Yesterday David Young posted the Thursday Pioneer Valley School Committee
(SC) agenda
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnNpe6BJQuDq079d-0mexR65K_HFwIDp/view>,
which includes an effort by some SC members to reconsider previous votes to
close Warwick Community School (WCS) at the end of this school year. He
urged people to attend the meeting. WCS survived 2 closure votes this past
spring but now it is back. Meantime, the Warwick Selectboard appointed the
Warwick Education Committee to research options for keeping WCS open. The
committee has developed an approach that will keep WCS open & still in the
district. This involves converting the school into a Horace Mann II public
chartered school. Warwick Selectboard Chair, Doc Pruyne described this
approach in an opinion article that was just published
<https://www.recorder.com/my-turn-pruyne-NewSchoolModel-28055852> in the
Recorder. The text is below.
I urge all Warwick residents to come (and bring others) to the PVRS Library
tomorrow at 7pm to tell the School Committee why WCS should remain open.
There is a time at the beginning of the meeting for citizen comments, where
you can speak. Or just show up. They need to get the message that Warwick
isn't willing to let something as important as our youngest children's
education be compromised. There are so many benefits to the town to keeping
the school open. And let's not waste the hundreds of hours that the
committee has put into developing a model that will benefit the town and
the district.
Thank you,
Tom Wyatt, Vice-Chair Warwick Education Committee
*Retool your thinking on charter schools. A completely different animal — a
public charter school — is coming to Warwick.*
*Earlier this year the Pioneer Valley Regional School District closed a
budget gap with money borrowed from the Commonwealth. Leyden’s elementary
school was closed as a cost-cutting measure. Warwick’s school needs to
slash costs or may close too. The solution? A new school structure: a
Horace Mann conversion public charter school.*
*Warwick is buzzing. Parents, residents, teachers, consultant Susan
Hollins, the Selectboard and Superintendent Jon Scagel, are together
designing a new type of charter school that will remain part of the Pioneer
Valley School District. Our school will stay small, within the district,
but go through a redesign and conversion. Converting a public school to a
public charter school has never been done in the Bay State, so we’re
excited to break new ground.*
*Most charter schools steal students from public schools. A Horace Mann
conversion public charter school remains part of the public school system.
No public funds are siphoned out of the district. It will attract Chapter
70 monies, draw students through School Choice (with the approval of the
superintendent) and its students take the MCAS tests.*
*The differences: flexibility, innovation and cost.*
*The commonwealth offers $500,000 for start-up expenses. The grant will
cover technology upgrades, custom-designed learning modules, and
cultivation of an environmental learning lab. Every town has unique
teaching opportunities. Our school’s place-based learning will take
advantage of Warwick’s small town culture, state and town forests, and its
broadband system, which is now nine years old. Warwick Broadband will
enable our children to learn in a global classroom led by teachers in
Alaska, or shared with children in India.*
*The Warwick Education Committee introduced its public charter school
conversion plan to the School Committee on Aug. 8. A converted public
charter school has more autonomy than a typical public school. A Board of
Trustees interfaces with the town and the district. The financial
relationship with the district will be governed by a Memorandum of
Understanding. That document requires a majority ‘yes’ vote of the School
Committee before the application proceeds to the state Department of
Education.*
*The upside for the district is per pupil costs in Warwick will drop. A
lot. The goal is to match the district-wide norm. Fiscal sustainability is
a challenge, but the numbers show it is an achievable goal.*
*This conversion of a public school to a public charter school is a chance
to design an innovative school that other small towns may replicate. Many
rural educators, present and future, may be forced to evolve their school
into a place-based and blended learning model such as this, or something
similar, if they are to keep a school alive in their community. We hope
Warwick will offer some valuable lessons learned.*
*Warwick’s children have been educated in our community for over 250 years.
The Selectboard is firmly committed to seeing that tradition continue, and
welcomes the chance to develop a model that others may emulate.*
*Doc Pruyne chairs the Warwick Selectboard.*
