By Jarret Liotta
In order to create more balanced numbers at the two middle schools in coming years, a consultant told the Board of Education (BOE) tonight that Saugatuck Elementary School (SES) would be the best choice as a “split feeder” school.
SES parent David Greeley tells the BOE that the CMS crisis led parents to remove their kids from Westport schools, and that redistricting or creating a split-feeder system at one of the schools, would drive even more away. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
This would mean roughly half the fifth grade students graduating SES would go on to sixth grade at Coleytown Middle School (CMS) and half would attend Bedford Middle School (BMS).
“In our professional opinion, we think Saugatuck is the most logical choice,” said Patrick Gallagher, planner with Milone & MacBroom.
At the request of the BOE he presented two options, one of which would move 56% of the next SES graduating class to CMS — and another that would move slightly more at 62%.
He said consideration was given to keeping neighborhoods that are within walking distance of each middle school intact, as well as general distance of each elementary from each middle school in drawing up this recommendation.
Students from SES, as well as Greens Farms and Long Lots Elementary Schools, are all currently districted to attend BMS, while Coleytown and Kings Highway Elementary Schools’ students attend CMS.
The current arrangement results in 65% of Westport’s elementary students heading to BMS, while 35% goes to CMS. As a result, questions of cost, program equity and comparable class sizes have driven the BOE to look into options.
The BOE currently plans to make a decision on the issue before the end of the year.
Option 1 of the consultant’s suggested plan to split graduating students from Saugatuck Elementary School between the two middle schools. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“There’s trade-offs with each scenario,” Gallagher said, emphasizing that they were “conceptual” and not meant to be taken off the shelf and applied.
BOE member Karen Kleine raised the question of CMS’s capacity to have what would be around 600 students in the building through coming years.
“It’s been a long time since we had this many students in that school,” she said.
“I think there’s plenty of capacity at CMS to support this,” Gallagher said.
Kleine said she liked this scenario, as she wasn’t in favor of “pocket redistricting” specific elementary schools street by street.
BOE member Vik Muktavaram raised the question of whether the split could be done by classroom at SES, with fifth-grade classes arranged geographically, enabling them to go in whole to each respective middle school.
“Theoretically I think there’s that possibility,” said Anthony Buono, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. “I don’t know if I would recommend that based on a number of factors.”
Superintendent of Schools David Abbey agreed that so many factors go into class placement that it would be difficult for it to be limited by geographical location.
The question was again raised of why this year’s enrollment numbers dropped so drastically, especially in upper elementary and middle grades, as well as kindergarten.
As of Oct. 1 there were 122 fewer students enrolled in Westport than had been expected.
Option 2 of the consultant’s suggested plan to split graduating students from Saugatuck Elementary School between the two middle schools. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“Based on what we’ve seen kind of regionally, no other district experienced that kind of shift,” said Gallagher, who said it was an anomaly but needed to be monitored.
SES parent David Greeley flatly told the BOE it was due to discouragement.
“People lost confidence in the schools because of what was happening at Coleytown Middle School,” he said, and thus moved their kids out.
While he called the presentation’s sole focus on SES as the split-feeder choice “a little disingenuous,” he said the BOE’s consideration of the change itself was further damaging public perception.
“That’ll just keep driving people out,” he said of a feeder-split plan or redistricting in general.
Newly elected Chair Candice Savin suggested the BOE might want to schedule a special meeting to talk more about the issue, or clear the agenda for its Dec. 2 regularly scheduled meeting to do likewise.
