GREENFIELD — School Committee members were presented Wednesday with four potential options for the best use of the School Department’s educational facilities.
The options are:
■Moving fifth grade to the elementary level, reconfiguring elementary schools to specific grade-span schools and moving eighth grade to the middle school.
■Realigning elementary school enrollment boundaries to evenly distribute students across elementary schools.
■Reopening Green River School on Meridian Street as a kindergarten through fifth grade school, moving fifth grade to the elementary schools and eighth grade to the middle school.
■Expanding one or more elementary schools to ease crowding, moving fifth grade to the elementary school and eighth grade to the middle school.
In March, Superintendent Christine DeBarge was given the nod by the School Committee to move forward with a $17,980 study by the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) to determine the best use of the district’s school facilities.
DeBarge explained to committee members that the Best Educational Use of School Facilities Study aims to help answer some questions that have come up over the years, including the future of the Green River School, redistricting of elementary schools, and whether to move fifth-graders back to the elementary level from Greenfield Middle School.
“This is a long process to go through together,” DeBarge told committee members Wednesday night. “There’s a lot of information we have to gather in addition to what NESDEC has. Tonight is the first piece.”
Chris Malone, a NESDEC consultant, explained that the goal of the report was to “generate some strong conversations” among the superintendent, the School Committee and the community.
“It’s really a three-pronged report that goes into depth in regards to Greenfield public schools,” Malone told committee members.
The report includes district demographics — specifically enrollment projections — an analysis of school facilities, and options for facility plans as the district moves forward.
“The options are designed to serve as a catalyst for further analysis and discussion,” Malone emphasized. “This document should be considered not as an end product but rather as a beginning to future planning.”
In a presentation on enrollment numbers, Karen LeDuc, another consultant for NESDEC, shared with School Committee members that based on a trending national decline in births, the number of kindergartners is expected to decrease over the next few years. In Greenfield, she noted, school-age children make up 13% of the population.
In terms of information gleaned from the Department of Planning and Development, LeDuc shared that the number of permitted housing projects under construction will have “minimal impact on future enrollments.”
The facility review included an analysis of building conditions as well as the current operating capacity compared to the planned operating capacity.
Inadequacies in facilities were also identified in the report, including the lack of a handicapped-accessible nurses’ offices at Federal Street School and the Discovery School at Four Corners; the lack of space for the English language arts coach, ELA interventionist and other support staff at the Discovery School; and the lack of storage space in schools across the district. The report also cited inadequate technology for both students and teachers.
Committee member Susan Eckstrom asked the consultants for an explanation as to why reopening Green River School wasn’t part of three of the options provided.
“We considered it as a standalone option,” LeDuc said. “You could modify these as they fit your needs going forward, but we wanted to acknowledge the specific advantages and challenges of reopening Green River specifically in that one option. You certainly could reopen Green River and add that to any of these if that was decided going forward.”
School Committee member Kate Martini echoed member Glenn Johnson-Mussad’s concern for the inaccessibility of the nurses’ stations identified at several schools.
“I had the same eye pop … but with the inadequate spaces at some of our schools for services for students with disabilities,” Martini said. “I think it’s really disturbing we have multiple special education teachers, a math coach, another special educator … all that have inadequate space.”
Additionally, she was “particularly dismayed” that the elementary school with the highest number of English language learners, Newton School, has a space that can accommodate only three students for its full-time English language learner educator.
“I would really like to understand more specifically how each of these options would impact students with disabilities,” Martini said.
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, who also serves on the committee, noted that NESDEC’s report detailed “a lot of capital expenditure.”
“That’s not a criticism,” she said. “It’s just a fact. … But overall, whichever option we choose here is going to be a fairly significant capital investment. It really does need to be planned out.”
The full report can be found at bit.ly/3mDOjQ8.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.