The decision to close an elementary school should not be made at the eleventh hour in order to close what might be a short-term budget gap. Rather, it ought to be the result of long and careful study based not only on a community's financial circumstances, but the long-term need for classroom space.
Until recently, Beverly had provided the model for the due diligence that should precede such decisions. City and school officials worked together to prepare for the closure of outdated facilities in downtown neighborhoods where the school population had decreased, and made the necessary improvements to other schools in order to accommodate the growing population in the outlying areas. Two middle schools were combined into one, and the decision was made to replace most of the old high school classrooms with a brand-new academic wing now nearing completion on the same site.
Sadly, this kind of deliberation seems a thing of the past. Even in Beverly, the Cove and Hannah elementary schools have faced the threat of imminent closure in recent years, which were eventually thwarted by parent protest and a last-minute infusion of funds.
Whether by circumstance or design, decisions on school funding and facilities seem to be made in the moment rather than as a result of a realistic assessment of a community's long-term educational needs.
Take the recent alarm raised in Salem over the possible closing of Horace Mann Laboratory School.
It had been a long time since either the landlord, Salem State College or the Salem public school system had put any money into the aging facility on Loring Avenue. But the first indication parents received that the school might be on the chopping block was when the superintendent failed to advertise for a replacement for the principal who is retiring at the end of this year.
When parents inquired they were told that indeed, the closing of Horace Mann was being contemplated as part of a plan to close a projected budget gap.
This week, the superintendent announced that Horace Mann won't be closed after all in the wake of "important fiscal developments."
Which makes one wonder whether the threatened closure was all part of a ruse meant to goad the City Council into approving the local meals tax favored by the Driscoll administration. If so, it worked, as a formerly skeptical council voted 6-5 late last month to join Peabody and Beverly in imposing the extra levy.
Superintendent William Cameron also cited the $1.5 million in federal stimulus money the school system is expected to receive next year. But this is a one-time cash infusion, meaning costs will have to be reduced by that amount the following year or another source of cash found to make up the difference.
It all smacks of bad faith and bad budgeting. In Salem, Beverly and Peabody, the tough decisions — and there's none tougher than closing a school — are simply put off year after year leaving parents and children in a constant state of anxiety and forcing chief executives to come up with increasingly imaginative means of plugging the budget holes.
School committees and their well-compensated superintendents ought to be able to look ahead five or 10 years and decide how best to provide a quality education using the resources that are likely to be available. There are some schools that, due to population shifts and/or the expense of maintaining them, ought to be closed. But parents ought to have sufficient time to prepare themselves and their children for the transition.
There's a lot to like about the unique partnership between the city and Salem State's teacher-training program that allowed Horace Mann to operate as both a laboratory for modern educational techniques and a public elementary school. But if neither the college nor the city is committed to the program, and there's surplus space elsewhere in other locations, it might make sense to end the arrangement.
In Peabody, there's been whispered discussion of closing one of the elementary schools west of Route 1 due to a systemwide decline in enrollment but still no firm decision as to when, or if, that will happen.
Parents and taxpayers in these communities and others deserve to have a clear understanding of where the school system is heading — and sooner, rather than at the last minute.
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