WaylandSchoolCommittee.org

• Topic: Whether to move to a 2 1/2 elementary school configuration
• Date: Monday, January 28
• Time: 7:00pm to 9:0pm
• Location: Large Hearing Room, Town Building (tentative)
• Who should attend: All Wayland residents have a stake in this discussion

• Over 70 residents attended the School Committee meeting, many of whom requested that the School Committee revisit the decision to turn Loker into a kindergarten school.
• The Committee spent over two hours answering questions and discussing the process and decisions made thus far
• The focus of the questions was on the closing of Loker versus Happy Hollow, how and why this decision was made and the impact of closing 1/2 of an elementary school
• Another sentiment of the audience was the importance of approving the override to stave off significant cuts to our educational system
• The Committee then continued its budget deliberations for two more hours

• On January 15th, the School Committee voted that, in the event of a reconfiguration of the elementary schools, Loker would house kindergarten and Claypit Hill and Happy Hollow would each house grades 1–5; although the Committee did not rescind this decision, members agreed to take further public comment under consideration
• With regard to the question of a possible reconfiguration, the majority of the Committee is leaning toward moving to a 2 1/2 school neighborhood model for the fall of 2008

• The Committee will hold a public forum to address the potential move to 2 1/2 schools at 7pm prior to the meeting next Monday, January 28th
• The School Committee will vote Monday night, January 28th, on whether or not to move to this 2 1/2 school model for the fall of 2008
• The Committee will present its budget to the Finance Committee the following week
• After the January 28 meeting, the Committee will continue to hear public comment regarding the Happy Hollow-Loker decision

• Wayland currently maintains three K-5 neighborhood elementary schools
• A reconfiguration is anything that changes this model
• After hearing much support for neighborhood schools from the community, we are discussing the possibility of a 2 1/2 school, neighborhood model with kindergarten at the half school, as Wayland has had in the past

• Everybody will be impacted in different ways; at a minimum, there will be more children in the Grade 1-5 schools and kindergarten students will have their own school
• The School Committee is still analyzing the details in terms of where the redistricted lines would occur throughout the town
• We recognize that these unknowns make this process more difficult; we are working as quickly as possible to answer the many logistical questions and to get this information out to families

• The Superintendent created an advisory committee to gather data about Loker and Happy Hollow
• In January, this committee gave its data (but purposefully, not a recommendation) to the Superintendent
• Based on his knowledge of the schools and this information, he recommended to the School Committee that Loker house kindergarten and Happy Hollow house grades 1-5
• The School Committee discussed the Superintendent’s recommendation and ultimately voted to support his decision, acknowledging that there was not a clear cut answer
• Key factors in favor of this decision include
• Assumed lower transportation costs given the densely populated area surrounding Happy Hollow (i.e. more walkers)
• The physical layout of Loker School lending itself better to either closing a large portion of the school or renting the space to a third party
• Recent capital improvements to Happy Hollow, including new roof and energy efficient windows and doors that are in the process of being replaced

• The Committee has discussed declining enrollments for several years
• In November, before seeing the proposed FY09 Budget, the Committee again reviewed the numbers and decided that while redistricting was feasible, it was not advisable at that time
• The Committee received the budget from the Superintendent in December and two detailed lists of reductions, one that would occur in the event of a failed override and another in the event of an approved override
• In light of budget concerns and the impact on programs throughout the district, the Committee revisited its decision about when to move to 2 1/2 schools
• The School Committee made its decision in order to analyze the potential transportation costs and have numbers associated with these costs available for the meeting with the Finance Committee on their tight Town Vote/Meeting timeline
• The Committee appreciates that while this decision has been under consideration for some time, it may appear to come quickly for anyone who has not been closely following our discussions at a number of meetings over the past few years
• The Committee fully recognizes this change of direction and discussed at great length the impact of making such a change; however, as we learned about new budget information and continued to analyze the data, we think that it was in the best interest of the district to revisit the prior decision

• Enrollment has declined for the last 7 years at the elementary schools to such a level that reconsolidation is feasible
• The enrollment decline is projected to continue for at least the next four years
• In light of the possible failed override and even deeper cuts that would harm the educational program, it is critical that the Committee reduce the override amount while maintaining to the greatest extent possible services and programs across the district
• In the proposed 2 1/2 school model, the district retains its teachers, maintains the average current class sizes across the district, and maintains existing programs threatened by the 3 school budget guideline provided by the Finance Committee

• Contact a School Committee member directly, either via phone or email (see link to contact information below)
• Attend the forum on January 28th at 7pm, as well as subsequent meetings and forums