As announced at the public hearing for the 2012-13 budget last month, Gateway Middle School, Littleville Elementary School and Chester Elementary School will all be under the direction of one principal and one assistant principal next year and will all operate on the same schedule.
The Gateway Regional School Committee will not be hiring a new principal to replace Todd Gazda, who is currently responsible for Chester Elementary School and the middle school.
Megan Coburn, currently principal of Littleville Elementary School, will add Chester Elementary School and the middle school to her current duties.
She will be assisted by Elizabeth Bienia, currently the assistant principal at Chester who will fill that role for the three schools next year.
Coburn has been an elementary principal in the Gateway system since 2009.
She grew up in the area and is a graduate of Hampshire Regional High School.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Elementary Education from Western New England College and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Framingham State College
Coburn came to Gateway from the Chicopee public schools where she was a fourth grade classroom teacher for eight years and a school-wide math coordinator for four years. She also worked as a case manager for the Workforce Investment Act in Holyoke.
Bienia joined the Gateway staff this year after teaching in Chicopee. In addition to serving as the assistant principal at the Chester school, she is also responsible for the district-wide Response To Intervention program.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Springfield College and a master’s degree in Education from Elms College.
She is currently a doctoral candidate at Northeastern University and teaches undergraduate classes at Elms College.
As part of this plan, Gateway Regional Middle School will remain a separate school under a middle school model but will operate on the elementary school schedule next year.
Students in grades five and six will have the option of Wrap Around Services before and after school.
They will also continue to have the option of participating in the Middle School After-School Program.
Starting in September, the After-School Program will begin at 3:20 p.m. and continue until 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday, ending at 5 p.m. on Fridays.
The later start time will allow the program to operate five days a week, instead of its current four-day schedule.
With two administrators covering three schools, each school will continue to have a head teacher in place who will be responsible for the building in the absence of a principal.
This change allows for several benefits.
First, it allows for greater flexibility in sharing staff between the three schools.
This provides for some increased opportunities for students in grades one-six in special subjects, such as music, art and physical education.
For example, music teacher Paul Sawyer will now be able to provide instrumental lessons for fifth grade and will direct the Grade Five Band.
This will free up Beth Guertin to provide additional instrumental lessons as she continues to direct the Grade Six Band and the Grade Seven – Twelve Bands.
Second, the plan allows the teachers in these schools,who share a certification for grades 1-6, to be on the same schedule, allowing for shared meeting time and professional development.
Third, it provides better equity between the upper and lower levels of the district, with one principal and assistant principal through Grade 6, and a second principal and assistant principal for grades 7–12.
Finally, the move enables the district to continue to dedicate funding to classrooms as it grapples with a decline in enrollment and its fourth consecutive year of budget cuts.
Next year’s budget also allows for the addition of an another classroom teacher for the fifth and sixth grades and moves one teaching position from Littleville to Chester to address class sizes.
Todd Gazda leaves Gateway on July 1 to become Superintendent of the Ludlow schools.
