Feasibility study puts grade 8 academy into question

It’s back to the drawing board for Canton school officials after Dore & Whittier, the architectural firm hired to examine the feasibility of the school system’s previously approved facilities master plan, recommended against using the Rodman building as a separate “academy” for grade 8 students.

The building, deemed structurally sound and ready for renovation, could still be used to house CPS central office staff as well as pre-kindergarten classes.

The original plan approved by School Committee members in September 2017 had called for pre-K students to be moved to the elementary schools with the fifth graders moving to the middle school and the eighth graders moving to the Rodman, where they would have had their own building principal while sharing some of the facilities at CHS. Additionally, the central administrative offices would have moved out of the Rodman and into a renovated Galvin school.

But in a presentation to the School Committee last Thursday, January 3, Brad Dore and his staff, who spearheaded the development of the master plan itself, shared the firm’s findings that the proposed grade 8 academy, while offering a number of sound educational benefits, simply posed too many costs and challenges to be deemed feasible.

As a result, the master plan will now undergo a thorough review by School Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Fischer-Mueller and her administrative team with the superintendent expected to present her recommendations at the committee’s next meeting on January 17.

While revisions to the plan are all but a certainty now, Fischer-Mueller told the Citizen after last week’s meeting that her wish for a grade 8 academy could “still be in the picture.” In the meantime, school officials still intend to move forward with plans to renovate the Galvin — a major undertaking that is predicated on the district securing substantial funding from the Mass. School Building Authority. Although Canton’s bid for renovation funds was denied in 2018, MSBA officials encouraged School Business Administrator Barry Nectow to reapply in 2019 and Nectow said last week that the application will be forwarded sometime this month.

As for the Rodman building, Dore said its structure allows for significant design flexibility, noting that while columns and stairs would remain, most interior walls could be removed, modified or relocated and the building could house as many as nine classrooms as well as central administrative offices.

In evaluating the feasibility of a proposed grade 8 academy, Dore and Whittier and a working group of CPS staff and administrators concluded that the foreseeable district-wide impacts would outweigh the benefits that an academy could offer …

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jan 12 2019. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.