PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee expects to take a vote on the middle school restructuring proposal by the end of June.

"I think that more people are feeling better about it," Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Engagement Matthew Bishop told the School Committee.

"I mean there’s still concerns, and I think we won’t assuage any of those concerns until we can get into some of those details around this is what the start time might be, this is what bussing would look like. There’s still some unknowns with that, and I think in the planning for this in the coming year, we would have to really get those details out there because those are things that people really, really want to know."

On Wednesday, feedback was presented from public input forums on May 5 at Reid Middle School and May 12 at Herberg Middle School. The proposal would create an upper elementary school for Grades 5-6 and a junior high school for Grades 7-8 by the 2026-2027 academic year.

Bishop reported that the biggest concern for families is the "logistical unknowns," such as transportation and scheduling. Parents also want to ensure that students will be safe.

Those who participated in the forums felt that additional attention was needed around teacher and student support and training, as well as training around instructional models.

"Balancing that though, is the themes that emerge from opportunities for students and participants really saw the opportunity for smaller community as well as expanded programming," Bishop said.

"And I think that was the biggest takeaway in terms of potential opportunities for these models was really programmatic and what these schools can do when you have a concentration such as the [grades] 5-6, 7-8."

He thought one of the "really unique" opportunities the small groups saw was to create a new school in terms of climate, culture, and identity, which seemed to be exciting to community members and concerning at the same time because it is a big task.

"The temperature definitely was hotter at Herberg than it was at Reid," Vice Chair Daniel Elias reported.

"And with Herberg, the group that I had, they were they were very vocal. They didn't hold anything back. They had legitimate concerns, and they wanted to be heard on those. I think once they started hearing some of the real possibilities, they started feeling better about it."

The group discussions were reportedly very powerful and informational. There were about 10 community members at the first forum and more than 20 at the second.

"What I feel like was the real strength of the evening was that the community participants were then broken up into small groups and members of the Middle School Restructuring Committee facilitated small group conversations to really dive into people’s concerns or areas that they saw for opportunities," Bishop said.

"It was interesting, because I think that what we’re seeing typically is when people have the opportunity to speak and talk about this, they tend to understand what the potential is and have a more favorable opinion of it after."

Chair William Cameron pushed for scheduling the required public hearing so that the committee could take a vote.

"I don't want to postpone this any longer," he said.

"We're already a little bit behind schedule, I think, in terms of having the public hearing in June rather than in May, so I think during the month of June, we need to make a decision whether we're going to proceed with this or not."

Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Joseph Curtis confirmed that all of the required documentation for the Crosby/Conte proposal has been submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.  By Halloween, the City Council is expected to vote on a feasibility study that would cost between $1.7 million and $2 million.

"There are a number of tasks that have to be performed in July and August, and those tasks depend on the decisions made by the committee, as far as solidifying the grade spans and then what path you'd like to take to either have an independent firm study instructional models or a local group," Curtis said.

He has projected a decision on the new school building's location for July.

"I think the next step would be to have that formal public hearing, which would then solidify the committee's approval if you so desire to have a five, six, and a seven, eight," he said.

"So then the structure has been decided."

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.

This grade alignment, which would only require 10 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.

More information about the middle school restructuring can be found here.

 

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