We would like to thank the Reimagining Our Schools subcommittee and the full Greenfield School Committee for seeking community input about changes that will be made to the current configurations of grades in our city school buildings.
As a group of educators we would like to give some written input that we have put together based on the discussions at the high school and at Oak Courts, and from our reading of the NESDEC Greenfield Best Use of Schools report, that had outside professionals evaluating our school buildings and the distribution of students.
Our elementary schools do not currently reflect a well-integrated diversity of students in our city. Community members shared that the three elementary schools currently do not have equal resources. The parents also overwhelmingly wanted the 5th grade returned to the elementary schools. Below are some points we would like the committees to be aware of.
• The NESDEC report gave four options for possible actions. Only two of them were presented as being possible to the attendees.
• Restructuring the city street plans for each elementary school would help to create more diverse and equitable elementary schools (keeping in mind that we have three large low-income apartment complexes and three elementary schools). Currently students from those apartment complexes only attend two of the three elementary schools.
• From a pedagogical point of view, elementary schools with grades K-5 are most successful at educating the whole child while supporting parent and family involvement. Developmentally, the curriculum of these grades align as well as the social and emotional development of the students. In a grade K-5 school, students would attend schools with some of their siblings and their neighborhood peers. Older students can be buddies to younger students. The staff of educators and administrators get to know all the students well and understand their individual needs and learning styles. Transitions are fewer and easier (from grade to grade and school to school). Parents and other family members get to know staff and administrators and are more likely to feel comfortable in the schools thereby being more involved in school activities and parent groups.
• Educators licenses align better with this K-5 model which would encourage teachers to stay in the same buildings even if they changed the grade they taught.
• Educators can better collaborate about curriculum across the grades and be a greater support to each other within a K-5 school.
• The only option given at the meetings that had grade 5 back in the elementary schools was having one building being grades K-1, another 2-3, and the last 4-5. Having elementary schools with three different grade structures would cause a logistic nightmare for school start time, transportation, parent involvement, students walking to school, and transportation costs. (Can you imagine a kindergarten student attending a school on the opposite side of the city from their home and not being able to have older siblings on the bus with them because they attend a different school?).
• Schools serve as key contributors to the health and wellbeing of the community in which they are located. Having each elementary serve k-5 students means that the families at those schools will also grow together as a community, strengthening their connections and support for their children and each other from elementary school through high school.
• The school district can continue to work with all three elementary schools to ensure that students and families are supported in the transition from elementary to middle school. Moving the fifth grade back to elementary means that the children will be more mature and ready to handle that transition, but it is still a significant one. Continuing to communicate with, and listen to families, will be an important part of that process.
The only reason given for not having the same number of students in a K-5 configuration in the same three schools as they are suggesting for the K-1, 2-3, 4-5 configuration was a need for some classroom size construction configurations.
We believe there is money, through city funds, through available state ARPA money, and elsewhere to do what is best educationally and socially for our children, to have three K-5 schools in Greenfield and we strongly encourage the School Committee and City Council to consider that option. We do not want to be penny wise and pound foolish with the lives of our elementary school children.
Julie Letendre, Doug Selwyn, Paul Jablon, Bram Moreinis, and Susan Miller King, of Greenfield, David Greenberg of Colrain, and Pixie Holbrook of Conway, are educators with decades of experience as public school teachers, university education department faculty, and school administrators.