He then stated that he didn’t know what the town would think of this K-8 model idea, and there has been no “real” discussion by the committee, “It’s just something that came up that other area schools are doing.”

Select Board member Richard Foster asked if there has been any feasibility study completed on this, to which Dupere said no.

“That’s actually kind of the point of this SOI, if we can get MSBA to come in and we spend resources, money and resources looking at all of these different options. And then what happens is with the community input, School Committee, the [Select] Board; MSBA tries to judge the appetite of the community. If the appetite is ‘No way in hell are we going to do K-8,’ they’re [MSBA] not going to pursue that. If you thought that was an interesting idea, they might pursue it if we had the land and the space and it wouldn’t cost more than just doing one middle school over you know, renovating two middle schools.”

Later in the meeting, Dupere stated that from his perspective as a School Committee member he would want MSBA to look at every avenue.  He believes that since the town has such a tight budgetary standpoint that it’s necessary to look at all possible ways to be efficient in town.  

O’Shea then read from the SOI, “Longmeadow is hoping to explore a range of options to address the needs of Williams and Glenbrook up to including consolidating. The district is hopeful that an MSBA sponsored feasibility study would allow the district to explore the cost effectiveness of all actions in order to ensure that the district has school facilities that will serve the needs of the students for the next 50 years.”

He continued to add that the study first looks at the district’s enrollment trends and projections and then the MSBA certifies enrollment based on past and future.  Then, they will point the feasibility study in the “direction that they think is suitable for the community and what the community wants.”

“If we say from the get-go that we wanted a K-8 model or a consolidated six to eight model, whatever it may be, whatever we directed them toward, they’re going to work within those parameters,” O’Shea explained.

In closing, Dupere explained that the K-8 model isn’t something they have gaged the community on yet and they have not discussed this with MSBA, but he believes it’s worth MSBA thinking about that concept.

“There’d have to be a lot more discussion about that though with the community,” he said.

Town Manager Stephen Crane added that the town does continue to maintain both Glenbrook and Williams’s schools. The air ducts at Glenbrook were recently worked on and the boiler was purchased for Williams.

“When it’s something that they need to stay in operation we do maintain both buildings,” Crane said.

The Select Board voted to approve both SOI’s for Williams Middle School and Glenbrook Middle School. To watch the meeting, go to Longmeadow TV’s video here.

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