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Date: 5/17/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Many English language learner students would return to their “home” elementary schools as early as next school year, under a plan being discussed by the West Springfield School Committee.
Currently, all kindergarten and elementary students not yet proficient in English — known as ELs — are concentrated at Coburn School, where specialized teachers and programs are available. The state has asked West Springfield instead to serve these students at the same schools their neighbors attend.
The plan announced May 9 does not require new construction. It would see 30 students moving from Coburn to Tatham School, 34 students moving from Coburn to Fausey School, and 20 incoming kindergartners attending John Ashley Kindergarten instead of Coburn next year. Administrators believe the affected school buildings can handle the increased enrollment in existing classrooms, and specialist teachers can be reassigned from Coburn to the other schools without requiring new hires.
“There is not an increase that would take us over any of the [maximum] numbers in the homerooms,” said Superintendent Stefania Raschilla, who presented the plan at her first School Committee meeting since starting her new job. “There will be a small transportation cost to bus some of those students.”
Under this plan, however, not all students would be in their “home” schools. In order to avoid adding homerooms, several students covered by the federal McKinney-Vento Act — children without homes or in temporary housing — whose last permanent address was in the Fausey neighborhood would instead attend Tatham School. EL students from the Memorial and Mittineague neighborhoods would continue at Coburn. Raschilla said as long as the town can show it is making progress toward ensuring all students attend their appropriate neighborhood school, state officials will be satisfied.
In March, school officials looked at spending federal pandemic aid money on construction to add classrooms at three schools, allowing the town to close John Ashley and Mittineague schools, and integrate both kindergartners and EL students in the remaining neighborhood schools. Those plans were shelved in April when they determined that the construction would cost more than the available funds, and some of those funds would be necessary for 2023-24 operating expenses and a classroom addition to reduce overcrowding at West Springfield Middle School.
The School Department this month named 13 members to a population and facilities study committee, including parent representatives from each elementary school, to look at how to accomplish the long-term goal of having all elementary-age students, including kindergartners, at geographically based schools, and how best to use, renovate or replace the town’s existing schools.
Italian trip OK’d
Also at their May 9 meeting, the School Committee gave preliminary approval to West Springfield High School’s first student exchange trip to Italy, being planned for April 2024. Teacher Sara Switzer said she plans to bring fewer than a dozen students to Valdarno, Italy, a region of Tuscany which serves as a sister city to West Springfield.
Students from West Springfield’s “sister school” in Valdarno visited the town in September, and another group of Italian students plans to make a trip next September, Switzer said.
She said she plans to keep the West Springfield traveling group small in order to reduce the complexity of the first year of this trip, and to ensure that every student can have a host family in Valdarno, rather than having to stay in a hotel. Staying with a family provides a more authentic cultural experience and saves money, Switzer said.
The trip — which will span April vacation and possibly a day before or after — is expected to cost about $1,300 per student. Switzer said she’s working on finding grants and organizing fundraisers to provide financial aid to any student who is motivated to go but can’t afford it.
While in Italy, West Springfield students will visit museums and cultural sites, but will also attend classes at the local high school.
Because the exact dates and costs have not been finalized, the School Committee did not give final approval to the trip, but did vote unanimously to endorse Switzer’s plan so far.