Present: S. Heinrich, W. Morrison, C. Morrison, T. Koenig, School Board Chair K. Coleman,
Assistant Superintendent M. Chiafery and MMS Principal T. Levesque. School Board liaison P. McGrath
arrived late.
Excused: J. Heinrich
Absent: M. Morrison
S. Heinrich called the meeting to order at 7:40 PM.
S. Heinrich announced that the committee would again attempt to walk the Buker site on April 16th at 1 PM. Committee members felt that walking the site was a good idea since both the committee and the site have changed since the last time a committee sponsored walk was held in 1992.
K. Coleman told the PBC that the School Board was again going to put together a broad based citizens committee to review the suggestions of both the administration and the PBC to formulate a final proposal to be presented to the voters in March. He felt the PBC would be working closely with the administration, the architect and the broad based committee.
C. Morrison asked if this wasn't a duplication of efforts. She also asked if there was a more effective way to get community input. K. Coleman responded by telling her that the broad based committee gives members of all facets of the community a chance to review and support whatever proposal is presented. He also noted that it won't hurt the proposal.
S. Heinrich asked about reconvening the previous broad based committee with a specific charge to review any proposal rather than create a new proposal. K. Coleman responded by saying the School Board wants to give the broad based committee the lattitude to do what it feels it needs to do to come up with a proposal that ight gain community support. However, he noted that the additional work the committee might do will not in any way supplant the work that the PBC has done.
C. Morrison suggested that it might be a good idea to convene the broad based committee now that they could work with the PBC and the administration in the actual formulation of a space solution. K. Coleman responded by telling her that once a preliminary report was in place the broad based committee would be established. He hopes the report would include a definition of the current problem, projections of anticipated problems in the next 5-10 years and a plan to deal with the problems.
S. Heinrich asked K. Coleman about the survey of school district property. K. Coleman responded that the School Board feels a significant survey, including feasibility, soils, environmental impact, etc. should be done. He noted that the funds approved at the March 2000 School District Meeting may not be enough to accomplish what should be done, but that the School Board may be prepared to fund additional expenses through the administrative budget. S. Heinrich asked if all the currently appropriated money will go toward surveying the Buker site. K. Coleman replied that the School Board will have to prioritize which sites should be surveyed first, but it would probably be Buker.
P. McGrath noted that asking a broad based committee to work after the PBC and administration have completed their reports presents them with a very short time to crunch data and come up with a proposal before it must go to the Budget Committee in early January. He also suggested that there needs to be solid educational philosophical parameters to any proposal. He suggested that the School Board should justify any proposal by justifying the need as educationally sound.
W. Morrison agreed and stated that the PBC report shows that there is not a need at the elementary level which is why the committee is focusing on a middle school. He noted that J. O'Neil has suggested building an elementary school. C. Morrison asked about the possible problem of the administrative team and the PBC coming up with two different solutions. K. Coleman suggested that coordination of both committees was essential and that a member of the administration should attend PBC meetings regularly.
S. Heinrich asked when the committee could meet with the architect.
K. Coleman told the committee that he wants to plan to meet the district space needs for ten years. He suggested that the plan may need to be a two phased plan. W. Morrison told him that predictions and projections farther than about five years are "fuzzy". He explained that the PBC is currently working on a plan to meet the need projected by the town "build-out" study. C. Morrison noted that the PBC has determined that the elementary schools are not at crisis at present, but that the build-out study indicates that there will be a future need for an elementary school. She suggested a two phased plan - one for five years and one for ten years. She also suggested that any school built should be designed to be built on at a future time.
K. Coleman told the committee that the School Board direction is that the bigger space need currently in the district is at the middle school and that any plan presented to the School Board must relieve that space need. S. Heinrich asked if the plan must include implementation of kindergarten. K. Coleman told the committee that any plan must include kindergarten.
S. Heinrich thanked K. Coleman for attending the meeting and talking with the committee.
M. Chiafery expressed a concern that kindergarten might not sell and could bring down any plan to solve the middle school space problem. T. Koenig suggested that whether the community would buy kindergarten was something that the broad based committee could work on and as a result, he agreed that this committee should be established as soon as possible. Further, he wanted it noted that the PBC has been working with the administration and will continue to do so. In reference to projections, he indicated that he was comfortable with projections out 3 years, warm with 5 year projections and also fuzzy about 10 year projections. P. McGrath suggested that possibly the school district statistics may need to be reviewed by a social economist or other specialist in addition to the services or people who currently review them.
S. Heinrich asked him what features he would include when designing a middle school building. T. Levesque noted that space in a middle school needs to be flexible and space needs vary. He suggested that there should be at least one large classroom in each cluster - or at least capability through flexible walls to become a large space. He referenced the middle school evaluation report that had recently been completed and told the PBC that the middle school is currently working to adopt many of the suggestions in the report. For example, he indicated that the middle school is looking at grade level houses rather than three grades in one cluster.
S. Heinrich asked T. Levesque about putting the fifth grade in the middle school. T. Levesque told the PBC that 5th grade in the middle school is feasible and is done in other communities. He stated that 5th graders are "nearer" 6th graders in their emotional, social and educational needs. Further, he indicated that 5th graders are ready for instruction in the middle school structure, though he would suggest three teacher triads, rather than the current five teacher clusters. However, he felt that if the PBC were suggesting making the entire Mastricola complex a 5-8 middle school, the resulting school might be economically feasible but would be much too large to be educationally sound. He suggested that the fifth grade could be housed in Mastricola Elementary but should be administered as a separate facility. M. Chiafery noted that administrators are concerned with the number of transitions between different schools that children must make. They consider fewer transitions as better.
P. McGrath asked about the concept of two middle schools, each for grades 5-8. M. Chiafery noted that would keep the number of school transitions to the three that the district currently has in place. T. Koenig suggested that a school for grades 5 and 6 might be a good transition away from elementary school with a school for grades 7 and 8 as a good transition toward high school. He suggested the concept of a junior high school. M. Chiafery told the committee that the district educational philosophy is geared toward a middle school model where teams of people work together for the good of all the students.
M. Chiafery also indicated that she was interested in a discussion about kindergarten and Merrimack. T. Koenig concurred. He said the concept of kindergarten as a good thing is understood, but many people do not believe it is a good idea to implement it in the public school system. M. Chiafery suggested that marketing kindergarten might take twice as long as marketing a middle school solution. S. Heinrich wondered about the possibility of putting kindergarten as a separate warrant article.
On a motion from C. Morrison, seconded by W. Morrison, it was unanimously voted to adjourn at 10:10 PM.
Last Updated: July 18, 2000 by Wayne Morrison