By Randy Hackett
As someone who’s always pushed for two small schools, I feel the need to defend the two schooler’s position from those who say, “Where have you have been?” The answer is that many advocates of two schools have been here all along from the beginning of the process.
I’ve been to numerous school committee meetings and Tri-Board meetings throughout this lengthy process. The two school signs that appeared on lawns in the run up to town meeting are two years old.
The fact that SOI’s to rebuild Doyon were never submitted, neither in January of 2015, or in January of 2016 would lead many to conclude the two-school model was never really considered by the SC.
In January 2015, the one school option was only one of three configurations for study in the feasibility phase. It wasn’t until April 2016 that the school committee voted to eliminate two schools. If the school committee had submitted an SOI for Doyon in 2015 we could be looking at approved funding for it today.
The active push for two schools lost momentum when we were continually told the town would lose all MSBA funding if we diverted from the one large school plan. When this turned out not to be the case, it breathed new life into efforts to retain our neighborhood schools.
I ‘d like to reach out to my Doyon neighbors and those in favor of one large school and ask them to join us in supporting two small schools – which the vast majority of educational researchers advocate. Perhaps there is a way forward with renovations and additions simultaneously at both schools maintaining more of the existing structures. This could be an affordable alternative to the one large school solution and certainly more palatable to the beleaguered Ipswich taxpayer.
If we can once and for all rule out the option of one large, mega school, maybe the school committee would be motivated to pursue this path? It’s clear at this point that no available single location will be able to garner the requisite two-thirds support and continuing to pursue this objective is creating unnecessary division. A plan that creatively renovates and rebuilds both schools equally for less cost should at least be on the table.