Whelan, Crimmins to lead school committee

SWAMPSCOTT – The Swampscott School Committee met briefly Wednesday morning for what was primarily an organizational meeting following Tuesday’s town election.Committee members elected David Whelan as chairman and Joseph Crimmins was elected to serve as vice-chairman.In other business, the School Committee discussed the school Master Plan presentation that would be given at Town Meeting next week.Crimmins, who serves as chairman of the Swampscott Schools Master Plan Committee, said the eight-page executive summary would be posted on the district Web site and mailed to Town Meeting members sometime this week.?The summary outlines options that were considered, the pros and cons of options and the process that was followed,” he said. “We will also provide capital and operating costs for the different scenarios.”Crimmins said the option being recommended by the Master Plan Committee was enthusiastically endorsed by the School Committee as well.Crimmins said the master plan focuses on pre-K through eighth grade and it is an assessment of long-range goals, needs and issues.He said the ultimate goal of the committee is to recommend systemnwide changes that would be implemented over a long period of time, which he said could be upwards of 10 years. Crimmins said in the recommended plan, which is expected to cost more than $77 million, Clarke School would be used as an early childhood education center and it would be home for all the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs in the district. The master plan calls for housing all students in grades one through four at the Stanley School. Under that plan, which has been named G1, all students in grades five through eight and the central offices would be located at the Forest Avenue site.Crimmins said there are two options on the table for the Stanley School site. He explained the preferable option would be building a new three-story school next to the existing building and, when construction is complete, razing the existing Stanley School.?I’m very happy with the work of the committee,” he said. “Everyone worked very hard and I’m very comfortable and confident with amount of research that went into this.”Crimmins said the plan is a departure from the current neighborhood school model but residents appear willing to embrace the proposed grade configuration model, which he said is a more unified and equitable system.?Going into this, my biggest concern was how the town would view moving from neighborhood schools to a grade configuration,” he said. “There appears to be a willingness among residents to make this change. We did not encounter the resistance we thought we would and there is overwhelming support for moving in this direction.”Crimmins readily admits the $77 million price tag for refurbishing the three schools could be an obstacle.?The town will have to collectively decide what it wants to spend money on and how much it wants to spend,” he said. “That is beyond the scope of this committee and is something that will be decided in the future. But the schools are not getting any younger and the operating systems not getting more efficient. We need to address the educational infrastructure.”