Dear Community Members, Parents/Guardians, Students, and Staff Members,
It has become a common strategy politically to not just have opposing views on an issue, but to intentionally create a narrative discrediting the opposition. Whether you believe the very concerted effort to discredit me or not, the MSBA project and all the accompanying documentation is part of the public record through the MSBA board and the local School Building Committee.
During the two Community Forums held this past August, I did refer to the projected enrollment report from the MSBA dated February 2021, the district-funded NESDEC report; and there were audience questions and comments regarding the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) report. As part of my presentation on the historical context of the project, I referenced all phases of the project, including Eligibility, Feasibility, Preferred Schematic Design, and Project Scope and Sequence. When I spoke about the Eligibility phase, I referred to the full report’s graphics to illustrate the need for two elementary schools into the next decade, indicating a projected enrollment of 625, through 2030. I also referenced the return to the Eligibility phase from the Feasibility phase to consider grade-span schools (PreK-2; Grades 3-6; and Grades 7-12).
The purpose of the Eligibility phase of the MSBA process is to establish the School Building Committee membership, determine the projected enrollment for the district, and obtain an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM). In 2023, on behalf of the School Building Committee, Mayor Macksey and I made the request to MSBA for the project to return to the Eligibility phase in order to consider a change to the proposed building’s grade configuration from a PreK-6 school to a PreK-2 school. MSBA honored the request, and during that time, we formally asked the MSBA to consider a PreK-2 school for the building project. At that time, MSBA revisited projected enrollment through 2033, and the data indicated a projected enrollment of 535 students for grades K-6.
Both the initial projection report and the revisited projection from MSBA, included data based on the year when school was closed for fully remote instruction and then hybrid instruction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), and then the return to school the following year in 2021-2022. There was a sharp decrease in enrollment in the remote/hybrid school year of 2020-2021 as some parents elected full-day/full-week instruction in smaller private schools or elected to homeschool their child(ren) due to ongoing concerns about the rates of COVID-19 infection. This trend was common across the state. The following year, enrollment increased as more students returned to school in their local district. Due to the fluctuations in enrollment, the MSBA did make some adjustments to the year-over-year survival ratios, as follows: an increase of 20 students for grades K-6, and 5 students for grades K-2.
The MSBA-certified enrollment for the school building project using the revisited values from the letter dated February 8, 2023, are as follows:
Grades K-6: 265 students (535 + 20 - 290 students spaces at Colegrove Park Elementary School)
Grades K-2: 240 (235 + 5)
These figures were reported to the School Building Committee as indicated in the minutes of the February 14, 2023 meeting found on our website.
Regardless of which enrollment projection is referred to, a K-6 enrollment of either 625 students (2030) or 535 students (2033), plus the addition of the projected enrollment of 91 PreK students, exceeds the capacity of either elementary school, as reported by NESDEC:
Brayton Elementary School: Capacity for 449 students
Colegrove Park Elementary School: Capacity for 420 students
The initial projected enrollment report was presented in the historical context of the project’s return to the Eligibility phase to consider grade-span schools. There was no intent to deceive and withhold information as the second projected enrollment review was made at the request of the School Building Committee to establish a certified enrollment for a grade-span school configuration. The district website has been updated to include both projections.
Today is about your choice to either bring this MSBA project to the City of North Adams or not. The choice is yours to make through your vote.
Sincerely,
Barbara Malkas, Ed.D.
Superintendent