LEYDEN — The logistics of closing Pearl Rhodes Elementary School and sending Leyden’s elementary students to Bernardston will be addressed at a forum tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Pearl Rhodes.
A definite decision to close the school has not yet been made. But the closure of one or both of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s smaller elementary schools — Warwick Community School and Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes — has been discussed by the School Committee and district administration as a probably necessary part of making the district financially sustainable, and something that will likely have to be done this year.
Bernardston Elementary School has the physical capacity for Leyden’s students, according to data from the HEART Committee (Honest Education and Retaining Trust), an advisory board to the School Committee.
But since that data was released in November, the School Committee has raised questions of how the merger would affect the quality of education and other aspects of students’ experiences. Bob Clancy, principal of both Pearl Rhodes and Bernardston Elementary, said that the priority in a merger would be to continue to serve the students at the same level.
The forum will primarily address those kinds of topics — such as student transportation from Leyden to Bernardston, how class sizes would be affected and how much of Pearl Rhodes’ staff would be retained, said Superintendent Jon Scagel. The relevant calculations have been considered by district administrators and will likely be discussed at the forum, he said.
Along with Scagel and Clancy, members of the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee and the Leyden Education Council will be available at the forum.
If the district is going to close one or both of the smaller elementary schools, a decision must be made this month. The leases of the buildings require six months’ notice if the town has to take back the building from the school district, the School Committee discussed at a meeting in December.
The same deadline applies for both Leyden and Warwick. But so far, a similar forum for Warwick Community School has not been announced.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.