hard deadlines

Portsmouth Superintendent Susan Lusi presents numbers as Finance Chair Mike Buddemeyer (r) looks on.

The Portsmouth school finance committee tonight discussed a proposal to close the Elmhurst school next year, apportioning the students to the two remaining elementaries and making room by shifting grades 4 and 5 to a separate space in the middle school. The move would save $390K the first year, even after one-time moving costs of $87K are deducted.

It was the first time that the finance committee (Mike Buddemeyer, chair, Marilyn King and Marge Levesque), the other school committee members (Sylvia Wedge and Angela Volpicelli), or the 50 community members in attendance had heard the proposal from school administration, and there was a good deal of questioning and back-and-forth in a meeting that lasted almost three hours.

"It's not that we want to do this, but if we had to do this, what are our options," said Superintendent Susan Lusi, introducing the plan. "Could the students fit? The answer is yes." The proposed shift would move the upper grades from Hathaway and Melville to one side of the middle school, which would free up enough classroom space to accommodate Pre-K through grade 3. Lusi stressed that middle schoolers would never mix with the elementary kids.

"It would be two programs sharing one building," she said. "With separate lunches, classrooms and teacher teams. It does not change the grade 4-5 curriculum, and teachers would relocate with their grade level." In addition, she said, the admin team continues to explore separate start times and separate busses.

The first question from Buddemeyer was travel time, but Lusi said that they had not yet met with the bus company, that one hour was the state maximum, and the aim was to come in below that number. Marge Levesque probed on how close the move would bring the buildings to capacity and the effect of having larger classes. Lusi assured the committee that class sizes would not change significantly.

There would be around 300 students at the two elementaries, said Lusi, and while the total numbers of grade 4 and 5 at the middle school would be around 400, "It would be a little larger than the Pre-K-3 elementaries, but not larger than Hathaway is now."

Elmhurst parent Jonathan Harris took issue with the enrollment projections, citing national birthrate data from the CDC which he argued contradicted the numbers provided by the New England School Development Council (NESDEC). "NESDEC is a free service and should not be relied on," he said. In addition, Harris argued, additional staffing at Naval Station Newport might well push student numbers up. Lusi noted that NESDEC had been reliable in the past "they were 6 students off this prior year," and that she had attended a meeting to get information about base staffing, but would investigate further.

One of the areas identified as a source of cost saving was a reduction of a librarian, and I asked about the implications of this for technology literacy, which is largely delivered in the elementaries by the librarians. Both Lusi and Assistant Superintendent Colleen Jermain reassured the community that both hardware and resources would be appropriate to ensure the delivery of the tech curriculum. "We haven't gotten down to the level of laptop carts," Lusi said, but promised that analysis would be done.

Elmhurst parent Jen Lehane sought and received reassurance that this required no new construction, and no trailers or temporary classroom space. Then she asked the $64K question: "Are we going to redistrict the entire elementary population?" Lusi deferred the question to the second part of her presentation, where the answer was that it was one of the options being considered.

Parent Chris Bicho acknowledged that this was not an easy decision to make, but wondered if it was truly necessary to do anything at this point. "Parents at Elmhurst are successful," he said, "because 'no' is not in their vocabulary."

Editorial note: I think we all recognize that when something as emotionally heated as closing a school is on the table, folks get a little excited. But we should remember that we're all in this together and divisive rhetoric won't help build the kind of town-wide coalition needed to pass bonds for school construction. I feel the pain I heard tonight from other parents. I really like Hathaway, and so does my son Jack, and I have no desire to send my 9-year-old on a bus to the middle school next September. But these are not ordinary times, and if we are to get through them and come out the other side, we need to work together and show the courage and resilience that our parents (or grandparents) did in the Great Depression. Our parents survived, and we can too. But we need to accept reality, however unpleasant it may be, and fare forward together. When the situation dictates and our options are exhausted, we need to be able to accept 'no" for an answer. It is not failure; it is rationality.

In the second part of the presentation, Lusi went through some of the logistics; of particular interest was a discussion of the impact on the work of the facilities committee. Bottom line is that redistributing the students would not foreclose any of the top options being considered.

Levesque said that while the move might "make sense from dollars and cents," she remained concerned about the effect on the students. Lusi reiterated that the curriculum would not change, that the teachers would go with the students, and noted, "A building is necessary but not sufficient for teaching and learning, it's what happens in those classrooms [that matters]."

One parent asked if, rather than just the salary freeze that had been talked about, whether the committee had considered a pay cut as a way to close the budget gap and keep Elmhurst open. "Are you considering a reduction, not just a freezing. We're told that everything is on the table." Buddemeyer said that they had considered a freeze as the starting position.

Editorial note: Okay, we're feeling like something is being taken away from us, but let's try to walk a mile in the teacher's shoes here. How do you think they'd feel about taking a pay cut to keep Elmhurst open. How would you feel about taking a cut just so your company could keep its current address? If, instead, they could save money by moving and keep paying you what you make now? What would you say?

Town Councilor Jeff Plumb accurately noted that while the school department would realize operational savings of $145K from abandoning Elmhurst, the Town would need to pick up some of those maintenance costs. And he pushed the committee to articulate a strategy beyond just closing the school. "I want to see a positive approach to an end game," he said. Buddemeyer assured him that was the role of the facilities committee. "Our end game is to get something that's going to be sustainable. It has to be something that is realistic."

Elmhurst PTO president Kelly Heitmann questioned how the effects on students would be tracked and measured, and wondered about the soft costs. "It's not going to be zero impact on our children," said Heitmann, "There's this culture that happens at a school. How are we going to keep track of that?"

Lusi answered honestly. "We're going to recognize that in any change, soft costs occur. In our recent change, moving 5th grade back to the elementaries, there was a lot of angst. But when I walked through the schools, just before the holidays, I heard by and large positive reviews. But are there soft costs? Absolutely."

Parent Ian Mitchell noted the history of bonds for capital projects in town and worried about how to ensure that funding for a long-term solution was approved. "I don't like the word 'chance' to be associated with education," said Mitchell.

Buddemeyer noted that while the "cheapest" option might be more palatable to sell to the voters, "The cheapest may not be the right thing to do, long term goal. That's what I'm charged with." Buddemeyer noted that one of the tasks of the facilities committee would be to build the platform for change and convince the community to support the necessary bond.

One parent, expressing frustration with the emphasis on the economic, asked what the administration and committee were doing in service of academic excellence. While Dr. Lusi stayed focused on the facts and offered a few concrete examples, parent Chris Carceller took to the microphone and went into a rant that deserves quoting at length.

"You show up when it affects you," she said to the group, noting that she had been involved in the schools and coming to meetings for several years. "I've gotten to know Dr. Lusi and the administration very well. She doesn't want to close a school She doesn't want to do any of these cost-cutting things. But when the State says they might cut your budget, where would you like her to get this money from? I was part of the Future Search. She asked 95 members of our community to participate, and we spent two full days — not talking about the budget. She didn't have to do this. There were people there who were grandparents, people without kids in the schools, not just parents, and I was surprised that we had the same vision for the schools. I believe we can pass a bond if we all have the same vision. Our town has a vision for better education and this is Dr. Lusi's vision also. She has been trying to hang onto everything that she can hang on to. If we have to close Elmhurst, it's because she's saving something else that's going to be cut."

I'll give Lusi the closing comment. She talked about advice she had gotten before she beaome Superintendent. "Superintendents come and go," went the advice, "But the community owns the school." She reminded the parents that they were part of the solution. "If we want the community to pass a bond, we need to get the community to work on it," she said. "At the end of the day, the community decides. And you are all part of that. Coming here is very important, and i genuinely thank you for that, but it is only one part of what needs to happen if things are going to change."