Swampscott schools face a no-win budget scenario

SWAMPSCOTT-The district is mulling two very different elementary school configurations if it becomes necessary to close Hadley School next year.Superintendent Matthew Malone said closing Hadley Elementary School would save the district approximately $1.2 million, but it would increase class sizes at the elementary level.When the district closed Machon Elementary School in 2007, one of the things the district looked at was moving from a neighborhood school model to grade level schools.?To balance the budget we’re going to have to close a school or eliminate programs,” he said. “The problem with all of this is at the end of the day you end up hurting kids. If we cut programs some students may not be able to get into the college of their choice and if you close a school you have larger class sizes.”Malone pointed out most of the savings associated with closing a school come from reductions in personnel.?Most of the saving comes from eliminating teachers,” he said. “When you eliminate teachers you get larger class sizes. That’s why closing a school is such a difficult decision to make.”Malone said he is currently examining how to reconfigure the district to attain the lowest possible class size if it becomes necessary to close Hadley Elementary School due to budget cuts. He said Clarke School could house 14 classes and Stanley could hold 17 classes.Malone said if the students are redistricted to the remaining two schools, which currently house students in kindergarten through fourth grade, he expects each classroom would have between 23 and 27 students.Malone said if the schools were divided by grade level with kindergarten and first grade students at Clarke Elementary School and students in grades two, three and four at Stanley, class size could be reduced in the lower grades.Malone said if the students were assigned by grade, there would be approximately 21 students in each kindergarten and first grade class at Clarke and between 26 and 29 students in each classroom at Stanley.?I’m going to hold to my beliefs and the empirical evidence that show small class size in kindergarten, first and second grade have greater impact on student achievement than it does in other grades,” he said.Malone said assigning students by grade would eliminate the need to redistrict students, but it would cost the district money for transportation.?If we have two kindergarten through fourth grade schools there wouldn’t be any transportation costs,” he said. “These are the types of things we’re looking at.”