South students to SHS or Melrose
Published on February 4th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - Next year's temporary home for South School students during construction of their new facility has been narrowed to two choices, according to School Supt. Dr. Ellen Bueschel.
Bueschel informed the School Committee and a concerned group of South School parents, Tuesday night, that her administration is "intently working on two plans that have survived our scrutiny."
South School parents will be able to offer their opinions of the two plans at a February 26 hearing before the School Committee.
Here is a brief synopsis of the two possibilities:
Move all but two South School classrooms to Stoneham High School. Classrooms in the northwest corner of the high school (currently art rooms) would house kindergarten with grades two and three. The superintendent's and business manager's offices would be shifted to Town Hall, to provide office space for South School personnel.
Bueschel said South School students would have a self-contained area and utilize the rear entrance to the high school.
Under this plan, two first grade classrooms would be shifted to North School to preserve the Looping Program. (Bueschel is also entertaining the possibility to moving grades 1-3 to the high school and sending only both sections of South School kindergartners to North School.)
Unfortunately more of North School cannot be used for South School kids because of handicapped accessibility requirements for some pre-K students currently using the North School. Those handicapped accessibility needs make it difficult to find suitable room elsewhere in the system for the pre-K students.
Stoneham could lease space at the Early Childhood Center at the corner of Franklin and Main Street in Melrose. There would be enough room in the building to hold the entire K-3 South population.
The site is currently owned by the Melrose Public School System and is home for programs run by the Melrose Wakefield Hospital and the Melrose YMCA.
Stoneham School Committee Chairman Stephen Gucciardi said if the satellite site in Melrose is instituted, the South School administration would have complete control over the leased space.
"Melrose would be our landlord, but we would have control over what happens in there," said Gucciardi.
The School Department would provide transportation to both sites.
Bueschel said her administration is still "costing out" each scenario and looking at even the smallest of details like where the students will hang their coats and store their boots.
The School Committee will make a final decision on the temporary home for South School at their March 12 meeting.
"We know we won't make everyone 100 percent happy with either plan, but whatever decision we make will be based on putting the kid's needs first," said School Committee member Jeanne Craigie.
Bueschel said they settled on these two final plans primarily because they "kept as many students together as possible."
Bueschel also reinforced her opinion that the curriculum and programs at South School would not suffer during the temporary move.
"We will have the same teachers, administrators and programs," said Bueschel. "I have such confidence in that school's staff. The work produced out of that building is second to none in the district...They could teach in a box."
Responding to South School parents' inquiries, School Committee members Tuesday night squelched the rumor that Central School had moved up in the construction schedule.
School Committee members Marie Christie, Gucciardi and Craigie reinforced their commitment to build South School first.
"I can't think of any circumstance that would change my mind on the order," said Gucciardi.
Christie, who also sits on the School Building Committee, said that committee has "not entertained any other schedule."
"Right now the plan is South School first," said Christie. "Nothing has been put on the table to change that plan."
Christie said it would not be "morally right" to switch the schedule this late in the game.
Craigie claims the rumor about changing the order of construction began when two Finance Board members stated it would save money to build the new Central School on Beacon Street first.
"Some of the Finance Board members were doing their own thing," said Craigie. "I hope the Finance Board understands that South School was a priority district."
Other sources, however, claim a majority of the Finance Board supported investigating the costs associated with moving the South School students this fall versus using that money to hire staff needed at the Middle School (to reinstate a team of teachers) and High School (to begin education reform mandated block scheduling).
Gucciardi said some decisions are not based solely on money.
"The South School community has waited 30 years for a new school," said Gucciardi. "We made a commitment to the south end of town."
Gucciardi added that he is not totally convinced that building Central School first would save money.
"There are some non-state reimbursable costs (underground parking garage) associated with the South School and the sooner we spend those dollars the more money we save down the road," said Gucciardi.
The School Building Committee will be approving the preliminary schematic designs for the four school renovations at their February 11 meeting and will send their recommended plans to the School Committee on February 12.
The full detail school plans must be completed by June 1. Demolition work at South School is expected to begin this summer with construction expected to last at least 18 months.
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