The School Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to offer a classroom to the Concord Area Special Education (CASE) Collaborative in the Hildreth Elementary School kindergarten wing, if the collaborative finds that the space would be suitable for its needs. Harvard provided a classroom for CASE until 2010.
Superintendent Joe Connelly reported to the committee that Concord-Carlisle can no longer provide classroom space for the CASE K-1 primary program, because enrollments in that district have risen. He said that Hildreth is projected to have at least two rooms that will not be needed as classrooms next year. The rooms are currently used for tutoring programs and after-school childcare.
Connelly said he expected that CASE might send four to six students for the program.
Committee member Kirsten Wright read a letter from Jamie Allard of East Bare Hill Road, who wrote: “Harvard, although ranked high in academic scores, lacks something vitally important to the development of our students as citizens—social awareness of those who are different. Our students are not exposed to people with disabilities regularly…We have a responsibility to teach our children about others just as we teach them math, history, and English..Let’s add the one thing missing from our curriculum that is vital to sending our children into the real world—diversity.”
Connelly told the committee that the contract with CASE would be for one year, and its continuation would depend on space availability. He also explained that member districts have an obligation to provide a classroom for the collaborative if space permits.
The member districts of the CASE Collaborative are Acton, Acton-Boxborough Regional, Bedford, Boxborough, Carlisle, Concord, Concord-Carlisle Regional, Harvard, Lincoln, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional, Littleton, Maynard, and Sudbury.
