LEYDEN — Decisions on closing Pearl Rhodes Elementary School or Warwick Community School are expected to be made by the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee at a meeting on Thursday.
If Pearl Rhodes is closed, school administrators plan to merge Leyden’s elementary students into Bernardston Elementary School. All teachers, aids and one-to-one student assistants would be brought to Bernardston. No new bus routes would be necessary, so there would be no increases in transportation spending.
The biggest difference would be in class sizes. Now Bernardston Elementary School has one teacher per grade level, with class sizes between 18 and 23 students. In the proposed arrangement, there would be two classes for kindergarten, first grade and fifth grade. Class sizes would be mostly between 23 and 26 students; except for the fifth grade class, estimated to be 29 students; and the three grades with two classes each, which would each be between 11 and 15 students.
Leyden has no definite plan for how it would use the building if the school were to close, but using it as office space for town departments has been discussed. Pioneer School Superintendent Jon Scagel said school administrators are talking with Leyden town officials about helping the town with costs of building maintenance, to minimize the financial burden on the town.
This plan was outlined by Scagel and Bob Clancy, the principal of both Bernardston Elementary School and Pearl Rhodes, at a community forum Thursday night at Pearl Rhodes. A similar forum for Warwick has not yet been announced.
A few residents at the forum suggested that it was unfair for the town of Leyden to lose the asset of its elementary school because of financial problems in the school system. This drew a strong response from Selectman Jeff Neipp.
“We’re all one community as far as the school system now,” Neipp said. “Don’t leave here tonight thinking Leyden is a boundary. There are no boundaries. The district is our community.”
As well as being an informational session, the forum was a chance for residents to clear up what exactly is going on with the school district’s financial situation and why an option to close Leyden’s school is being entertained.
A plan to close either or both of the two smaller elementary schools has been taking shape since last spring, when the district discovered a deficit that is now confirmed to be about $450,000.
Administrators and school committee members now consider the deficit to be symptomatic of a structural problem rather than an isolated instance of mismanagement, and are considering school closures as part of a larger plan to make the school system financially sustainable.
The discovery of the deficit led to an intervention by state lawmakers, allowing the district to close schools without amending the district agreement as would normally be required. Also part of the deal, the district’s finances are being watched by a state overseer.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.