Lenox School Committee to look into district’s future

LENOX – The school committee wants to take the next couple of years to explore a variety of options for Lenox Public Schools.

“The way things are set up right now is unsustainable long-term,” School Committee Chairman Don W. Fitzgerald said at a recent meeting with the town’s board of selectmen and finance committee.

Now in the early stages of putting together a strategic planning committee, the Lenox School Committee wants to explore a variety of options, which include the possibilities of eliminating school choice and merging with a neighboring district.

“We need to dissect what we have and put it back together, maybe differently,” Chairman Fitzgerald said.

He added the idea of eliminating school choice came from a place of seeing families move to adjacent towns due to lower home prices and tax rates with the knowledge their children could simply choice in to Lenox Public Schools without living in the town.

“We want a top-quality school district…but I would prefer it for our taxpayers,” he said, while also acknowledging school choice provides “a ton of diversity” in the schools.

Another possibility to come out of strategic planning endeavors could be to combine the school administration with that of another town, according to Chairman Fitzgerald.

“We’re looking at combining with another town,” he said.

However, the result of the strategic planning process could also result in no major changes to the Lenox Public Schools.

“We’re also going to look at keeping the district how it is now,” Chairman Fitzgerald said.

School Committee Members Jo Anne Magee and Michael F. Moran have been developing the strategic planning process for the district since the beginning of 2013.

“We hope to be able to present to the school committee probably in another month or two,” Mr. Moran said of the scope for getting into the strategic planning.

Response to the planning

The selectmen and finance committee seemed to be supportive of the initiative the school committee is taking in this process.

“I love the direction that you guys are going in,” said Selectman John J. McNinch.

“It’s really great that you’re thinking about all the right things,” Finance Committee Chair Lucy D. Kennedy added.

Selectman W. David Roche did, however, express concern about the timeframe of the school committee’s strategic planning, which was indicated to take a couple of years.

“I think a year should be enough to really get people involved,” the selectman said. “We are at a crossroads for our fiscal planning for the future.”

The school committee members said they would try to make the process move as swiftly as possible, but they didn’t want to rush it.

“A bad plan can be done quickly, but a good plan [takes time],” Chairman Fitzgerald said. “It takes some time to get it started well and then to vet it.”

Budget increase

In the meantime, the school committee is asking for an additional $34,151 from the town to fund a level-service budget.

Chairman Fitzgerald said the school committee was simply looking to keep the district’s programming and staffing at a “status quo” while the strategic planning process plays out.

“Keep us from going backwards, and we’re committed to looking at this long-term,” he told the town officials.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on March 21, 2013. Filed under Education News,Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry