SOUTH HADLEY — The School Committee will vote on Thursday to support a proposal to replace Mosier Elementary School and reconfigure prekindergarten through eighth grade among the school buildings.
The district’s proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s grant program includes two building options for Mosier School. The minimum request is a new elementary school to teach first through fifth grades, while the district’s bigger plan involves a new school that houses both elementary and middle school students.
In both scenarios, first and fifth grades would move to whichever elementary school model is constructed. First graders currently attend Plains Elementary School, while fifth graders are at Michael E. Smith Middle School.
“We’re laying out what we feel are the best educational vision for South Hadley and what would be a good fit for South Hadley’s needs, but it leaves a range open depending on what happens during the feasibility study [and] depending on community feedback,” said Jennifer Voyik, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations.
Voyik said there will be plenty of opportunity for community feedback through forums and surveys if the town is invited into the MSBA’s Core Facilities Program. Communities in the program are eligible to receive state funding for a new school building. If the School Committee approves the plan on Thursday, the document is sent to MSBA for review this fall. Grant recipients are expected to be announced in December.
“The hope would be that with this addition of the letter for a possible grade reconfiguration that it would help our chances to be invited into the program in December for MSBA,” Vyoik said.
Interm Superintendent Mark McLaughlin explained during a presentation to the School Committee on Oct. 11 that moving first and fifth grade to the elementary school benefits academic programming and the social and emotional well-being of students.
Students currently attend Plains Elementary for prekindergarten and first grade; Mosier Elementary for grades 2-4; Michael E. Smith Middle School for grades 5-8; and the high school from grades 9-12.
The reconfiguration depends on which option the committee chooses, but in both cases first and fifth graders would move to the new school.
McLaughlin noted that, with the current student distribution, first and second grade teachers have different schedules because of the different structures of Plains and Mosier, and therefore cannot be trained together.
“It’s difficult sometimes to make sure that the transition between first grade at one school and second grade at a different school is able to be carried out when we are trying to develop a seamless model of literacy and math instruction,” McLaughlin said.
He also pointed out that studies show fifth grade students fit developmentally better with elementary school students than middle school students.
The grade reconfiguration frees up space at Plains and the middle school for more student programs. Plains, for instance, can turn space currently occupied by first graders into a sensory spaces, a parent resource center with a food bank, heat assistance, and winter clothes or a lab space for an early childhood development vocational pathway in South Hadley High School.
In the vacant space, the middle school would add pre-vocational programs that compliment the culinary, carpentry, criminal justice and graphics vocational pathways offered at the high school. McLaughlin said that aligning the pre-vocational offerings with the high school trade pathways prevents students from leaving the district to finish their vocational training.
While South Hadley High School will not shuffle around students, a fifth vocational program makes the high school a comprehensive vocational school and opens up more Chapter 74 funding.
The proposal is the second step in MSBA’s Core Building Facility application process. South Hadley is one of 23 school districts that passed the first step of the application. If the school district is accepted, then Mosier Elementary will undergo a feasibility study to investigate the condition of the property and the most cost-effective design. The town saved $850,000 over the last five years to pay for the study.
“We are pledging to the MSBA, in no uncertain terms, that we will work diligently, flexibly and collaboratively alongside them as they work to help us to achieve our vision for our students consistent with best outcomes for students, families, taxpayers and all other stakeholders in the community,” McLaughlin said.
Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com
