CHESHIRE, Mass. — The school district's new leader said on Monday that his first impression since arriving has been a strong sense of pride.
"There is a deep and abiding pride in the community," interim Superintendent Robert Putnam told the School Committee. "A true sense of place and dedication to the towns and their institutions."
Putnam was hired earlier this year as interim superintendent of the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District. He started in his post on July 1.
He said he found a great sense of pride of the community after meeting with both employees of the district and residents in the two towns.
His second impression was that there was an unease about the future of the district.
"The unease is based on fiscal challenges facing the member towns, a decline in student population and a decline in student performance on state tests," he said. "These are issues I will be exploring in my entry plan."
He said to implement this plan he will "rapidly" acquire as much information as possible about the community and the district. He said to do this he plans to reach out and interview stakeholders across the towns and district.
"I am going to reach out to everybody and anybody who wants to speak to me because I think it is the only way I can really develop an understanding to guide my decisions," Putnam said.
Putnam said he will also conduct extensive observations in the classroom, review all documents related to existing initiatives and review financial and operational documents.
He added that over the summer he has been working with the district's administrators and said he is impressed with their dedication and working relationships.
"While they are keenly focused on their individual buildings and responsibilities they are willing to think beyond their individual needs for the good of the district," Putnam said. "They are always thinking of ways to make do with limited resources."
He added that he was also impressed by all the staff who have been working through the summer to get the schools ready for the school year.
He is trying to better understand the fiscal challenges that face the district. He noted that the staffing resources are "lean" at Adams-Cheshire, with a .2 (full-time equivalent) school phycologist for 1,361 students, high special-education caseloads, limited professional development funds, the absence of a curriculum director, a technology director, a facilities manager and reading and math specialists.
"The fiscal challenges limit the services we can deliver to students, staff and the infrastructure," Putnam said.
In other business, the School Committee voted to undergo a study to identify and analyze cost-saving alternatives for the district.
Putnam asked the committee to pass a proposal that would ask the University of Massachusetts' Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management, the group facilitating the study, to look at specific questions and allow the district to spearhead the study.
"What we decided was it's best for the school to basically be in the driver's seat for the design of the study and for the implementation of the study," Putnam said.
Because of budget difficulties, the district has been looking for ways to consolidate, close out redundancies and regionalize to save money. One of these options may be too close an elementary school.
The town of Adams secured money to hire the Collins Center to conduct the survey.
Putnam said the study should address the stated goals and mission of the district, the anticipated population by both geographic areas and towns for the years 2016-2017 through 2024-2025. It would also look at possible alternative grade configuration and how that would affect academics, student support services and extracurricular; foreseeable revenue sources for the district; and the number of buildings the district requires and can afford that still meet student needs.
Putnam said he has been in contact with the Collins Center and it is on board.
School Committee member Stephan Vigna said if the district manages the study there will fewer biases. Both towns want to keep their elementary schools open.
"I think the important point here is that the district is running the study, and it is not being run by one or the other or both of the towns," Vigna said.
Chairman Paul Butler added that the study is to just find cost-saving measures and that this does not equate to closing a school.
Putnam agreed.
"The idea is not to recommend the closing of a building it is to present what are the possible alternatives based on data you can make a decision on," Putnam said. "So they are going to collect information and see what some of the alternative ways we could put this together."
He said this decision will ultimately be up to the School Committee and that he hopes the study is complete by December
"We need the information because as we go toward the budget season, we need to have alternatives available to us so as we look to the future we might be able to make some short-term decisions if necessary," Putnam said.
Butler said there has been no talk about closing any specific school and if the conversation starts there will be time for public input.
Putnam said after consulting with the district's administrators he made some changes to the fiscal 2017 budget to address shortfalls in grant funding and meet education needs. He said he added a fourth second-grade class at C.T. Plunkett Elementary to ensure manageable class sizes and added a paraprofessional at Cheshire Elementary to work with one of the larger classes.
Also, he said 50 high school students had passed the Advanced Placement Exam in 2016 with a score 3 or higher. For the last few years, this number has never breached 40.
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Hoosac Valley High School to Stage 'Suessical'
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Hoosac Valley High School will showcase their rendition of "Suessical," a musical based on the tales of Dr. Seuss by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
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