UPDATED: Framingham Superintendent Abandons Move of 5th Graders to Middle School

Originally posted as breaking news at 7:33 p.m. Tuesday. Updated.
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Back from his trip to China, Framingham Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott announced at the School Committee Tuesday night, he is abandoning the move of the fifth grade students from Brophy and McCarthy elementary schools to the middle school level.

He called it a "obvious left turn" and an "about face."

The news, celebrated by many parents in the audience, caught parents, members of the Framingham Teachers Association, and even School Committee members by surprise.

The new plan, to deal with overcrowding in the elementary schools, calls for having some incoming kindergarten students attend a new proposed ninth elementary school at the current King Administration building.

This will affect kindergarten students at all of the elementary schools, not just Brophy & McCarthy elementary.

"Our proposal is to utilize available space at the King Building to alleviate enrollment pressures at Brophy, McCarthy, Dunning and Potter Road Schools," said Scott. 

"This requires a reduction in incoming kindergarten classrooms at Dunning, Potter Road, Brophy and McCarthy and only assigning Kindergarten classrooms equal to or less than the number of exiting fifth grade classrooms," said Scott.

"These changes will only impact students who have yet to be assigned to a school," said Scott.

Under the proposal, six kindergarten classrooms would be created at the King in fall 2014. Another six kindergarten classes would be added to the 6 first grade classes in fall 2015. In fall 2016, another 6 kindergarten classes would be added to make a total of 18 classes in grades K-2. 

In fall 2017, three kindergarten classes would be added for a total of 21 classes in grades K-3 and in the 2018-19 school year, three more kindergarten classes would be added for a total of 24 classrooms at the King building in grades K-4.

In regards to the current elementary schools, Scott said that he wanted to make sure the number of incoming kindergarten students in the fall does not exceed the number of current fifth grade classrooms currently.

For example, in this current school year Potter Road elementary has five kindergarten classes but just three fifth grade classes. Under the new proposal, only three new kindergarten classes would be created for the 2014-2015 school year.

At McCarthy Elementary, there are four kindergarten classes but 5.5 fifth grade classes. Under the new proposal, McCarthy would have five kindergarten classes, about 110 total students, in the fall.

"We anticipate adding six classrooms of kindergarten teachers and part-time paraprofessionals. Staffing for these positions will be open to grade level certified teachers," said Scott.  

"Student assignment priority criteria will be: sibling guarantee, program needs followed by home zone assignment," said Scott on how kindergarten students would be assigned to each of the town - proposed nine elementary schools.

"The administration will continue to work with the Framingham Teacher Association in the implementation of the proposal," said Scott.

Framingham Teachers Association co-presidents Mike Koziara and Sarah Smith hope the administration means it will work with them.

The two co-presidents both spoke at Tuesday night's School Committee meeting.

Koziara said while he was encouraged that "our fifth graders will not move" he was disappointed staff was no included in the process and again, staff is learning of new proposal just now.

Koziara said major stakeholders in the schools - parents and teachers - have not been included in these space crunch proposals and "deserve a place at the table."

"Actions speak louder than words," said Koziara.

As a kindergarten teacher, this "new proposal is interesting," said Smith.

She too asked that parents and teachers be involved in the process.

"It's clear you took what parents had to say two weeks ago seriously," said Smith, referring to a petition of more than 500 individuals against the move of fifth graders to Fuller presented to Scott and the School Committee.

Smith said morale is low as staff feels they are not involved in major decisions.

School Committee member also had questions about the new proposal, specifically where will administration move, as the building was recently renovated to house Scott and his administration, after the B.L.O.C.K.S preschool moved to the former Juniper Hill school. No specific answer was given.

Scott said he plans to present a more detailed plan at a later meeting.

The Framingham Superintendent said his new kindergarten plan "does not eliminate all the short-term challenges of overcrowding and does not eliminate all of the immediate space shortages in one year, but sets in motion a plan to eliminate space shortages in the long-term."

The School department is still looking at a proposed Fuller-Farley campus as a long-term solution to the space crunch. That proposal calls for the Town of Framingham to approve a $25 million override to renovate the two schools on Flagg Drive.