Three new kindergarten classes at the Westbrook Community Center would help ease the elementary school space crunch.
A public meeting will be held next week to discuss the Westbrook School Department’s temporary solution to overcrowding in the district’s elementary schools.
The solution, said Superintendent of Schools Marc Gousse this week, is creating three kindergarten classrooms at the Westbrook Community Center. The school department allocated $25,000 in next year’s budget for leasing the three classrooms.
A public meeting on Tuesday, June 9, the same day as the school budget validation referendum, will be held in the Congin Elementary School cafeteria starting at 6 p.m.
In a letter sent to Westbrook families last week, Gousse said the community center option came from discussions about the school department’s increased enrollment.
“We have determined that the best option is to lease space at the Westbrook Community Center and create three kindergarten classrooms there,” he said in the letter.
Gousse said students already enrolled in the district’s pre-K program, which is already housed at the community center, will “loop” up to kindergarten classes, providing a “seamless” transition for the students. He added that teachers from Canal, Congin and Saccarappa schools will be reassigned to teach the classes.
Gousse said the community meeting is to provide details of the plan and respond to questions from parents. Gousse, along with Peter Lancia, director of teaching and learning, said Monday that the meeting could include a tour of the classrooms. Congin is located next door to the community center.
The discussion is timely. At Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, the board approved the 183-unit Blue Spruce Farm subdivision planned for Spring Street.
With student enrollment expected to rise because of that housing development and others, the school department has begun preliminary architectural studies for expanding Saccarappa Elementary School and also completing an unfinished third-floor wing of Westbrook Middle School, which would add six classrooms. Both projects would be paid for entirely by taxpayers.
In January, school officials hosted a meeting at Saccarappa Elementary School to discuss a more long-term plan for the enrollment growth.
Gousse, along with other school officials, has also repeatedly defended the department’s decision to close Prides Corner Elementary School in 2012, owing to some $2 million in repairs required at the aging school. Since that time, with development rising in Westbrook, some residents and elected officials have questioned the decision, given the recent enrollment study that predicts continued growth.
However, a study completed by Planning Decisions specific to the Blue Spruce Farm project predicts between 30-40 school-aged children would be added to the school district as a result of the subdivision.
At Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, Spring Street resident Tricia Spinney said, “That seems like a small number.”
“I know that our schools are over capacity, to the point where we’re now putting kindergartners at the community center next year,” she said. “I’m concerned about how this will impact the schools. I hope the Planning Board will give that some serious consideration.”
Board chairman Ed Reidman read a letter from resident Mark Levasseur, who also said he was concerned for the subdivision’s impact on the school system.
“We will, as taxpayers, be expected to foot the bill for the new school,” he said, also calling the decision to close Prides Corner Elementary “shortsighted.”
Discussion also took place on a Westbrook community Facebook page this week, with residents and parents questioning the decision.
Maria Dorn, community center director, said Wednesday that the kindergarten classrooms are a “win-win” for the center. The funds paid by the school department will go toward the restructuring and added utility costs, she said.
She said the classrooms will be on the left wing of the building, with doors that open directly to the fields and playgrounds between the center and Congin Elementary. The space is used for the center’s after-school care program, but this summer the space will be shifted.
“We have a lot of space for after care, and we were able to condense and rework parts of it,” she said. “It’s a natural fit.”
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