Adams-Cheshire Prepares For Final Collins Center Report
ADAMS, Mass. — Consolidating school buildings will be among recommendations offered to the Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee at next week's presentation by the University of Massachusetts' Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management.
Center officials will release information from the final segment of their study on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. in the C.T. Plunkett School auditorium. The center provided preliminary information on trends and budgeting last month.
Interim Superintendent Robert Putnam said the team hired to find cost-saving measures within the district will present part two of their findings that will include ways to reconfigure the buildings in the district, along with cost-saving efficiencies that can be implemented internally.
"They are going to show us what is available to our district and what their research has shown them so I am guessing they will present us with a broad range of ways to save money," he told the Selectmen on Wednesday.
After the presentation, he plans to immediately schedule public input meetings because the School Committee is expected to vote on a budget March 13.
He added that he would like to have public building tours to give the community a better idea of the conditions of the schools.
"One good thing that I think is very important when we make our decision is for members of the community to be touring the buildings," Putnam said. "I want to feature this because I think it is important for people to see what the possibilities will be."
Putnam said he hopes the study will help inform both the district's long-term and short-term vision.
"As we look at the choices that we have to make, closing a building is in no way an end in itself," he said "What it is is a step to take towards creating something for our future because that is the really important part. Where do we see ourselves in five years?"
He said this long-term planning is part of the reason that the district has applied for Massachusetts School Building Authority funds over the past years.
When a district applies for these funds, the MSBA requires it look at all options but also be mindful of the future, he said.
Putnam said the district must have a strategy to entice community students who may instead attend McCann Technical School, Berkshire Arts & Technology Public Charter School and St. Stanislaus School.
"We have to offer them something that will make them want to stay in our district and I think that is part of what I'm hoping to get from the study," he said. "But I am also looking to leverage what we have ... we just have to offer an accompanying vision of what we can offer compared to other great programs."
Selectman Arthur "Skip" Harrington said the district ought to consider why students go to other districts and suggested that if the district offered some of the courses offered at McCann and BArT, it may be able to attract more students.
Putnam said schools like McCann have obvious branding and it is clear to students what they will accomplish at the technical school.
Selectman Joseph Nowak felt it was deeper than just branding because some of the community's top students have left the district.
"I was floored by the number of students that left Hoosac Valley and went to McCann," he said. "A lot of them were some of the top students at our school and they weren't there for a tech education ... it was pretty much a mass exodus."
The school district reported last fall that 327 children were attending schools outside the Adams-Cheshire school district, with the bulk at 177 attending McCann. Nearly half of last year's 8th Grade chose to attend other schools.
Putnam said he would like to conduct a study on the reasons for the exodus and said the Collins Center Study should provide some answers to this.
Nowak also was feared that recent letters by Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco and Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Snoonian advocating against the possible renovation of Cheshire Elementary was turning the process into a "turf war" between Cheshire and Adams.
"My main concern is that we give the children of Cheshire and Adams the very best education we can and I see these kids are resilient and flexible," Nowak said.
"I don't think it is going to matter one way or the other to them where they go to school."
He added that he did not question Mazzucco's or Snoonian's right to make statements but said he has chosen to hold his comments until after the report's release next week.
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