The district continues to prioritize building a new elementary school as this remains the best option for our students’ education and the town’s finances. And while we continue to work on this project ahead of the April 8 election, we must also plan in the event this vote is not successful.
An alternative, admittedly less desirable option to building a new school, is to close the current South School, redistrict our elementary school neighborhoods, and place modular classrooms at the Dawe, Gibbons, and Hansen elementary schools that could accommodate a total of 300+/- students. This is still a very costly, temporary band-aid, and we would not receive state funding to help pay for it. But, it would be a way to address the deteriorating physical condition of the South School building and overcrowding across all of our elementary schools.
Dr. Baeta recorded a video that is just under 13 minutes long that goes into the modular plan in more detail. As Dr. Baeta mentions in the video, in addition to modulars at the Dawe, Gibbons, and Hansen, current enrollment numbers may make adding modulars at the Wilkins and Jones Early Childhood Center a necessity as well under this scenario.
You can watch the video below for a better understanding of this plan and the impact it will have at each school site:
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