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Clock ticking on Beverly schools' future

By Cate Lecuyer
Staff writer
Published: April 17, 2008

BEVERLY — By May 21, the future of the city's schools — including the district budget and whether elementary schools will be shuffled — should be known.

During a public meeting to address pre-submitted questions from the public, Superintendent James Hayes breezed through a comprehensive handout and put pressure on the committee members to make up their minds soon about his proposed consolidation of the elementary schools so the administration could start planning for a transition.

"In order to do that, we need to determine where students will go to school," Hayes said.

While it seems certain two of the elementary schools will be turned into an early education center and an alternative secondary school, which ones and when is still up in the air.

If voters pass the city's first Proposition 21/2 override, on the ballot for a June 3 election, the district would remain the same in September, buying administrators one more year to establish a consolidation plan.

Concerned primarily about increasing class sizes, parents have said Hayes' plan to turn Cove into an early education center and McKeown into an alternative secondary school was rushed. There have been suggestions about closing Hannah instead of Cove, or only closing McKeown, and many parents have said the administration should take more time to develop its proposal.

"We clearly feel there is enough time," Hayes said. "We're not worried about this at all. The only thing that worries me is we will have staff members who may have already left us (due) to uncertainty and instability."

Hayes said he is further developing two budgets — one for if the override passes, and another for a consolidation plan — and the administration wants to figure out how it would reorganize teachers, students, transportation and other details as soon as possible.

About 60 people turned out for last night's public informational meeting, where School Committee members and administrators answered questions that people had e-mailed to them beforehand. While not every question was answered in the meeting, answers were explained in more detail in a handout, which will be posted on the district's Web site.

However, about half of the people in the audience stayed for the School Committee meeting after the informational session.

"I'm interested to hear the School Committee members and where they stand on the superintendent's proposal," said Catherine Barrett, the mother of a kindergartner at Hannah.

Based on a suggestion from Mayor Bill Scanlon, the School Committee voted to form a committee to study the reconfiguration of the six elementary schools and then make a recommendation in three weeks.

"Do you really think there's enough time?" asked Ward 1 member David Manzi, who pointed out the district has been discussing a reconfiguration for years.

Despite concerns from Ward 4 member Karen Fogarty about including people not involved in the school system to provide a broader view and different perspective, President Annemarie Cesa suggested a seven-member panel with one community member and six qualified parents.

Such parents, who will be chosen by the School Committee, are those who have been paying close attention to the proposed plan, who have a child in one of the elementary schools and who have other children in either the middle school or the high school.

"That way, they're not so focused on just the elementary schools, but the bigger picture," Cesa said. "This needs to be done quickly."

However, the committee didn't specify how parents would be selected or how members of the public could get involved.

The plans at a glance

r Turn McKeown Elementary School into an alternative secondary school for special needs students, and turn Cove Elementary School into an early childhood education center. Redistrict students among the remaining four elementary schools. Eliminate 61 full-time positions across the district, including 47 at the elementary schools, for a savings of $2.6 million. That leaves a budget shortfall of just $46,373 for next year. Most of the academic and extracurricular programs remain intact.

r Consolidate the city's six elementary schools by turning one into an early childhood education center and one into an alternative secondary school, and further explore which schools would close and how that would affect the budget. Programs would most likely remain intact.

r Approve a $2.5 million Proposition 21/2 override during a vote on June 3. It would permanently increase the property tax rate by 41 cents per $1,000 of a home's assessed value. A homeowner whose house is assessed at $450,000 would see a property tax increase of about $184.50 every year. The school district would remain the same in September, and this would buy another year to explore a consolidation plan.

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