On May 15, the Mattapoisett Select Board, along with the Mattapoisett School Committee, met with members of the UMass Boston Collins Center for Public Management to hear their report regarding options for Center and Old Hammondtown elementary schools with respect to potential school consolidation.
Speaking for the Collins Center was Heather Michaud, Public Services manager who has navigated the data-collection process and public-engagement sessions on behalf of the town for nearly a year. She explained the data-collection process, which included both public-engagement meetings where residents were given the opportunity to express their opinions on a wide variety of topics that collectively helped to inform whether or not school consolidation is a direction the town should consider. She said that an online survey also gave residents a voice in the process by sharing their answers to a number of questions geared towards learning just what people valued the most and if school consolidation was viable in their minds. Michaud said that population growth, aging trends and school populations were important data points.
All the data was sifted and studied as options were developed by the center to give the town possible pathways to a solution on the question, should Mattapoisett consolidate schools and reuse its public spaces.
The short answers came towards the end of the hour-long presentation in which Michaud delved into such matters as how Mattapoisett fared when compared to similar school districts in terms of quality of education, program spending, condition of facilities and those all-important population and enrollment trends.
Michaud said that Mattapoisett’s schools were rated as in excellent condition, but that neither Center School nor Old Hammondtown School is large enough to serve a combined K-6 population.
Predictions are for flat school enrollment for the next 10 years, but there still would not be enough room to put all the classes into one facility; expansion would be required. Costs ranged from $4,000,000 for partial consolidation to as much as $80,000,000 to build a completely new school campus.
Maintaining the current status is estimated to cost $566,000 with a 3% per-year increase. To renovate Center School, the estimate is $7,000,000, and to renovate Old Hammondtown, the estimate was $6,700,000. In all cases Michaud said, “There are no rapid solutions … more study may be needed … you can consider the options for long-term planning.”
Issues such as parking limitations at Center School, the public’s desire to maintain Center School as a school versus town offices, quality of services provided and the flood-plain issues at Center School were all touched on.
Michaud said takeaways from the presentation were: Student population will remain stable; Population trends in the general public and schools will not reverse. The town is not spending too much on student services (earlier in the presentation Michaud noted that Mattapoisett was slightly behind its peers on spending); No significant cost savings will be realized through school consolidation; the schools are in excellent condition; and Town Hall’s future needs to be studied.
The full report is available now on the town’s website, mattapoisett.net.
Mattapoisett Select Board
By Marilou Newell