PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The district's middle and elementary school restructuring aims to give every student equal opportunity regardless of their address.

On Monday, the Middle School Restructuring Committee held a public hearing for the proposal to create an upper elementary school for grades 5-6 and a junior high school for grades 7-8 by the 2026-2027 academic year. The model also groups prekindergarten and first grade in one school and grades 2-4 in another.

"We see the opportunities. We know there's going to be challenges, but we see those opportunities as outweighing those," Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Engagement Matthew Bishop said to a small crowd at Reid Middle School.

While there were no public speakers, attendees separated into groups and outlined the pros and cons of the new grade alignments, agreeing that there are opportunities for an inclusive culture with more focused academics, but things like safety and transportation must be considered.

"People were excited about achieving more equity across the city, building community, overcoming entrenched biases about one school or group or neighborhood or another, and bigger opportunity for kids to find new people in a larger cohort," reported David Weiner, a parent of three Pittsfield Public Schools students.

"And the opportunity to focus on social skills in a developmentally appropriate way."

The School Committee is expected to vote on the restructuring by the end of this school year, and another public hearing will be held at Herberg Middle School next week.

In this model, Grades 5-6 would see an extended elementary experience with a similar program structure, fewer transitions throughout the day, a smaller group of educators, and rotating specialists so that students can explore elective courses.

Grades 7-8 would see a high school readiness curriculum with required coursework, opportunities for advanced coursework, career and college exploration, and support for families while selecting a high school program.

"Particularly now, it's really important for our incoming ninth graders to have thought about the kinds of things they're interested in," Bishop said.

"Because we have two amazing high schools that offer really good opportunities, but if you're not quite sure what you want to do, or you don't understand what vocational education is, you can certainly miss out."

He recognized that the middle years are "probably some of the hardest," with physical and emotional challenges, social pressure, cognitive development, and identity and self-esteem struggles, and said this model allows for more tailored student supports.

This grade alignment, which would only require ten facilities, is considered the best for cohort continuity, socioeconomic diversity, and parity across facilities.  Morningside and Conte community schools, which have outdated open classroom layouts, are set to go offline as schools, and Crosby Elementary School is set for a rebuild.

The committee has been working on this proposal since last year, and the "aggressive" timeline that originally restructured the schools by this fall has been pushed back a year.

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