Revere super: McKinley challenges underscore need for elementary redistricting

REVERE – McKinley School overcrowding could prompt what School Superintendent Paul Dakin called an overdue discussion on elementary school redistricting.Dakin told School Committee members last week that part of the 130-student increase throughout the public schools has fallen on McKinley, one of the city’s oldest schools.The 106-year-old building in the city’s center was attended by 444 students last year, compared to 225 who went there in 2001.”Even though there is growth across the community, the increase in enrollment at the McKinley School is a concern,” Dakin said.Unlike their peers in newer, bigger schools, McKinley students browse through library books on shelves in the school’s hallways so that the library can be used as a computer room.The school’s top floor doubles as a cafeteria and music room but the students learn on a state-of-the-art computer phonics program and classroom “smart boards.”Dakin views elementary redistricting as a way to address parents’ concerns about where their children go to school and balance the quality of elementary school programs between neighborhoods on the city’s edges and central city neighborhoods.A new Paul Revere School is under construction and, like its predecessor, will serve central neighborhood children. Rebuilding or replacing McKinley would also provide, in Dakin’s view, “equity” for students in Revere’s central neighborhoods.”Problem overcrowding in elementary schools can only be worked out with redistricting,” he told committee members.McKinley is on the city’s school construction wish list with a tentative 2011 date for work to start. Half of McKinley’s kids return to a home at the end of the day where a language other than English is spoken.Dakin said mastering English is not just a challenge for McKinley students. English is not the primary language of 45 percent of the students attending public schools across the city. One-third of Whelan, Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony elementary school students speak English as a second language.”Every school is impacted in Revere,” Dakin said.He said overcrowding is not just an elementary school problem. School officials have dealt with middle school overcrowding and demands by parents to have their children attend a middle school close to their home by holding an annual lottery to pick sixth grade class spots.High school overcrowding is also a growing concern, Dakin said. He said school administration offices based in the high school, including his office, could free up space and ease overcrowding.”We will risk accreditation issues unless we do something to address science labs at Revere High School.”Accreditation ratings are carefully examined by college admissions officers and focus, in part, on the physical condition of schools.