Little-used 'classrooms' leave some asking, 'Why?'

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on November 13, 2009

The news that modular classrooms near Mark's Meadow School have never been used for that purpose and will be sold has caused some to question Town Meeting's endorsement of the $215,000 expense two years ago.

Abbie Jensen, of Dana Street, called the plan to expand the school "insane" on Catherine Sanderson's blog, because it ignored enrollment projections.

"I hope that this mistake prompts everyone at Town Meeting to be skeptical, regardless of the expert that presents the case, and resist group-think," she wrote.

Rick Hood, a candidate for a School Committee seat, said that in hindsight, it was a bad decision. But he also wrote on the blog, "I worry that people will take this one decision and pass judgment on whether (the school system) makes bad financial decisions across the board. It may or may not make good financial decisions, but this one example is far from enough data to make that judgment."

Sanderson herself noted that the Town Meeting decision to buy the extra classrooms took place after an override was defeated; during the campaign, proponents said if it didn't pass, the schools would have to cut teachers.

"I believe it is a compelling example of bad financial decisions that have been made by the district, and that we need to own up to mistakes," she wrote.

Back in 2007, Town Meeting was told that the 10 classrooms at Mark's Meadow faced a space crunch because of the need for space for special education, computer classes and physical and occupational therapy.

When you're right ...

Arguing against the purchase, Town Meeting member Nancy Gordon said the town could save money by placing all elementary students in the three other, larger schools, which is in fact what will happen next fall.

This year, the only activity in the modular classrooms during school hours is instrument lessons one day a week, said Principal Nick Yaffe. They are also being used for an after-school program for struggling students. Last year, they were used for Title 1, an intervention program, he said.

Sanderson, who was not on the School Committee in 2007, apologized to the town for "a big mistake that was entirely avoidable." She said she doesn't know whether there's any market for the classrooms.

Elementary enrollment declined from 1,732 students in 1996-97 to 1,460 in 2006-07, and in 2007 there were indications the slippage would continue, Sanderson said. It would have been wiser to bus any overflow Mark's Meadow children to Crocker Farm School, which has been under-enrolled, she said.

But Andy Churchill, who was on the committee in 2007 and was a Mark's Meadow parent, said that because there were just 10 classrooms for seven grades, every year Yaffe had to decide which grades would have two classes. This resulted in big swings in the number of students in classes, he said, noting that one of his son's classes had 27 students.

"It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback," he said. "It is a different time now and we have different needs and levels of revenue from the state. Would we do it again today? Obviously not, but at the time it was a solution to a problem. It wasn't a stupid idea."

Yaffe said the plan was to hire another teacher and conduct classes in the modular rooms, but ultimately, budget cuts didn't allow that. Mark's Meadow had faced chronic overcrowding and at the time there was no decline in enrollment or discussion about closing the school, he said.

"Our vision was to have Mark's Meadow expand and redistrict," he said. "That plan changed because of economic circumstances and declining enrollment."

The new classrooms provided flexibility in allocating space in the building, Yaffe said. Because they have gotten little use, the classrooms are in excellent shape and Amherst may get a good price for them, he said.