NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — School officials are planning a forum for parents on the proposed accelerated reconfiguration of the grades in the elementary schools. 

 

The School Department is looking at a $2.2 million deficit in the fiscal 2025 budget, driven largely by contractual obligations, out-of-district special education and the loss of of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds provided during the pandemic. 

 

"Both [Business Administrator Nancy Rauscher] and I have been participating in a number of state level meetings regarding the governor's budget because our state aid is determined through the governor's budget," Superintendent Barbara Malkas told the School Committee on Tuesday. "We tend to see as it moves through the House and Senate and then the joint committee some increase, but we're not going to see enough to make up for $2.2 million deficit just to have level service."

 

The administration is recommending an early closure of Greylock School, which is hoped to be replaced by a new school building. Closing the failing school is expected to save some $1.2 million. 

 

The grade-span configuration, approved by the School Committee last year as part of the building project, would turn Greylock into an early education center and shift all children in Grades 3 to 6 to Colegrove Park Elementary School. 

 

But, in this case, the reconfiguration would involved Brayton Elementary, which will stay open until the new Greylock is ready. 

 

The forum will be held in person in the Welcome Center at Brayton at 6 p.m. on March 20 and via Zoom; a recording will be made available for guardians who cannot attend. 

 

Even with closing the old Greylock, the schools are looking at a nearly $1 million deficit. Malkas said officials have been meeting with the bargaining units and are reviewing grants to see if there is any capacity to "absorb some salaried positions."

 

"We've created a timeline for human resources as well as for class remove from our current configuration of four schools to three schools," she said. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, chair of the School Committee, said the leadership team is working on an analysis of the new grade configuration. 

 

"We will discuss that more in depth at our next meeting about what that looks like and to call for a formal vote, if that's the direction you want to go," she said. "But the team has been working diligently and punching all those numbers and coming up with some kind of proposal just to present to us at our April vote."

 

The committee also spent some time going over the special education costs, pegged at just over $1 million for next year, and approved the district's plan for the Student Opportunity Act. 

 

Timothy Callahan, assistant superintendent curriculum, instruction and assessment, said feedback on the SOA came from School Committee members, caregivers, students, teachers, and staff and other community members through the survey and from a forum held last week. 

 

"Where we ended up with all of those voices, 87.4 percent of the folks surveyed said that this was either important or very important as a priority," he said, pointing to a slide on promoting students' physical and mental health, and creating welcoming, affirming and safe spaces. "It was not all that surprising because in the focus groups and these conversations people said social emotional learning is really important. Don't overlook that."

 

The plan developed from the feedback will seek to better integrate service more effectively and more equitably across schools, grades and classrooms. These include more evidence-based programming, evaluating and implementing social-emotional learning practices, tiered interventions and support teams, new individual education planning and interventions and preventions in terms of attendance and dropouts. This will be measured by student perceptions, discipline rates, chronic absenteeism and the number of students dropping out. 

 

The second priority area will focus on instructional materials that foster deeper learning through professional development for teachers, district specific assessments, a curriculum council and reviews for state standards alignment. The metrics will be student performance in math, English and science on state tests and use of high-quality instructional materials. 

 

Stakeholders also pointed to developing partnerships with students and families, responding to the interests of diverse learners, recruiting and retaining diverse and effective staff, and reimagining high school to better prepare students for later success. 

 

"The intent of the student Opportunity Act isn't to do something brand new, it's to build on what's already going on and to increase our success," said Callahan. 

 

However, he's estimating some $5 million at least to institute these programs — and the SOA is providing on $30 a child for a grand total of about $36,000 a year. 

 

Malkas said the SOA was an attempt by the Legislature to rectify the inequities in state Chapter 70 funding. 

 

"Ultimately, it is an enrollment-based formula and so some districts based on their demographic and size are affecting much larger amounts of SOA funding as an addition to their Chapter 70 allocation. Smaller districts, rural districts are not, as we refer to as, the 'big winners' of SOA funds."

 

Callahan noted that there was grant funding released last year linked to the SOA so it was best to make sure the district's plan was "flexible and covers the key areas so if additional funding becomes available."

 

School Committee member David Sookey said the whole thing was disheartening. 

 

""It's a little disappointing that the state is not looking deeper into this for more funding for helping these students," he said. "Thirty dollars per child in the grand scheme of things is not very much. It doesn't help offset the financial burdens in districts like ours, to meet the needs of these kids. So it's disheartening that the state isn't trying to find a way to infuse or come up with some more funding to invest dollars into the only thing that we get a return on as [School Committee member] Mr. Alcombright always says, it's our youth of tomorrow."