SOUTHWICK – The School Committee was able to find out more about their school utilization study during their meeting on Tuesday night at the School District Office at Powder Mill School.
John Kennedy, a consultant of NESDEC (New England School Development Council), was on hand at the meeting. Kennedy did a presentation of what NESDEC does with school utilization studies and how they plan on implementing it towards the Southwick Regional School District.
Kennedy’s presentation is gearing towards all four schools in the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District and will be important for the school committee moving forward.
“I think it’s going to be very thorough,” said Southwick Superintendent Jen Willard. “We’re going to weigh heavily on the disadvantages and advantages for the different options he’s (Kennedy) going to present.”
According to Kennedy, NESDEC is scheduled to be doing site visits for all four schools in the district on September 19 and September 20.
The site visits will include the principals from each school as they will provide their information about the school to the NESDEC representatives.
A walk through will then occur at each school, followed by the school committee working with NESDEC in order to analyze their findings.
Southwick Superintendent Jen Willard discussed her plan and goals for the upcoming school year. (WNG File Photo)
NESDEC will then follow up those results by creating a capacity analysis in which they do a write-up for each of the four schools. A list of options for the school district will then be provided by NESDEC. The options will reference projected enrollment, operational capacities, as well as list all of the advantages and challenges of each option.
Kennedy presented several aspects to the study that NESDEC plans on factoring in, including the housing market surrounding the school district.
As enrollment growth is a crucial issue for the school district to closely monitor, the amount of families that buy homes in the area could potentially help improve the enrollment for the schools.
“It’s going to give them a sense in terms of, “Where do the three communities stand in terms of the housing growth?”” said Kennedy.
The information that Kennedy has already provided about the housing and the data that will be collected in the near future, will be very important to the school district.
“We as a school committee are going to rely heavily on his predictions and projections over the next 10 years because we know enrollment can go in waves,” said Willard.
Kennedy anticipates that after NESDEC has completed all of their data, a final report will then be handed to the school committee.
“We anticipate that if all goes according to schedule, we would have something in their hands before Thanksgiving,” said Kennedy.
During the meeting, Willard also addressed her plan and goals for the school year. Willard’s plan is to listen to the teachers, staff, and parents as she said she is “trying to get everybody on board and everybody in the process.”
Willard anticipates holding staff meetings in September where two or three members of staff from each school can attend and voice their thoughts. Meetings for parents will then start in October.
The main objective is for Willard to help create the identity of the school district.
“Who are we, what do we stand for, what’s our promise to the families and to the children of the school district?” said Willard.
“I think that’ll really lay the foundation for every piece of work that we do.”
