Dear Staff and Families,
Over the past several years, the School Committee and administration have identified and begun examining several challenges and opportunities related to the most effective use of our school buildings in order to meet the needs of our staff, students, and families. We agree that the time has come to address these issues in a thoughtful, data-driven way, with input from the community, in order to chart a course forward.
Specifically, we are forming a special Building Needs Committee composed of School Committee members, administration, staff, Town officials, family members, and community members. In partnership with the School Committee, the administration has developed a series of proposed plans and options for consideration, and the Building Needs Committee will consider input gathered throughout the community engagement process and ultimately present a set of recommendations. In the months ahead, it is critical that we hear from staff, families, and the broader community to offer your perspectives on these proposed plans. Please join us for one or more community forums so that we can plan the future of the Falmouth Public Schools together.
Here is a bit of background about some of the key challenges and opportunities before us:
- Early childhood education: There are two major expenses for many of our young families: affordable housing and affordable child care. We believe the School Department can help address affordable child care through a preschool expansion, offering free universal full-day preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, to supplement the existing private preschool options. Achieving this vision will require a great deal of planning. An urgent priority is space – an opportunity to identify the best location for expanding our preschool.
- Declining enrollment: There is no denying our enrollment continues to decline. In the past five years alone, our student population has declined by more than 13% — from 3,351 to 2,904. This is not a new trend. The past 25 years indicates a steady decline, not unlike the trends across the Cape. As the district serves fewer students, some of our buildings become under-utilized. That presents significant opportunities – in fact, a need – to better align the use of our facilities with the student populations we currently serve and expect to serve in the years ahead.
- Aging school buildings: Five out of our seven school buildings were built before 1963, and some require significant investment for maintenance, repairs and modernization in order to serve as effective learning environments. Mr. Paul Dart, Director of Finance and Operations for the district, and the principals have been walking the buildings and assessing priority capital projects. There are a number of items that need to be addressed in all of our schools, many of which will be included in our 10-year Capital Plan. However, it is clear there is one school building in need of a much more extensive renovation, and that is our beloved and historically prominent Lawrence School. As we engage in conversations about the most efficient use of our facilities, in the context of the other two considerations outlined above, it is important to explore all of our options, including reducing the number of buildings that remain online.
Today, I’m sharing five proposed plans that we will be discussing over the next two months with staff, families and the broader community. With the needs of our students and community in mind, we will present the following proposed plans for discussion.
- Convert the Teaticket building into an Early Learning Center, serving students in Preschool (ages 3 and 4). At the community forums we will be discussing a one- to four-year transition process, while giving us an opportunity to begin growing our preschool next school year.
- Operate three elementary schools – East Falmouth (merged with Teaticket school community), Mullen-Hall, and North Falmouth – all starting with Kindergarten. Through our discussions, we will share the advantages of merging Teaticket and East Falmouth Elementary students and staff. As stated above, the timeline will be determined based on our discussions this fall.
- Plan for taking the Morse Pond building off-line as a school, to be repurposed by the Town for their needs. Due to the new plan above and the need for all four elementary buildings, we will discuss why the building that makes the most sense to take off-line is Morse Pond. The timeline for making this move is at least 4-6 years away.
- Reconfigure the grade structure for schools serving Grades 5 – 8. There has been much discussion over the years about examining our current structure. It’s time to present advantages to changing the grades within each school. The transition period will not take place for several years due to other more immediate needs, all of which will be discussed during the community forums.
- Draft a proposal for a major renovation of Lawrence School. During our discussions, we will share how the process could take up to eight years, maybe longer, and for this reason we need to begin the process now.
As stated before, we are forming a special Building Needs Committee to study these issues in greater depth and to consider all feedback from our staff, families, and community. Therefore, please join us for one or more community forums (listed below) to hear more about our proposed plans.
We look forward to navigating these important issues together!
Sincerely,
Kelly Welch Lori S. Duerr, Ed.D.
School Committee Chair Superintendent of Schools
on behalf of the FPS School Committee
Community Forums
Monday, September 23 6 pm East Falmouth
Monday, September 30 6 pm Teaticket
Wednesday, October 2 6 pm Morse Pond
Wednesday, October 16 10 am Falmouth Library
Wednesday, October 16 4 pm Lawrence
Monday, October 28 6 pm North Falmouth
Monday, November 4 2:30 pm Senior Center
Monday, November 4 6 pm Mullen Hall
Thursday, November 7 6 pm FHS
Thursday, November 14 6 pm Falmouth Library
Please note that any parent/guardian, staff member, or resident may attend any forum at any location. Interpreters will be available at each forum.