Plan proposed to address Highland overcrowding
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The School Committee voted Monday night to “support” a plan to address overcrowding at Highland Elementary School presented by School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion.
Scallion says that Highland is at capacity, and that there is a need for at least two additional classrooms for English-language learners, students citywide in the sheltered English emerging program centered in that building.
“We have 30 kids to a class,” Scallion said.
“Where do you find classrooms in a building where we have no space available?” Scallion asked. “One option was to move fifth graders to the South Middle School, but we really didn’t want to do that.”
The other option is to reverse a decision, made two years ago when the city renegotiated the Juniper Park Elementary School lease with the plan to vacate that building at the end of the current school year, to relocate the fourth and fifth grades of Juniper Park to Highland.
The June 2012 termination of that lease with Westfield State University was predicated on the opening of a new elementary school next fall. The opening of the proposed Ashley Street elementary school is now slated for the fall of 2013.
The city also reduced its foot print in Juniper Park, returning eight classrooms to the university by relocating fourth and fifth graders to Highland, a shift that contributed to the overcrowding situation
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said that Dr. Evan S. Dobelle, president of WSU, has recognized the city and school district by extending that lease agreement to June of 2014.
Scallion said the plan is to create additional space at Highland by keeping the current third grade students at Juniper Park for their fourth and fifth grades, reverting Juniper Park to a kindergarten through fifth grade building.
Scallion said that there are six vacant classrooms available at Juniper Park.
“Two years ago, when decisions were made, nobody had a crystal ball to project the current situation that we do need to create more classroom space at Highland,” Scallion said.
Scallion requested the board to support that proposal and to allow the administration to speak with Juniper parents who may want options of which building to send their children if siblings are at one building or the other.
Board members supported the plan for various reasons. Committeeman William Duval said he would support the plan only if it “meets the needs of the students and meets the needs of the schools.”
Committeewoman Diane Mayhew said the plan makes sense if “there are empty classrooms at Juniper Park, then leave the kids there so they only have to make one move (to middle school) instead of two moves.”
Committeeman Kevin Sullivan said that plan makes sense because the fourth grade students transferred from Juniper Park to Highland are a significant contribution to the present overcrowding situation.
Sullivan did asked Scallion to explain the “budget implications” of the proposed plan. “It appears to be a good opportunity to alleviate some of our problems.”
Scallion said that staff would be transferred with the students back to Juniper Park and that two additional English as a second language (ESL) teachers would be added to the Highland staff. Scallion said the plan would reduce the number of students per ESL classes from 30 down into “the high teens or low 20s.”
Committeewoman Cindy Sullivan said it makes sense to leave the Juniper Park third grade students in the building.
“The lease was supposed to end this June,” she said. “Two years ago we didn’t know that the lease would be extended through June of 2014.”
Knapik said the overcrowding situation is not unique to Highland and that many of the city’s elementary schools are at or near capacity.
“There is a certain amount of urgency to resolve issues with the new school” because most of the elementary schools “are bursting at the seams,” he said.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
