What to Do About Reading Elementary School Space Crunch?
The Reading School Committee started the discussion and several like the idea of a new early childhood center on town land on Oakland Road.
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Full-day kindergarten. Preschool. Special education programs. Dedicated art and music space in Reading elementary schools.
“We have to decide on the (school system’s) direction” in those areas before the School Committee examines elementary school space options, Superintendent John Doherty told the School Committee Monday night.
Doherty recapped the presentation made last month by consultant Frank Locker of Locker Educational Planning. What’s taking up space in town elementary schools isn’t just enrollment. It’s also programs -- from those listed above to a coming, more hands-on way of teaching math and science. District-wide, elementary schools are at 96.5 percent capacity, Locker said.
Locker presented the committee with a series of options, short and long-term. They range, at the extremes, from the superintendent assigning new-to-Reading students to an other-than-neighborhood school to avoid a too-large class to building a new school. Doherty recapped those options.
Doherty began his presentation Monday with numbers on the growing programs.
Full-day kindergarten has grown from four classrooms to nine, Doherty said – from 77 students in 2004-05 to 182 in the coming school year.
Enrollment in the pre-school RISE program has grown from 72 students to more than 100. The town can’t say “no” to the program, which enrolls a roughly equal number of special needs and typical students, Doherty said.
Special education classrooms have increased from one in 2004-05 to six for the coming year, Doherty told the committee.
Back to full-day kindergarten. Research shows it benefits students in a number of ways, Doherty said, from higher academic achievement to introducing students to the town’s “common core” of learning.
Just over 80 percent – 83 percent – of Reading kindergarteners attend full-day sessions. The fee: $4,200.
Reading charges the sixth-highest fee in the state, according to Director of School Finance and Operation Mary DeLai. Some 200 communities in the Commonwealth – 201 – offer free full-day kindergarten, Doherty said.
Full-day kindergarten was introduced as a trial, according to School Committee member Robert Spadafora, because the committee knew the system didn’t have space.
Where do other communities house their full-day kindergarteners? Some communities are closing schools, Doherty said.
Several committee members raised the idea of building a school on town-owned land on Oakland Road, possibly for pre-schoolers now housed primarily at the high school and kindergarteners system-wide.
School administrators are “relatively confident” the state would reimburse part of the cost of new facilities for kindergarteners, said DeLai. They would have to check on reimbursement for pre-kindergartener space, she said.
Before the committee considers a site, it should answer questions about how it wants to provide programs such as art and music and full-day kindergarten, Doherty said, after almost two hours of discussion on elementary school space.
“We need a vision of where we want to go” and how we would address it. “We can’t keep doing what we’re doing.”
A summary of Locker’s space options:
Short-term – that’s five years – art and music rooms could be reassigned as classrooms. Combined-grade classrooms could be set up, where appropriate. Class size could be increased for a certain length of time. RISE could leave Wood End.
Building-wise, modular classrooms might be added at Barrows, Birch Meadow, Eaton, Killam and Wood End; or for the RISE program at the high school; Killam “break out pits” could be converted into classroom use.
Long-term, Barrows, Birch Meadow and Eaton could be enlarged.
Or the RISE program could be put in its own building, either with or without centralized kindergarten, freeing classrooms at the elementary schools.
Or a new elementary school could be built to house pre-schoolers system-wide plus kindergarteners through fifth graders.
In This article
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Wood End Elementary School
85 Sunset Rock Ln, Reading, MA -
Alice M. Barrows Elementary School
16 Edgemont Ave, Reading, MA -
Birch Meadow Elementary School
27 Arthur B Lord Dr, Reading, MA -
Joshua Eaton Elementary School
365 Summer Ave, Reading, MA -
J. Warren Killam Elementary School
333 Charles St, Reading, MA -
Reading Memorial High School
62 Oakland Rd, Reading, MA
Brian Nowicki
7:16 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
This is insane! Instead of bringing in commercial and retail development (Addison-Wellesley) the town chooses to accept primarily residential expansion projects.That means less revenue and more cost (especially more schoolchildren). And now we learn there is no vision for how to handle rising enrollment! Where is the strategic planning? I am not voting for another tax override to build a new school!
Readingite
7:19 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Stop building $800,000 houses so parents can stay home and take care of their children!
Stop putting in more apartments and condos and allow industry
Ed Poon
11:02 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Do you think parents in a less-expensive house are going to homeschool their children? What exactly is the "industry" you desire, and where, precisely, should it be located?
M
10:02 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Here is a link to the actual presentation - VERY informative. Especially check out the sheets showing proposed locations of modular classrooms and how several schools could not even have an all weather connection to the main school from the mod. class. Also very confused as to how the brand new wood end school already has such inadequate spaces & storing stuff in the halls - is this an example of the best planning this town could do?:
http://www.edline.net/files/_eGGi5_/7c8c612cf807d6443745a49013852ec4/SC_MEETING_7.9.12.pdf
Karl Weld
10:19 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Brian is correct. As night follows day, more students follow more housing. We should not be surprised that our elementary schools are facing a space crunch. We're adding close to 500 housing units with two developments. Even if roughly half of the Reading Woods units are 55+, as older residents downsize out of their current single-family homes in Reading and – choosing to stay in town – move into these new units, new young families will move into the vacated properties, thus adding to the school-age population. The fiscal impact analysis done for Reading Woods claims only 25 students will be added to the population. Well the same company that did this analysis also did the one for Avalon in Lexington. They under-estimated that development significantly. http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/news/x698070514/Projections-dont-match-reality-for-Avalon-at-Lexington-Hills#axzz20PySxvDf
Ed Poon
11:13 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
In the 40 years between 1970 and 2010, Reading's population increased by less than 10%. That's not 10% every year, or every decade. 10% total.
Population 2010: 24,747
Population 1970: 22,539
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/specials/snapshot/snapshot_population_change_1970_2010/
The idea that the town is being over developed is simply not tenable.
Yes, we may need to expand school capacity. That's a good thing; it confirms that the town is a desirable and growing place. If you want to move where that is not the case, you can head for Detroit.
Yes, you may need to pay a small amount more in property taxes. If that really would strap your budget, then you're over-extended / over-housed and you should sell.
Karl Weld
11:40 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Ed, with Reading Woods and Oaktree alone we have the potential to add 1,000 people (using 2 people/unit), and not over 40 years. This classroom shortage is another consequence of choosing one-time state fees for 40R and 40B development over long-term commercial development in our downtown/commercial districts. Another consequence is seeing a firm like Keurig leave because of the lack of appropriate office space. Every fiscal impact analysis will show that residential costs more in services than it brings in in revenue, while commercial is just the opposite. Why? Schools.
SPLG
3:28 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Development in Reading is not the issue. The population in Reading has only increased by about 10% since 1980 (about 2,000 people). During that same time Reading school enrollment has remained relatively steady. In fact the school system had the same enrollment in 1982 as it does today.
However, if you read the article it the reason for the space crunch is evident: Full-day kindergarten has grown from four classrooms to nine since 2004
Enrollment in the pre-school RISE program has grown from 72 students to more than 100.
Special education classrooms have increased from one in 2004-05 to six for the coming year.
Dave Miskinis
11:19 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
“We have to decide on the (school system’s) direction”
“We need a vision of where we want to go”
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing.”
I don't know about anyone else but these comments are very concerning to me. I am amazed that Mr. Doherty and the school committee appear to be rudderless. Did they all just start on the job yesterday?
M
11:20 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Karl, you are so right about under estimates. Moreover, go to the Pulte homes website for Reading Woods. Zero mention of the over 55 units (which have not yet been built, of course - they have no incentive to do so, yet, and have told the town that construction could take 10 years). Note how the Pulte website lists just three bullet points about the development: (1) junct of 93 and 128; (2) 10 mi from Boston, and (3) Reading Schools. Yet Pulte kept stresssing how the 2 br condos were never intended for folks w/kids....
Dave Miskinis
12:30 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Ed, the population stats are interesting, however, it would be great to know the mix of adults/children during those points in time. The increase must have been significant. I've been in Reading for over 20 years and I can think of many, many families moving in, replacing empty-nesters, not the other way around.
Ed Poon
1:55 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I imagine those empty-nesters who are selling to new families also, once upon a time, had a nest full of their own kids at one point.
The census data indicates that the proportion of the population under 19, as well as the percentage of households that are families with children living at home, has been consistent over the past 10 years. If anything, there were slightly more children, proportionally, 10 years ago.
http://www.zip-codes.com/city/ma-reading-2010-census.asp
http://readingma.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm
M
1:02 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
FWIW, from what I can see, the existing families also seem to be bigger than in the past. I'm the only one on my street with elementary-aged kids that has only 2 kids. I moved here 12 years ago (replacing an empty nester) and of the 3 other families that also moved in to our street since then to replace empty nesters, 2 of the 3 other families have 4 kids 12 and under and the other has 3 kids under 12. For a lot of folks I saw in preschool, as well, "3 is the new 2" and "4 is the new 3" when it comes to kids. I think 3 kids seems to be most common. So the model of 2.1 kids per house (or whatever) seems to be coming less accurate, at least from what I can see.
Dave Miskinis
2:03 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Then why do we need new schools - again? Have classrooms been converted to non-classroom room use over the past decades? Are we being hood-winked?
Karl Weld
2:31 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I pulled this out of the school committee budget document:
Historical and Projected Enrollment by Grade Level (elementary)
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
1,986 1,977 2,010 2,019 2,050 2,059 2,078 2,045 2,041 2,064 2,046 2,039 2,042
-0.5% 1.7% 0.4% 1.5% 0.4% 0.9% -1.6% -0.2% 1.1% -0.9% -0.3% 0.1% 1.8%
So we're looking at a pretty steady 2,000+/- enrollment for our elementary schools over a 13 year period. And by steady I mean we have roughly 70 more kids now than 13 years ago. Divided by 5 schools that's 14/school. Divided by 5 grades/school that's less than 5 kids/grade/school. Where's the space problem?
Liawatha
8:35 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
This has to be the fault of Republicans for being Pro-Life. How can we blame George Bush for this?
Barry Berman
10:54 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
It appears our space problem has more to do with programming changes rather than increased enrollment (although I do believe the space study underestimates the impact of Reading Woods) My son was enrolled in RISE during the high school renovation project. While the new space is beautiful, enrollment has increased 30% since he was there. He was also in the first all day kindergarten class at Barrows after the renovation. In the six years that have passed, enrollment has exploded all over the district for all day kindergarten chewing up valuable class room space. in the first year after the Barrows renovation there was both a music and an art room. Now I am told they are bringing back art in the cart. Special needs requirements have also taken up more class rooms than predicted. It does make sense to take a hard look at pulling out the Pre-K and K classes from the schools and housing them in one location. It will free up class room spaces in the elementary schools, allow for the return of music and art, give principals the flexibility to adapt to increased enrollment, and if studies are to be believed, improve the quality of pre-k and K education. Obviously the financing piece needs to be explored, but this should be a serious option on the table for discussion.
Tom Jeffords
11:39 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
Purchase the St Agnes / Woburn St School property and renovate it.
Mary w
12:30 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Better still go back in time and stop the sale of the Pearl Street School for $400,000.