Published in the February 14, 2018 edition

By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — School officials exhausted all possible options before deciding to eliminate the Preschool Extended Day (PREDS) program.

That was the message given to the standing-room only crowd at last week’s School Committee meeting by Superintendent Jane Tremblay. The decision came as the School Department needs to add an additional first grade class at Summer Street School for the 2018-2019 school year due to 91 kindergarteners currently enrolled at the elementary school.

As a result, PREDS will be eliminated next year.

The decision to eliminate PREDS sparked a backlash from local parents. Pillings Pond Road resident Crystal Bates and Russet Lane resident Kathryn Price appeared before the School Committee to ask why PREDS was eliminated. They also had enrollment questions. The Al Merritt Center at MarketStreet was filled with concerned parents.

“We requested a formal place on tonight’s agenda to speak with School Committee members and Superintendent Tremblay following the abrupt and troublesome cancelation of PREDS for the 2018-2019 school year,” said Bates. “Because the cause has been communicated to us as a lack of space at Summer Street School, we are here to better understand how space needs within our system are forecast, monitored and ultimately allocated.”

Superintendent explains reasoning

Tremblay said the school system’s enrollment averages around 2,200 students, and enrollment is monitored closely throughout the school year.

“Enrollment changes daily,” said Tremblay.

As part of the enrollment monitoring process, Tremblay said the schools’ executive secretary Diane Borsetti works with Town Clerk Trudy Reid in order to collect town census data. She also said Borsetti reaches out to preschools and day care centers in town and surrounding communities.

Additionally, Tremblay said orientation and registration nights for preschool and kindergarten are used to help monitor student enrollment. She noted enrollment fluctuates between orientation and registration nights the same way it does over the course of the year.

“At kindergarten orientation, we could have 92 parents show up who say their child is going to go to kindergarten,” said Tremblay. “But once we go through the screening process, we may end up with 81 students or we may end up with more.”

In addition to giving an overview about enrollment, Tremblay discussed how the decision to eliminate PREDS came to fruition. She said there were 91 kindergarteners enrolled at Summer Street on Jan. 2, which is when school officials decided to add a first grade teacher in order to maintain class size guidelines. After school was canceled on Jan. 4 and 5 due to snow, Tremblay said school officials reconvened on Jan. 8 and 9 to begin discussing where the first grade classroom would be located.

“Once we concluded our first walkthrough of the building, we knew that we were not going to be able to run the PREDS program,” said Tremblay. “But we decided to re-walk the building and took out the building’s floor plans to look for every possible solution knowing and understanding that PREDS program is an important program for many families in Lynnfield. At the end of the day, we decided we couldn’t run the PREDS program.”

Tremblay said relocating PREDS to a different school was not an option because the School Department would be faced with increased transportation and staffing costs. She noted the School Department decided to relocate the preschool to Summer Street in order to give students access to critical programs as well as provide direct oversight.

“We have the best preschool program we have ever had,” said Tremblay. “Our preschoolers are able to access the wonderful resources Summer Street School has. If PREDS could not go on the Summer Street School grounds, we believed we could not run that program. As soon as we made that decision, Special Services Director Kara Mauro and I drafted an email and sent it out to parents on Jan. 10.”

While Tremblay said PREDS is an important program that many families rely on, she noted it’s run by Community Schools.

“Lynnfield Community Schools does a tremendous job creating programs that enrich our students’ lives and are a great convenience for families,” said Tremblay. “But they are not bound by the same mandates and responsibilities as other programs in Lynnfield Public Schools.”

Tremblay stressed, “The needs of students with disabilities in our district continues to be our number one priority.”

“I have heard a little bit of chatter about the fact people are using PREDS for extended day for their children with disabilities,” said Tremblay. “That is not the recommendation of Lynnfield Public Schools. If we have students with disabilities who are enrolled in our preschool and we deem it necessary that those students have extended day programs, we offer them extended day programs. We would never offer them the PREDS program because the people who run PREDS are not special education teachers. It is a child care option we have been able to offer to our families, and it is with great sadness and disappointment we can’t do that anymore.”

Parent reaction

Bates said school officials’ decision to eliminate PREDS “makes the preschool program inaccessible to many families.”

Special Services Director Kara Mauro noted most preschools are half-day programs. She said the preschool’s half-day program is designed to help students “make effective progress.”

“If we do a find a student needs an extended day program, we offer that,” said Mauro. “That is why we are carefully tracking our early intervention referrals and all of our students who are getting referred by parents coming in. We have had to revamp our preschool program mid-year based on three-year-olds coming in.”

Bates inquired why parents were not notified that PREDS could have been removed when school officials realized they needed to add a first grade teacher.

“I was not comfortable having my faculty and staff stand up in front of parents and say ‘we might be taking this away’ because that would ensue panic,” said Tremblay. “If I didn’t have to take it away, I wouldn’t have. There has to be a tipping point, and 91 students did tip it. I made a choice and my choice was I was not going to give parents the ‘what if.’ I made the decision I was not going to send information out until I knew we were not going to be able to do it. And within 24 hours, communication went out to parents.”

“Your parent population needs the ‘what ifs,’ especially the parent population that has two adults working,” said Bates.

In response to a question from Price, Tremblay said school officials use class size guidelines when deciding to add another teacher. She also said student needs determine whether an additional teacher needs to be added to a school.

“We know two things when we start a school year,” said Tremblay. “We have a fixed amount of money and a fixed amount of space. We take everything else as it comes. At the end of the day, we do what is best for the 2,200 students sitting in front of us.”

Price also inquired if school officials have considered adding a modular to Summer Street School.

Tremblay noted modular classrooms are very expensive. She said adding a modular classroom was not considered in order to keep PREDS because “it was not a fiscally responsible decision to make.”

School Committee Chairman Tim Doyle recalled he told the Board of Selectmen that local officials “need to keep an eye on” school enrollment. He said the enrollment issue was discussed in a follow-up phone call with the selectmen.

“It’s on their radar screen now,” said Doyle.

School Committee member Jamie Hayman said the school system’s reputation has led to a number of families moving to town.

“We have to have a point of view that there is a fine line between capacity and overcrowding,” said Hayman. “I feel we are right at that line. If we don’t come to the table to say ‘this is what we need as a community to serve our learners,’ we are going to get to the point where we need to play catch up.”

Bates inquired if school officials would consider moving the preschool back to its old Salem Street location.

Tremblay said the preschool will not be moved back to Salem Street because it will not have access to necessary programs and direct oversight, which are currently offered at Summer Street School.

Phil McQueen, who took out nomination papers for School Committee late last week, stressed that parents should be involved in the process of evaluating school space issues.

“If we have got somebody looking at a building from an architectural perspective or a brick-and-mortar perspective, that is a little different than a parent saying ‘my kid isn’t going to have a classroom unless we do something about this,’” said McQueen.

Natasha Anderson urged school officials to improve communication with parents.

“I understand not wanting to have mass hysteria,” said Anderson. “But I also think we have to weigh that against personal responsibility to the constituents. I feel we potentially missed an opportunity to give parents a heads up when they still had a choice. I know it was not intentional, but looking back, would you do the same thing again considering where the community is and past communication issues?”

Tremblay said she heard “loud and clear” the concerns raised by parents.

Kara Morton stressed the concerned parents “want to work” with school officials in order to “effect positive change.”

“We want what is best for kids,” said Morton.