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Date: 5/31/2022
HADLEY – The Hadley School Committee meeting on May 23 updated the public on plans for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) and the new fields project. They also approved a trip to Europe presented by Hopkins Academy head teacher Jason Burns.
Superintendent Anne McKenzie first thanked the town of Hadley at Annual Town Meeting for supporting the school department budget and all of their capital projects, saying the town is incredibly generous to the schools and they don’t take that lightly.
“In September when we surveyed the community, parents, and our staff and faculty, one of their top priorities in addition to providing social and emotional supports for students was the importance of upgrading facilities,” McKenzie said. “We have very consciously set aside money in those grants to assist us with making facilities upgrades. We’ll also be working with the town on that, but I just wanted to remind the public that this is a conscious decision, it is not in any way us signaling that this is money that isn’t needed. We had a facilities audit that said over the next decade, [we need] $9 million for improvements.”
McKenzie added that she was proud they didn’t have to follow some other districts and use the ESSER money for repeating operational costs outside of hiring a coach. She said they’ve been able to avoid using that and instead plan on using their typical revenue sources like grants and local contributions to cover ongoing operational costs while one-time monies provided by ESSER are matched to one-time costs.
The committee’s field project will provide Hopkins Academy with a new baseball and softball diamond as well as a multi-purpose field. The committee voted to chop the project into phases, with phase 1 costing over $500,000. The Berkshire Design Group initially estimated the cost of the project to total $1.6 million in 2012.
“We’re still waiting for the cost estimate for phase two of the field, Berkshire Design does know our timeline and that we have to have you folks with eyes on this no later than July so that we can be prepared to be before the [Community Preservation Act Committee] in September when they meet,” McKenzie said. “They do know of our deadline, they’re well aware of it. I’d like to thank Hadley Mother’s Club, a non-profit for the Steve Lewis Subaru event that they do every year, they want some of what they raised certainly to benefit the schools, specifically phase two of the fields project so we’re very grateful in advance for them stepping up to do that.”
When School Committee Chair Humera Fasihuddin raised concern about the design group not being ready on time, McKenzie assured her of Berkshire Design’s reliability.
“I truly am not worried. I might start getting large beads of sweat on my brow slightly before that deadline, but they will deliver. They always deliver,” McKenzie said.
Burns presented an opportunity for Hadley students to embark on a nine-day trip to Europe. The total cost of $4,464 is more expensive than past trips, but Burns said it was worth it with a new traveling company that they are working with. He said they changed to a company called WorldStrides, which guarantees groups of students to be staying in the heart of the cities they visit in order to cut down travel time. Other factors in the increase were credited to the completeness of the bill, meaning costs like tips and insurance that weren’t automatically included in the past were now considered in the total cost.
“We’re proposing a trip to Italy and Germany this year. There were several things that I highlighted about WorldStrides that made them sound much more impressive to me,” Burns said. “They guarantee you’ll stay in the city, which yes of course it costs more, but you walk out the door and you’re there. Also, it realized we could then do things with the kids in the evening when the program for the day is done because we’re not staying in the middle of nowhere. The fact that they actually have programs to help families go on trips. They have scholarship programs, relationships with other organizations that will help kids fund and they have payment programs that allow families to pay even after the trip is over. None of the other companies do things like that.”
The only question came from Fasihudden, who asked what students whose families can not afford the trip can do short of taking out a loan and inquired about fundraising efforts.
“General fundraising is hard because it’s such a small pool of kids; it’s not very effective,” Burns said. “The company does include a fundraising page, kind of like a GoFundMe for each account where kids do a little campaign with their families and friends so that people can actually make donations directly to a student’s account.”
The estimated number of children to go is 15, but Burns said they are accommodated to take as many or few that want to go. WorldStrides also allows college credits to be earned through George Mason University upon completion of an online course at no extra cost.
“I’m just offering to be a chaperone if you ever need one, that’s all,” the newest committee member Christine Pipczynski joked.
Before the meeting closed for executive session, McKenzie recognized longtime Hadley Schools bus driver Donald Pipczynski for his dedication to the students.
“I believe that Donald Pipczynski has for the most part driven for our third-party contractor, but he has served the students of Hadley in that role for a very long time,” McKenzie said. “He’s also helped with parades and other things in town so I’m glad that this was brought to my attention, and I just wanted to thank him for serving our students for such a very long time, we really appreciate it.”