Parents Question Superintendent's Plan to Move 5th Graders to Middle School

More than 100 parents attended a meeting at McCarthy Elementary School Wednesday night to hear Framingham Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott discuss his new LEAP Program.

The program, unveiled a week ago at the Oct. 1 School Committee meeting, calls for fifth grade students at two of the town's eight elementary schools to move to the middle school level; and for the town to open a ninth elementary school at the King Administration Building.

Scott's plan calls for current fourth and fifth grade students at both McCarthy Elementary and Brophy Elementary to move to Fuller Middle School in the fall of 2014.

Fuller Middle would become a 5-8 grade school, with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) focus, while Cameron and Walsh middle schools would remain as 6-8 grade schools. Scott said the move is necessary to deal with "severe overcrowding" at the schools.

Parents were upset at Scott's plan, as they said it is a temporary plan to deal with a space crunch rather than an decision that is based on a plan to improve education.

Both Brophy and McCarthy Elementary Schools have been categorized as Level 3 schools by the state, which means they are on the list for "needs improvement." Fuller Middle School is also categorized as a Level 3 school, while Walsh and Cameron middle schools are level 2 schools.

Scott did not help his campaign to change McCarthy and Brophy to K-4 schools, when he told the audience that if a plan to renovate Fuller Middle and the former Farley school is accomplished, he might return McCarthy Elementary to a K-5 school.

"I have very strong reservations," said McCarthy parent Mark McClennan.

He said the plan may have benefits but at the moment the plan is an experiment. "My son is not a lab rat."

But not every parent had concerns.

McCarthy and Framingham High parent Kate Farese told Scott "this is the most thoughtful and well-thought out plan" she has heard. She said her daughter went to Fuller Middle and had a great experience there. She said the entire school system is "wonderful" and that the end result of this LEAP program plan would be "fantastic."

She was one of a handful of parents who spoke in favor of the plan.

Called Project LEAP - Leading Edge for Achievement Program - the program would also "build upon the STEM (Science, Math, Engineering and Technology) initiative" at the middle school. Students in the pilot program have a STEM component one semester of the school year, presently.

Scott specifically said his "LEAP program" would help Framingham Schools "leap into the future." It would give every student "hands-on exploratory learning."

Parents questioned why just Brophy and McCarthy. "We need to relieve the pressure at those two schools," Scott responded.

McCarthy parent Alison Kerins, said the STEM initiative program, in 5-10 years, sounds like it would be wonderful, but that by then her child would be in high schools. She said the plan "seems so sudden." She said why not stick a modular classroom in the parking lot to deal with the crunch "right now" instead.

Scott told her and the audience his administration has been thinking through this proposal for the last "6-8 months." He said Project LEAP is not a "Band-aid" approach to the overcrowding in the schools and that his administration is not in favor of "putting out a shoddy program in the short term."

Scott met with teachers to discuss the plan Wednesday.

He told parents he has set aside two months to discuss issues with teachers and staff, as well as have a "dialogue" with parents. He said by January he would need to begin the budget process for the plan, so parents could register for kindergarten in March and the plan could begin in August.

One parent then questioned if this was a done deal and if the "conversation with parents" was just that a conversation but not one that could spark change in the proposal. He questioned why parents were just learning of the plan in October, if a decision would be made by January.

"First heard of this, last week. Sounds like a decision is done. You are not giving me the sense that you are willing or going to make any changes to this," said the dad. "I have a lot of concerns with my daughter going to Fuller."

Several parents also raised issues about 10 year olds riding the bus and attending a school with 14 year olds.

"I am very uncomfortable sending daughter to school with bunch of middle school students," said McCarthy dad Brent Nason, who has a daughter in grade 4 currently. "Kids grow up too fast, as it is."

He said the "ideas sounds great" and the educational "opportunities phenomenal," but that "safety" needs to be factored in too.

Scott said fifth grade students would ride the bus with sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, but that they would sit up front.

When parents continued to question bus concerns, Scott said he would be open to hiring "bus monitors."

The LEAP program calls for about 150 fifth grade students to be added to Fuller Middle. 

McCarthy mom Shelia Gaglione said the 5-8 grade program, with a STEM focus at Fuller, should be an opt-in option for all parents in the Framingham School District, just like the district's two-way English-Spanish program at Barbieri Elementary School.

"It should be an opt-in,"said Gaglione.

"There is a degree of forced choice here," responded Scott.

Parent Kristen Nason asked Scott questions about staffing and how the staff will handle social-emotional issues and if the nurse for the fifth graders would be the same one for the 8th grade students dealing with more mature issues.

Scott said he was willing to look at adding nursing support.

Another parent asked if after-care would be available for the fifth grade students moving to the middle school, as both McCarthy and Brophy offer a YMCA after-care program but no such program exists for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at Fuller.

Scott said an after-care program would be available.

Scott answered many parents questions with the possibility of adding staff or resources, however not once since he launched the LEAP Program proposal has he explained where the money is coming to fund it.

The LEAP program also calls for adding five kindergarten classes to the King Administration building to start a ninth elementary school. In each subsequent year, four more classes of kindergarten would be added until the school is a complete K-4 school.

Staffing of just the kindergarten part of the program would be a minimum of $200,000.

The Framingham School Committee votes on the department's budget final number, but administration has control over line item by line item.

The final Framingham School District budget would need to get approval of Framingham Town Meeting. It typically doesn't vote on a school budget until May, with school starting in August. Any additional funding for the schools would need both the approval of the Framingham School Committee and Framingham Town Meeting.

Scott said more than once during Wednesday night's Q&A meeting he has money in his budget to fund his LEAP program, but did not explain how.

Note: Originally published at 5:45 a.m. and updates at 8:45 a.m.