School Expansion Discussed by School Committee

With a school district that has been in need of additional room for students, officials said a committment to having a full load of full-day kindergarten classes could require a new school building.

"I hope I'm not shocking the community, but you need a school," said Interim Superintendent Dr. Stephen Dlott at Tuesday's School Committee meeting.

The need for a new school is nothing unknown to the district, he said, but with his vision for a complete full-day kindergarten the need for a new building becomes even more immediate. The city currently has 13 sections of full-day kindergarten and nine sections of half-day kindergarten.

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The district is extremely bottom heavy with many students at the elementary school level, said committee members and the superintendent.

Mayor and Committee Chair Arthur Vigeant confirmed that adding a school would take at least four years to complete. With this timeline laid out, committee members called for outside of the box thinking.

Committee Member Katherine Hennessy said that there are a number of properties the city owns that could be tapped for additional space. These must be seriously looked at as the district needs to relieve this pressure now as opposed to waiting, she said.

"There is space out there and it would be nice if we could make use of it," she said.

Committee Member Margaret Dwyer went further, stating that it is well known that there are many commercial properties that lay vacant. While these would require retrofitting that is the kind of option that needs to be explored.

"We do have commercial space available," she said explaining that the situation requires thinking outside the box.

The mayor spoke out against using commercial space. While these spaces can be retro-fitted, it is difficult and costly, he said. He suggested getting input from the school department administration regarding the next steps forward with student programming — which includes full-day kindergarten — at the committee's next meeting. Then numbers could be attached to the measures and evaluated.

"We have a finite budget. We need to talk about real numbers ... we need to pick and choose," said the mayor. "We can't continue to go back to (the City Council) and ask for more money."

The committee and superintendent agreed to waiting for the information from the administration, putting off a vote put forward by Dwyer to committ to full-day kindergarten by September of 2015.

"I don't think Marlborough can afford to not have a full day kindergarten," she said explaining that young families look for this before moving to a community.

Mayor Vigeant said that enrollment numbers will also be brought forward at the next committee meeting and help direct the discussion. The district will also get birth numbers from the City Clerk to further evaluate the students that will be coming up through the district, he said.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for October 2.