GREENFIELD — After plans to redistrict were put on hold amid a tumultuous fiscal year 2026 budget season, Mayor Ginny Desorgher urged School Committee members on Wednesday to reconsider bringing fifth grade students back to the elementary schools and eighth grade students back to Greenfield Middle School.
However, the mayor’s prompt to discuss redistricting plans was informally tabled at Wednesday night’s School Committee meeting, as some members argued that the move would be far from feasible given the School Department’s level-funded budget.
After discussing the matter, Chair Glenn Johnson-Mussad recommended that the committee hold off on further discussion or voting on redistricting until new committee members are sworn in in January.
“We’re in this horrible situation where we see the need of our students, we see wanting to get the fifth grade back to elementary [school], we see wanting to get the eighth grade out of the high school and we can’t afford it with the current numbers we’ve been getting,” Johnson-Mussad said to Desorgher, who also serves on the School Committee. “The schools really took a disproportionate hit in your last budget, in terms of being level-funded, and other departments may have to make some sacrifices next year — it may be their turn to get less than they need, as we did, and have continued to get less than we need for years and years.”
School Committee member Kathryn Martini explained that while it is largely undisputed that students should be moved back to grade-appropriate schools, she noted that it remains highly unlikely that the redistricting plan could be funded in the near future, arguing that increased special education costs add a significant financial weight.
Desorgher explained that she wished to reopen discussions on redistricting, as she is tasked with considering the department’s capital requests early next year and needs to determine which schools to allocate funds for.
“It will be difficult to put forward different requests, because we did have some for different facilities here and … we haven’t talked about that, so I will be hard-pressed to make decisions on [capital requests] if we haven’t had further discussion about it, because there’s things for different schools,” Desorgher explained. “I have to steward the city’s finances in the best way possible. We haven’t had this discussion again.”
Committee member Melodie Goodwin noted that while she isn’t sure how much it would cost to reconfigure grade levels, it would mainly consist of “moving some fifth grade teachers” and making sure “kids at the middle school get a full year of science and social studies.”
“It might be something that could be done if it was minor and involved a few classrooms at a few schools. If you were looking to close a school, or schools, that may be bigger, if you’re looking for different grade configurations ” interim Superintendent Roland Joyal Jr. said. “We still have, as I mentioned to you, almost 1,350 students. They have to fit somewhere, and what we’re hoping for is to get more students.”
Committee member Ann Childs agreed that reconfiguring grade levels remains a priority, adding that further financial planning would be necessary.
“I personally am very biased in favor of a redistricting plan, which is something we had prioritized making. It brings full-year science back to the middle school, brings full-year social studies back to the middle school,” Childs said. “I’m speaking as someone who likes the redistricting idea, but we need to figure out the best way to be strategic with how to pay for it and how to save money in doing it, because that was where we ran into trouble with last year’s budget season.”