Town schools face over-crowding, failing structures

Town schools face over-crowding, failing structures

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer


TEMPLETON — The state of Templeton’s elementary schools has long been a hot topic in town, but a new school may soon be on the horizon.

Needs derived from growing class sizes and crumbling structures plague Templeton’s elementary schools, both of which are well over 90 years old. Templeton Central and Baldwinville Schools have had their share of problems over the years, with Baldwinville recently making news when a pipe leak caused sewer water to rain down into a classroom, forcing an evacuation.

While the broken pipe will be repaired over February vacation, there looms another issue not so easily fixed — overcrowding. According to Narragansett School District superintendent Ruth Miller, both Templeton Central and Baldwinville are toeing the line of operating over capacity and she is having the building inspector look into the problem.

The cause, Ms. Miller said, is two-fold. The previously sluggish kindergarten enrollment is picking back up and the incoming class has an unprecedented 86 students, generating class sizes of 21 and 22 kids when 18 is the ideal.


When those students move up to the first grade, class sizes will swell from 22 and 23 kids a class to 27 and 28, creating an environment where both students and teachers will struggle at a crucial point in education.

“Kindergarten classes have one teacher and one para-professional, but the first grade only has one teacher,” Ms. Miller said. “With that many kids, it’s difficult for them to get around and give each student the individual attention they need and first grade is really when they start to learn to read.”

In a class of almost 30 kids, students who fall behind or learn at a difference pace may get lost in the crowd and have difficulty keeping up with their peers without the help of a teacher.

The sheer number of students may also necessitate an additional first grade classroom and teacher. Currently the art, music, and gym classes share a room, however, should the need arise, that area will be converted into a first grade classroom and those special activities will no longer have a space.

On top of the various space and learning problems, overcrowding is also expected to cause additional wear and tear on the already old buildings, as hundreds of students and teachers move through them each day.

Ms. Miller brought the overcrowding issue to the Board of Selectmen Monday night, letting them know both she and the building inspector were looking at possible solutions.

“I just wanted to give the select board a heads up that this will be an upcoming issue, as the towns are responsible for providing elementary school buildings,” she explained.

While hiring extra teachers or installing modular classrooms may offer temporary relief, a new elementary school will offer a more permanent solution. Ms. Miller provided an update on the ongoing project, which has been in the pipeline for almost a decade.

According to the superintendent, needed feasibility studies are close to completion, allowing the project to move into the next phase.

The studies have taken over six years to complete, after the Massachusetts School Building Authority extended the project’s deadline from June 2011 to this summer.

The delay was due to the difficulty of finding suitable land for construction in a town comprised mostly of wetlands.

After eliminating three possible sites, in June of 2013 the town secured a 26-acre parcel of land on Crow Hill with help from Senator Stephen Brewer, D-Barre. The land is part of the 1600-acre Templeton Develop-mental Center, which has been in the process of closing for several years.

Although the project may look like it’s still in its early stages, Ms. Miller said the longest portions are now behind them. When asked if construction was still years off, she was adamant that the next phases would pass by quickly.

“No, no,” she said. “The feasibility study will be submitted to the MSBA this summer and we’ll know in the fall if we fit in the model school program or if we’ll be a new design.”

As Ms. Miller explained, the MSBA, who is reimbursing the town for 60 percent of the money needed for the new school, has several schools they’ve supported during construction, called ‘model schools’. Should the project fit within the parameters, the town could potentially take plans from a model school and use them for their building.

“We would take their designs and structure and move it to our location,” she said. “We’d just need to make modifications, but all the schematics and design work would be done for us.”

Fitting into the model school program could shave up to six months off the project’s timeline and save the town a considerable amount of money.

“The end result is you have a really great quality school for a lesser cost that will more than meet the students’ academic needs,” the superintendent said.

As far as the community goes, Ms. Miller believes the support is there for a new school, despite a small and occasional but vocal opposition.

“Everybody in town knows these 90 year old buildings are not sufficient to support these kids education,” she said. “The community and parents will come together to support a new school.”

The Elementary School Building Committee will need to go before the town in early spring or fall and raise money for the next part of the project.

Although nothing has been confirmed, Ms. Miller mentioned during the recent Selectmen’s meeting that Templeton Central and Baldwinville may not be worth saving after construction on the new school is complete.