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Date: 1/5/2023
LONGMEADOW – Longmeadow Public Schools (LPS) Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea spoke with Reminder Publishing about the projects and challenges that the district will face in the year ahead.
Middle schools
The district is moving forward in addressing the condition of its two middle schools. The School Building Committee is working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), an agency that reimburses districts for a portion of costs associated with the construction of or repairs to schools. LPS secured funding for a feasibility study at the October 2022 Special Town Meeting. In the spring, the MSBA will vote on whether to accept or deny the project’s entry into the feasibility period.
If the MSBA votes in favor of the project, the design consultant and an owner’s project manager will be hired to identify the most cost-effective solution that will move the district’s educational goals forward, whether that be adding to and renovating Glenbrook Middle School, building a new Glenbrook or combining Glenbrook and Williams Middles Schools into a single facility. The feasibility period will last 12 to 18 months, taking the project into 2024.
Vision of the Graduate
“We continue to be interested in finding opportunities for students to be highly engaged and in charge of their own learning,” O’Shea said. The district’s adoption of a Vision of the Graduate serves that goal. O’Shea explained that the Vision of the Graduate embeds the core “competencies” of accountability, independence, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication in all lessons.
“Success isn’t always grades and test scores,” O’Shea said. “It’s action civics projects. It’s our internship program. It’s children engaged in their wider community, kids getting involved in engineering and design, applying skills in real-world settings.”
O’Shea pointed to a recent exercise in which seniors read “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, about the Vietnam War. The students then used what they had learned about being a soldier and wrote holiday cards to soldiers serving in the military now.
“We have a ways to go,” toward fully realizing the Vision of the Graduate, but O’Shea said he is confident that LPS is teaching students the “skills to make them successful outside of Longmeadow.”
Budget
“Budget season is rapidly approaching,” O’Shea said, and this year will provide specific challenges. Among them is a 14 percent increase in out-of-district placements for students with needs outside of what the district can provide. The increase translates to $380,000 in costs. A letter was sent by the School Committee to the Legislature to ask for relief.
“Hopefully, we all learned more about how important public schooling is to the community,” O’Shea said. He called it “fortunate” that the state “re-engineered Chapter 70 [aid] to be more reflective of the current realities of education.”
Expecting more
O’Shea reflected on the current and future needs of students and teachers alike.
“We’re expecting more and more of our educators nowadays,” the superintendent said. “The needs of school children are becoming more complex. It’s more important now than ever that the wider community works together to support kids.” He cited social media and mental health as challenges students faced.
O’Shea said the district has made investments in personnel such as academic interventionists, behavior analysts, nursing services and registered behavior technicians. He said, “Schools understand now that we want to make sure students are available for learning.”