PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Department held the first of three public engagement meetings on last week at Morningside Community School. 

 

In March, the School Building Needs Commission accepted a bid from Drummey, Rosane, and Anderson (DRA) Architects for a restructuring study after the district re-issued a request for quotes.

 

Pittsfield High School, Conte Community School, Crosby Elementary School and Morningside were identified as needing a significant amount of capital work. 

 

During their inspection of the schools, the team found that most of the classrooms are well sized, the buildings are generally in good condition but with four needing considerable investment, most roofs are in need of attention, the fields are in very good condition though playgrounds have needs, and the parking lots and driveways are in need of repair.

 

Some accessibility issues and security vulnerabilities were also found, such as having only one barrier of entry as the main access to a school. 

 

What DRA has found is that there are funding options available and it has been a while since the city has requested funding for a project, DRA's senior project manager Gregory Smolley said. 

 

"And we see this as a starting point for a new district," Smolley said. 

 

Some challenges for the school district that DRA has to consider is the declining enrollment, the lack of local funding, people not wanting to be part of the solution and the feeling of some in the school community that "nobody will listen."

 

DRA is trying to determine the residents' opinions on the district and what they would like changed in the future. A survey was conducted to gauge teachers and families' thoughts on the schools in the near future. 

 

The firm received 416 responses from parents and guardians and 385 responses from students.

 

The data provided at the session was not broken down by each school, and Smolley said there is not much you can learn from separating the data that way. 

 

The goal is to determine how the community feels about the district as a whole and within the survey, concerns about individual schools are articulated.  

 

While parents noted the best feature of the school is the classrooms, students reported that it was the teachers. 

 

Parents and guardians rated the district's facilities and the environment as average while teachers reported it below average. 

 

Students rated their happiness toward the overall buildings and grounds at a 6.5 out of 10 and reported their safety in the building at a 6.78 out of 10.

 

"So it's not as dire as we might have been thinking when we started asking that question and the backup on it kind of supports the fact that the kids are coming here, they're happy with the teachers, they feel safe in the school and they think that the school is helping them learn and do better, probably," DRA President Carl Franceschi said. 

 

Some community members at the meeting said the survey questions did not take into consideration environmental and economic factors. They asked if there were any disparities in the data based on the location of the school in relation to income and requested a more inclusive data-collecting process. 

 

They also want more in-depth information regarding the data and how the grants work to maintain level funding. 

 

During the group presentations by community members, parents, guardians and educators, a common theme that developed was the importance of equity and improving security. 

 

Morningside co-Principals Elisabeth Lamoureaux and Jennifer Teichert noted the security concerns included limited entry and exit points. They also mentioned it would be helpful if the district's security systems were the same throughout the schools. 

 

Multiple attendees noted that the school's lack of walls makes it difficult to provide secure lockdown situations. 

 

Morningside third-grade teacher Emily Marcella and her group echoed those remarks noting that there are many doors in the building that do not lock. They also expressed their concern regarding the unsafe electrical outlets that have been known to spark.  

 

Many of the attendees also mentioned the issues the district's buildings have with the performance of the heating and cooling systems. 

 

If the students are uncomfortable they tend to underperform, one attendee said. 

 

Other features they would like to see is retaining or having small class sizes, space for movement and cross-curricula activities such as sensory, and staffing rooms. 

 

A virtual meeting was held on Thursday and a multilingual public engagement event is set for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13, at the schools' Administration Center.