WESTFIELD – The School Committee voted last night to approve funding to bring the Westfield High School library into minimal compliance with state accreditation standards.
WHS Principal Ray Broderick said that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC) performed an evaluation of the high school and found that the library failed to meet accreditation standards. NEASC, founded in 1885, is the oldest regional accreditation organization in the country and currently serves more than 2,000 public and private school, colleges and universities in New England.
Broderick said the bulk of the current library materials were purchased when the school originally opened in 1973 and are outdated.
The NEASC has three levels of library assessment. The lowest level is “emerging” based upon having 10 books per students with the average age of those materials being 1992.
The second level is “proficient” which requires 12 books per students with a 1995 average age of that collection. The third level is “exemplary” which sets a standard of 18 books per students with an 2000 average age of those materials.
Broderick said the original plan to update the library materials was linked to the structural upgrade of the school building. The city has identified construction of a new science wing as a high priority with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, but the ongoing $36 million elementary school building project has deferred the WHS improvements.
“It was always my position that along with the structural upgrade to the high school facility, we would experience and upgrade in our entire program,” Broderick said. “To be included, would be the remodeling of the library/media center, along with the updating of the print collection.”
“As it is evident that the expected renovation has now been placed indefinitely in hold, I need to examine alternatives,” he said.
Broderick requested the School Committee to approve the appropriation of school choice funds totaling $100,000 over the next five years to address the library’s material needs. Broderick said WHS generates $300,000 a year in school choice funding.
Broderick said that the WHS library staff will have to “weed” 5,437 outdated books and purchase 5,111 new books, at a cost of $91,998 to elevate the facility to the “emerging” status.
“I had anticipated updating the library as part of the building renovation, but that is not happening, so this is a stop-gap measure,” Broderick said. “At some point we will still have to consider renovation of the building. At that time we can bring the library up to date.”
The use of school choice funding has been a topic of discussion for the past several years. The board approved several policy changes that limits administrative access to those funds. Those policy changes were enacted because administrations were using the funds to balance fiscal year budgets and to address emergency expenditures.
Former committeewoman Mary Beth Ogulewicz Sacco was a strong proponent of using the funding to enhance educational services for both challenged and gifted students. The three new members of the board attended several of the meetings at which the former board members discussed the desired use of school choice funding.
The board voted last night to approve the funding. The first motion was to commit the entire $100,000, but that was challenged by Committeewoman Cindy Sullivan and Chief Financial Officer John Kane.
“You have to vote it each year,” Kane said.
The second motion was to approve the first year of funding and to revisit the request each of the next four years.
Committeewoman Diane Mayhew said she would support the five-year funding plan because of the changes being instituted by the state to adjust curriculum.
“If you’re changing curriculum, you have to change the books to support that,” she said.
