Thursday, October 1, 2020

Facility Analysis Subcommittee: Long term plan could close 5 school buildings

Recap:

  • Where are we? Recall that there was an ask if Davis Thayer could be closed to save money?
  • The Facility Analysis Subcommittee was formed and set up their 5 step process. They are still on step 1. A public information session was held in March (before the shutdown). Another public information session will be scheduled for November TBD.
  • A demographic analysis was done and handed over to the architects for use in their facility assessment. Oh, the demographic analysis will be redone with the official Oct 1 numbers. It should be interest for that analysis to see how well the forecast turned out. That would be an update sometime in the future to the Subcommittee (no timeline provided).
  • The work by the subcommittee stopped during the summer after the first preview of the report was presented June 11. Stopped due to the work required by the District to prepare the re-opening plan for all schools in September. Now that schools are back albeit remote and moving to hybrid, there is time for the committee to resume its work.
  • So the architect report gets presented with the data gathered and analyzed. The five options for consideration were presented. Instead of closing one elementary school, the long term report recommendation is to close the three oldest elementary schools, keeping three elementary schools to feed to one central middle school (yes, closing two other middle schools) all feeding to the one high school.
  • How about that for generating some conversation?

Screen captures of the presentation deck shown during the meeting are available. https://photos.app.goo.gl/RB1AXrc4abYTPEm56

We all await the copy of the report to be posted to the Schools page so we can read and digest the remainder of it.


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As with most meetings in this pandemic period, I took my notes via Twitter during the meeting reporting in real-time via the virtual session.
 
The Twitter hashtag can be found online  #scfa0930

https://twitter.com/hashtag/scfa0930?src=hashtag_click

  • Ready for the SchComm Facility Analysis meeting to start. #scfa0930
  • Meeting bridge just opened  #scfa0930
  • Roll call of committee members but no protocol announcements. Stokes (chair) Pfeffer and Scofield present. Still in step 1 of the 5 step process #scfa0930 added COVID related spacing requirements to analysis
  • Craig Olson, Kaestle Boos to present report. Report to be shared after meeting; preliminary report was shared in May, this is updated from that #scfa0930
  • Data based report, all data pre COVID, #scfa0930 Capturing slides as they are shared, some we'll need to wait for report publication to see, he went to quick only video would have caught
  • Adjusted zoom windows for better screen capture #scfa0930
  • Individual school analysis for each school in report #scfa0930
  • Oak and Keller #scfa0930
  • Kennedy and Parmenter #scfa0930
  • Jefferson #scfa0930
  • Middle schools #scfa0930
  • Enrollment projections not unique to Franklin a national issue with some areas)stares affected more than others #scfa0930
  • Excess capacity in both elementary and middle School levels #scfa0930
  • Key slide of options considered in report
  • The various option slides part 1 of 2 #scfa0930
  • Option slides part 2 of 2 #scfa0930
  • Interesting recommendations to make one middle school, with 3 feeder elementary schools all to the FHS facility #scfa0930
  • Now that the data is out the discussion can commence. Some folks won't like, it will take time to understand the implications #scfa0930
  • Q on Title 1, student dependent, not school dependent. #scfa0930 redistricting is always an issue not so much for the students but for the parents
  • Survey better to do sooner than later, #scfa0930 McKibben working on additional update for his demographics, will include the Oct 1 actual vs his model from last year. COVID is a major variable.
  • Community info session to be scheduled on this, date to SchComm not yet set so it would be after Oct, early Nov, being defined via email. #scfa0930
  • No recommendations to SchCom at this time, motion to adjourn, second, passed 3-0 via roll call
  • That's all for schools for now, soon to be reporting on the listening session at 6:30, catch you there #scfa0930 

 

 

long term plan could close 5 school buildings
long term plan could close 5 school buildings

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