District seeking school improvement

SWAMPSCOTT – With the new high school up and running, educators are looking at improving the other schools in the district.At last fall’s Town Meeting a committee was formed to develop a master plan for the district. Committee Chairman Joe Crimmins, who is also a member of the School Committee, explained the Master Plan Committee was asked to look at the elementary and middle schools.The MPC hired Design Partnership of Cambridge to provide educational, architectural and engineering consulting services for the master plan.Crimmins said the Committee’s first priority was to explore the best system-wide plan to assure educational excellence for all students.”This is not to say that the condition and capacity of school facilities, present and projected curriculum requirements, future enrollment trends and cost, both initial and operational, will be left out of consideration,” he said. “All will be important evaluation criteria, along with community considerations and values.”Crimmins explained the master plan, which focuses on pre-K through eighth grade, is an assessment of long-range goals, needs and issues. He said the ultimate goal is to recommend system-wide changes that would be implemented over a long period of time, which he said could be upwards of 10 years. He said a decision to move forward with a renovation, addition or new construction project included as a component of the Master Plan would require a new study concentrating on the facility under consideration and it would initiate a series of town approvals and votes related to that project only.Crimmins explained the various possibilities being examined are classified as neighborhood schools, grade-level schools or consolidated schools. He pointed out the town currently employs a neighborhood system. He said a system-wide, grade-level model would place all students in each grade in the same facility and each facility would house fewer grades than the neighborhood school model. He said a consolidated school is where all grades, kindergarten through eighth, are housed in one facility.Crimmins said the Master Plan Committee would like to make its recommendations to the School Committee by April 15.He said with the exception of the new high school, the school facilities in town need major system upgrades or replacement.”The overall picture is of a school system with serious issues that will not be resolved without careful planning and, ultimately, a commitment by the town to support the needed improvements,” he said.Crimmins said the committee has narrowed the options down to five possible scenarios, two of which are neighborhood school models, two that call for housing students together by grade and one consolidated kindergarten through eighth grade model.The Design Partnership has completed on-site assessments of the conditions of the elementary and middle school buildings. Educational specifications and space programs, showing the number, type and size of rooms needed at each facility for the various configurations.Crimmins said the committee would have a public meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.