By Patrick Anderson
One of Gloucester's six neighborhood elementary schools would likely be forced to close if a new arts-focused charter school is approved and an estimated $2.4 million in state aid diverted from the city schools to pay for it, according to a new report produced by Superintendent Christopher Farmer.
The report, released yesterday, details scenarios for saving $1.65 million by cutting classrooms in kindergarten through eighth grade, increasing middle school class sizes and laying off administrators over the three-year build-out of the proposed charter school.
But Farmer concludes that the money saved by making those cuts would still leave the district around $750,000 short of the annual projected amount diverted to the 240-student charter school and force a school closure.
"That suggests that a more fundamental restructuring of the elementary school system will need to take place, notably to ensure that facilities costs are minimized," the report says. "That might be achieved by closing a school or amalgamating two schools, reducing their overall combined size by one class per grade level and accommodating them in one facility."
In a telephone interview yesterday, Farmer said that, if two schools were to be combined in one facility, it could involved the reopening of Fuller School, which was closed this year in favor of neighborhood schools. The charter school founding group has also expressed interest in renting part of Fuller from the district.
The cost-cutting projections estimate that the district would save $357,000 by cutting six elementary school classes, one for each class planned for the charter in those grades.
In the middle school, the district could save $833,000 by going to eight classes per grade instead of 12 classes. The average class size would rise from a target of 23 students per class to more than 26 students per class.
A 30 percent cut in district office staff and cuts in information technology support would save another $460,000, Farmer's report said.
Farmer estimated that closing Plum Cove Elementary School would save the district $1.4 million a year, compared with $1.9 million by closing East Gloucester Elementary and $2.1 million by closing Veterans' Memorial Elementary.
City Councilor Jason Grow yesterday said Farmer's estimates fell in line with what he expected the loss of state funding would cause.
"It is not unexpected, I would fully expect that, when the first transition takes place, we would be looking at school closure, increased class sizes and redistricting," Grow said. "If this passes, it is going to set the district into an irreversible spiral, with less resources and more people leaving the district through school choice."
Peter Van Ness, the spokesman of the charter school founding group, said he did not have an opportunity yesterday to read the report. He said he still thought there were creative ways to save costs that did not involve school closures by the city district.
"It would make no sense to me to close a school when we all believe in neighborhood schools," Van Ness said. "There are other ways to save money and we would love to talk to Superintendent Farmer and the School Committee about them."
The comments by the School Department come on the same day the state Education Department announced the date of the only planned public hearing in Gloucester on the charter proposal.
The hearing, described as a kind of open-microphone session for members of the community to voice their feelings about the proposal and give members of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education a sense of public sentiment, is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 11, between 4 and 6 p.m. It will be held in the Fuller School auditorium. The state board votes on the charter application in February.
The Gloucester Community Arts Charter School would serve 240 kindergartners through eighth-graders, with a focus on using the arts and local culture and the community to integrate the curriculum.
It would be open, for free, to any Gloucester resident through a lottery and run by a board of trustees independent from the existing district. If approved, it would open in the fall of 2010.
The Gloucester proposal is one of three in Massachusetts being considered by state officials this year.
In its 400-page final application submitted to the state last Friday, the charter group includes letters from several prominent members of the community who have pledged support for the school despite the warnings of the School Committee that it would be a "train wreck" for the city.
Ward 4 City Councilor Jacqueline Hardy, citing President-Elect Barack Obama's support of charter schools, said the charter school would provide parents who cannot afford private school a valuable choice for their child's education.
"The Gloucester Community Arts Charter School will offer an educational choice that is not being provided by the district," Hardy said in her letter. "Parents who choose the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School will keep their children, along with the money to educate those children, in Gloucester. That means a lot to me."
Cape Ann Business Incubator founder Erika Hansen said the innovation promoted by the charter school could "serve as an important economic engine that builds on our area's unique cultural, historical and maritime resources."
James Caviston, president of the Board of Directors of seARTS, called the charter school "an opportunity to create an educational partner that will help further our mission for cultural and economic development in Gloucester and the Cape Ann region," in a letter endorsing the school on behalf of the local arts organization.
Other supporters include Mark McDonough, owner of Rogers Street restaurant Latitude 43; Will Hunt, music director of Blackburn Performing Arts; Helena Sturnick, president of Montserrat College of Art in Beverly; and Mario Borunda, the dean of the school of education at Lesley University in Cambridge.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
