Hathaway School nixes grades 1 through 7

SWAMPSCOTT – Owners of The Hathaway School, a school for alternative education in Swampscott since 2003, met with teachers and parents last week to announce the school will be closing grades one through seven as a result of low enrollment.Business Manager and co-owner Mark Hathaway said the only alternative to closing the school would be to put students from four different grades into one classroom environment, which he said wouldn?t give the students a “quality education.”Hathaway said even in the last year when the grades were coupled together, the classes were still too small with barely 10 students.?We didn?t want to fight through it and have a real lousy year with the kids,” said Hathaway. “We thought this was in everyone?s best interest.”Hathaway said even with “the educational dollar being stretched ? we tried to make it as affordable as we could,” but families were still struggling to pay the annual $5,750 in tuition. “You need the enrollment in the grade levels,” he said. “When you get down to where class sizes are 10 students you can?t even buy the materials or pay the teacher or the overhead.”The school was also forced to lay off three full-time teachers as a result of the closings.Hathaway said about 30 or 40 of the students will be attending Lynn and Swampscott public schools in the fall, while a few other will vouch for charter or private education. The school will be keeping its preschool, kindergarten and after-school programs.?Really now, our real concern is with parents and families we?ve been with for years,” Hathaway said. “We made sure they knew what was going on so we could help them through this time.”Hathaway said he is certain the students moving on to other schools are prepared and will be successful, even though for some of them The Hathaway School is the only school they have known.Hathaway said he is “very disappointed” and that he will miss the students.Daniel Welch, head of the Greenhouse School in Salem, said he found out about Hathaway?s closing when a parent of a former Hathaway student approached him about enrolling her child in his school.?It?s a bit sad to see educational alternatives dwindle in the area, since we feel that there is plenty of room for new ideas and new approaches,” Welch said.Welch on Thursday said alternative education tends to focus on small class sizes with individual attention, moving away from the “over-testing” that he said takes place in state-run schools. He said keeping the environment small means more overhead cost per student.The private Greenhouse School has a number of Lynn youths enrolled and serves predominantly low-income families.?The point for us is that there are different ways to do it,” he said. “The more alternatives you have especially in an economically stressed environment, the more parents feel like they have some control over their kids? education.”Welch said it is difficult for small private schools to keep doors open in this economy.?In 30 years I?ve seen a dozen schools come and go and I have never once felt like gloating,” he said.Welch said for most private schools to survive they must turn to wealthier clientele. He said the Greenhouse School has not done that “because I learned very quickly it?s not those kids who need it most.”Welch said private schools who cater to the elite tend to charge $16,000 to $18,000 for tuition in addition to asking for donations.?We wouldn?t say no if someone was going to drop a million dollars,” laughed Welch, “but we don?t expect much, we expect to keep going.”Welch and Hathaway both said that for teachers to work in lower-paying private schools, they have to love what they do. Welch said he takes no vacations and sometimes goes without salary to make ends meet.?We all know this isn?t a money-making scheme,” Hathaway said. “It?s something you have to feel and something you have to love. All teachers will tell you that?s what they do it.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].