BEVERLY — Students in all the city's elementary schools will be shuffled around, and they may not know where they're going or who their teachers will be until sometime over the summer, Superintendent James Hayes said yesterday.
He and other administrators are redistricting all elementary students, in the wake of the School Committee's decision Tuesday to adopt Mayor Bill Scanlon's consolidation plan. Under the plan, McKeown School will close and be turned into an alternative secondary school, and Cove School, originally proposed for closure, will remain open.
The 5-2 vote passed Tuesday night after the mayor said the city would allocate $680,000 from the general fund if the School Committee adopted his plan to save Cove School. He said the money would not be available if the committee adopted Hayes' plan to close both schools.
"If there's money available for educating our kids, it should be available regardless of what the School Committee decides," Hayes said yesterday. Yet he's taking it in stride.
Six large maps were spread across his desk, each marked with circles, squares, triangles, rectangles and dots. Each shape represented a student in kindergarten through fifth grade. He and administrators spent the day counting shapes and trying to figure out how to rearrange kids.
Rather than wipe the slate clean and start over, Hayes said he's "working around the edges," within the current districts, so families in outlying areas would be most affected. For instance, a child who walks to school now would probably continue going to that school. But a child who lives closer to the boundary of another district is more likely to move to a new school under the plan.
Once the student assignments are figured out, Hayes said he can determine how many teachers would be laid off, and then figure out the budget, which the City Council has to approve by July 1.
"I need to stay focused to keep the district moving forward," Hayes said. (The School Committee) made a decision, and I need to get the work done."
Many parents, however, were not so accepting of the School Committee's decision.
"(The mayor's plan) is not sustainable," said McKeown parent and PTO President Julie DeSilva. "It is not educationally sound. It does not address class size, which is clearly citizens' main concern. Most importantly, it completely disregards Dr. Hayes' expertise as the educational leader in this city."
While the community and School Committee had two months to examine Hayes' plan, they had less than a week to examine Scanlon's, which he kept secret until last week's meeting when the School Committee was about to vote on Hayes' plan.
Some parents complained yesterday there were unanswered questions about the new plan.
"Dr. Hayes' plan stunk, but it was based on a lot of thought and expertise," said Hannah parent Julie Brown-Garthwaite. "The financials behind it, while all estimates, are based on careful analysis of real data and past experience. The mayor's five-school plan, on the other hand, seems to be based on a lot of very questionable figures."
As officials argued about costs for special education and transportation and tried to predict class sizes and an equal distribution of lower-income students, it was unclear whether Scanlon's plan will completely closes the $2.67 million gap between funding and revenue in next year's budget. There could be a shortfall of anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000, Hayes said.
"This can create a whole set of different cuts," Hayes said yesterday. "What are we going to do?" He said it could mean cutting a team of teachers at Briscoe — which the district just reinstated — or cutting programs.
"The five-school plan could be a good plan, but right now it is a concept, not a plan," Brown-Garthwaite said. "There are just too many blanks in the plan, too many question marks to know what this really means, other than that Cove will be open for one more year and McKeown will close."
