Committee Plans Tour of Flood, Wooster Middle Schools

Members of The Board of Education's Long Range Planning Committee will tour
Flood and Wooster middle schools next week in its ongoing study of where to place sixth grade students in the 2012-13 school year.

The tours, which will count as a meeting open to the public, will start at 6
p.m. at Flood. The committee meeting then will be continued at Wooster, and is
expected to take about two hours.

Committee Chairman Joseph Crudo said he would like to see for himself the
buildings, spaces and classrooms that were discussed in a recent consultant's
report that said the middle schools could accommodate the town's sixth-grade
population.

"If you add 300 kids to a school, where would they be located?" Crudo asked. "We need to make short-term, mid term and long-term plans and come up with a timeline.

Among the things they will look at are the availability of classroom space and
the ability of the district to furnish and equip them.

Crudo would like to have some sort of recommendation by June, when the full
Board of Education could consider any necessary expenditures that might need to be added to its five-year capital improvement plan.

Superintendent Irene Cornish said middle school principals have told the
consultants that their buildings can accommodate the new students and programs.

But she and committee members said a first-hand look will augment the report
when they are preparing their own recommendations.

"I'm not second-guessing a principal," said Eric Lazaro, one of the committee's
parent members. "I want to go there and say 'This is what the consultant says we
can do here and how we are saying it can happen.' I want to see for myself."

Crudo said that even with the budget cuts imposed by the Town Council for next
year, they still should be able to get through 2011-12 without closing any
schools.

But he also said the full board likely would have to commit to moving the sixth
graders no later than next April or May if they intend to do it for September
2012-13.

Town Planner David Killeen said he would not be so much interested in things
like outlets, remodeling and computer wiring.

That's more of an architectural thing that none of us is really equipped to do,"
he said. "We have capacity issues and student enrollment projections. We need to make those mesh for the next 10 years."

Crudo and Cornish said the very basics will be to ask principals exactly where
the sixth-graders would go and what would happen to classes and programs
currently using those spaces.

Parent Andrea Villeaux, with one child heading into middle school and another
only a few years away, also would like to check on smaller logistics.

"What increased traffic outside the school mean?" she asked. "How do you
schedule lunch periods? If my child is eating lunch in an early period, she's
going to be pretty hungry when she gets off the bus at 4 o'clock."

Flood Middle School is at 490 Chapel St. Wooster Middle School is at 150 Lincoln St.

With the tours taking place as part of a public meeting, members of the public are welcome to attend.