As the number of students at the elementary school creeps upward, the school department is starting to consider just what the town should do when the school reaches full capacity. Currently, there are 593 pupils at the elementary school, and the school’s capacity is roughly 600 students, although the building had housed as many as 650 before the sixth grade moved to Bromfield. A new School Facilities Committee was recently formed to come up with a plan to deal with the issue and to look at the future of the kindergarten wing at the elementary school, School Superintendent Tom Jefferson told the school board at its March 26 meeting.
The new committee will build on the work of a similar group that came up with some recommendations in 2003. The earlier committee had urged the town to look for a large tract of land in town where a new primary school could be built in the future, which would allow the current elementary school to become a middle school. The members had also come out in favor of keeping the schools small, while having all Harvard students in a particular grade attend the same school.
The new committee will review the last group’s findings, consider its assumptions, update enrollment projections, look at Devens’s role in the schools, and assess changes in technology. The new committee’s members include Jefferson, school board member Jeff Shaw, parent Patty Wenger, Selectman Tim Clark, Town Administrator Tim Bragan, resident and former town administrator Paul Cohen, and resident Victor Normand, who also served on the School Building Committee that spearheaded Bromfield’s expansion several years ago.
Keeping the schools small leads to a number of benefits, Jefferson told the board. “The education is personal and kids can’t get lost. There is collegiality and a shared mission among teachers. The principal has a personal relationship with students,” he said.
The current configuration of schools, with grades 6 to 12 at Bromfield, does have some advantages, he pointed out, and allows for a greater instructional continuity within departments. But even Bromfield, with 758 students, is approaching capacity, Jefferson said, so this configuration will likely have to change in the future.
The earlier facilities study group had noted that many residents strongly value having the schools all located in the town center, but felt that any future new school construction would have to be done outside the center because there isn’t enough space there. School board Chairwoman Willie Wickman said her board had requested that the town’s long-range capital plan include buying a large piece of land for school purposes in the next couple of years, but the request was denied. “We need to keep this in front of the town,” she said.
Jefferson agreed, saying, “The town of Harvard has not set aside a piece of land for the schools since the Hildreth brothers donated land 100 years ago.” He warned that the town has to look forward, because it has to “get in line” with the state school building bureau, which now takes a more active role in guiding towns in the school building process.
