WARWICK — Efforts to reopen the former Warwick Community School are continuing in hopes of meeting an end-of-year planning deadline, as well as to withdraw from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District by June 2022.
The Pioneer School Committee voted in January 2020 to cease use of Warwick Community School and its 25-acre property, which is owned by Warwick, as a cost-saving measure, a decision that Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey Riley later approved. Since then, members of the Warwick Education Committee have been holding regular meetings as they plan to withdraw from the Pioneer district and reopen the former Warwick Community School as an independent elementary school.
Now, those planning to reopen the school are finalizing the last two sections of the town’s long-range educational plan to send to DESE, and a November meeting with DESE to review the plan is in the works. Plus, an inter-municipal agreement between the town of Warwick and the new Warwick School District is being drafted.
While some elements are still being finalized, Education Committee Chair Adam Holloway and Vice Chair Tom Wyatt say they feel confident that planners will send the agreements to the state before a deadline at the end of December. This deadline would need to be met to open for the 2022 to 2023 school year.
The plan for the independent elementary school’s education would be place-based, meaning studies would be socially and environmentally relevant to Warwick. The property features numerous trails and gardens that have been used by a summer program and homeschool cooperative. The garden, which was built by students in the summer program, is to help students learn about growing foods and supporting pollinators.
Additionally, there will be a pavilion for presentations, performances and outdoor classroom use. The nature curriculum and play space help students “learn more about the world around them,” Holloway said.
He and Wyatt emphasized how they want the reopened school “to have the same atmosphere the Warwick Community School did before it closed.” They want the students to have “that one-on-one experience with the teachers and students.”
“We had a really good school, a strong community,” Wyatt said.
Those who are developing the reopening plan are looking to finalize two agreements with the Pioneer school district — one for a tuition agreement and one for a transition agreement. The transition agreement would allow the school to separate from the Pioneer district at the kindergarten through sixth-grade level. The tuition agreement would allow students to opt into Pioneer via School Choice in seventh through 12th grades and pay the associated fee. Holloway said he expects to discuss these agreements with the full Pioneer School Committee on Nov. 18.
While the Warwick school building has not been in use by the Pioneer school district, students have been attending Northfield Elementary School at the kindergarten through sixth-grade level. Others have elected to participate in the Warwick Community Homeschool Cooperative that has been using the school grounds and building since September 2020. Developed by members of the Warwick Advisory Committee on Elementary Education and students’ parents, the home schooling curriculum incorporates outdoor learning and extracurricular “enrichment” clubs.
Updates on the plan to reopen the former Warwick Community School can be accessed at school-redesign.com or facebook.com/WarwickSchoolRedesign, or by emailing school-redesign@town.warwick.ma.us.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.