Time to connect the dots

Yes, lets us think outside the box and connect the dots. stay on your toes people cause your about to be scammed.
As we ALL know Young is worthless and is a HUGE supporter of Miller, and because of this she will grab a hold of him like a leech to push for her boyfriend the charter school he wants to create.Remember this name John Graziano.
Reminder:
WESTMINSTER  Following the mystery of his sudden departure from his former position as principal of Baldwinville Elementary School this past January, John Graziano came forward this week to talk about his concept for a brand new K-8 school that he has been privately working on for the past several months. Hmmmmm coincidence??? Doubtful.  
Also according to Templeton he is not a good Principal and does not play well .. hmm remind you of anyone ? A snake and a viper. His sudden departure was leave or be fired and the public knows deal. 
Nothing good can come out of this for Warwick and its people. Its already clear she cannot control a budget and Templeton is still crawling out from the rubble that we will crawl from if she is not removed. Miller has alienated teachers, and parents to the point they quit or refuse to send their children to PVRS , not to mention she is a known liar and has proven this over and over with newspaper ads alone. As for Young , I would not trust him to thread a needle. 
Be alert and be wise Warwick and the rest of the School committee, You have chosen many wrong paths in these last two years , this will be a fatal flaw you will not recover from and please do your homework this time so we do not have to do it for you . 

As public school enrollments shrink in Franklin County, some education leaders are thinking outside the box for alternatives to closing schools to balance the financial books.
A recent example has emerged in Warwick, where the 18-year-old Warwick Community School, built to house about 150 pupils, was down to an enrollment of 57 this past year.
This summer, David Young, a member of the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee from Warwick, has suggested exploring conversion of the public elementary school into a semi-autonomous Horace Mann Charter School.
The chief advantage, beyond the freedom to innovate more: students from outside the district might bring $10,000 or more in tuition payments from their sending districts, about twice the amount a traditional public school receives through the Choice program.
The state created the Horace Mann charter schools in 1997 as a cross between a standard district school and a more typical “commonwealth charter school” like the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School in Hampshire County or the Four Rivers Charter Public School in Greenfield, which have no affiliation with the local public school systems.

A Horace Mann school must be approved by the local school committee and teachers union and get its money funneled through the local school committee, but is governed by an independent board of trustees with more freedom to innovate in its programs and more flexible staffing rules.
Young said his “motivation is the revenue side of the equation,” believing the switch could put Warwick Community School on a more financially sustainable path.
At the start of the 2016-2017 school year, Warwick Community School had 57 students, of whom 23 came into the district through Choice. Whereas the district receives about $5,000 per Choice student, he explained, it could get perhaps double or more under Horace Mann.
For example, according to data updated in May by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Athol-Royalston Regional School District pays $11,169 per charter school student, and the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District pays $13,798.
Young said he thinks Warwick Community School would have a good chance of winning state education department approval because it’s a Level I MCAS school and has a “handsome campus” and “great staff.”
There is often money available to support planning and the first two years of operation at a Horace Mann charter, as well.
Local funding would continue to come through the school district, in accordance with an agreement the district would reach with the Horace Mann school, which Young said would include providing lunch from Pioneer Regional School, as is done currently, and providing transportation. The school could also apply for private grants and receive individual contributions independent of state and local funding.
Of course, the potential financial success of the Warwick school and academic success of the students it would attract from outside the district would come at a price — to sending districts — which has always clouded the feelings about charter schools locally.
This may not be the solution, ultimately, but as Pioneer Superintendent Ruth Miller has said, “we have to start thinking about doing things differently.” She is right.
For now there’s lots to research and consider, but the prospect sounds exciting, especially if the change creates the opportunity for making the already attractive school more successful — academically and financially.

UPDATE

A retraction will be made in the Greenfield Recorder to state that the so called storage area Miller wanted you to believe was her office is in fact Cathy HH office.

Anymore lies we can call you out on Miller?

SC meeting tonight at PVRS PLUS

Let us help you.
Lets start by clearing out VP after all Bacon seems to think without Cathy HH she can handle everything and thats over 100,000.00 savings.
Healy can go this position is not a required position and a Secretary at a lower cost can handle Millers side jobs and that is another savings of over 100,000.00
Millers and Bacons pay can be cut as well. These salaries are more like a city than a rural. 40,000.00 from Miller and 50,000.00 from Bacon would be a sufficient salary .( How much do you really care about the kids Bacon and Miller?? Show us) Thats another 90,000.00.
So far we have saved you 290,000.00 .
Cutting Paras and teachers is not the way to run a school. This should be done at the top down not the other way around. 
Let these cuts come from Administration NOT the schools or its programs OR Teachers and Paras .

 Also, you wouldn't be having these kids leaving to go to Charter schools and school choice if you listened two years ago. In two short years this school has been in destruction mode since Miller came and has grown increasingly worst with Bacon and the VP. Yet, our SC has chosen to allow this and look at the mess PVRS is in. 

Mark my words sure as I am sitting here typing Music, Sports , Band and Theater  are on the chopping block because thats what she does.Than she will cry how she did not want to do this and how she had no choice .. SHE HAD CHOICES  she just pissed away money and now has to find it  the same way she destroyed Templeton and the NH school. I can BET her credentials were never checked. We found out more about her in less than a week but our SC ( God Bless their little hearts .. yes thats a southern slam) did nothing and allowed her in.

SC smarten up before its to late and change this mess.. YOU CREATED IT ! 

Kids nor their parents want to send them to this school. It's not gonna get better it's gonna get worst . School Choice does not even consider you anymore and thats a shame on you.  What was once a school of choice for many is now the school people want to flee from. AGAIN, losing Mike Duprey has come to haunt you  and Cathy HH will also be your downfall.


MAKE THE MEETING YOUR KIDS FUTURES DEPEND ON IT AND SHARE THIS WITH OTHER PARENTS.






NORTHFIELD — To live within the $14.2 million spending plan approved for next school year by the Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s four towns, administrators are facing another unanticipated $102,000 in cuts to budgeted items.
According to Superintendent Ruth Miller, the cuts will be needed to cover growing special education transportation costs and tuition for an increasing number of students leaving the district through School Choice and for charter schools.THIS IS SHAMEFUL AND AGAIN YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO RUN A SCHOOL OR BALANCE A BUDGET BUT YOU SURE CAN GIVE THEM OFFICE PERSONAL OF YOURS RAISES.
“We had more kids choice out,” she said.WHY IS THAT MILLER ?? FOR ONCE TELL THE TRUTH! ITS YOU AND THE PEOPLE YOU HIRED @PVRS YOU DESTROYED OUR SCHOOL!!TEACHERS KIDS DEPENDED ON YOU FIRED WHEN IN FACT YOU SHOULD OF BEEN FIRED LAST YEAR!
Based on budget documents from the district, $553,747 was budgeted for charter school and school choice students last year, while this year’s figures are looking more like $715,221. Miller said she had only anticipated needing about $654,294, making for an approximately $50,000 gap.
Additionally, she suspects the approximately $250,000 spent on special education transportation last year will increase substantially.

Miller shared the figures during a budget subcommittee meeting on June 28, and asked the district’s principals to come to the July 13 School Committee meeting with ideas for where cuts can be made elsewhere in the budget to free up money. However, principals acknowledged it won’t be an easy task.
“There wasn’t any fat in that budget,” Warwick Community School Principal Elizabeth Musgrave said during the meeting.
Still, Miller said since the meeting she’s met with the principals and believes cuts are possible by small adjustments to substitute teaching budgets and supply budgets, for example.
“Once you do all those little things, it kind of does enough to make up for reductions and be able to keep all our teaching staff, and that was really important to the principals,” she said.
At the suggestion of Bernardston Elementary School Principal Bob Clancy, administrators pink-slipped five paraprofessionals from across the district before the June 30 deadline and plan to rehire as the budget evolves.THIS IS SHAMEFUL
“Many of them will be reinstated, but we’ve written to them, we’ve let them know that this is a process,” Miller said. “We clearly can’t hire everyone back … When you have a reduction in kids and a reduction in staff, it makes sense that there wouldn’t be as big of a need for the paraprofessionals.”THIS IS YOUR FAULT MILLER BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO BALANCE A BUDGET OR LEAD AND FIRED TEACHERS WHO DISAPPROVED OF YOU OR SPOKE OUT  STOP LYING.
During the budget subcommittee meeting, School Committee members shared their own ideas for where cuts could be made, which included eliminating Pioneer’s assistant principal position and avoiding paying Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Pam Lawrence an additional $14,000 for digitizing documents.WE PAY HER HOW MUCH!! However, the committee had mixed opinions and didn’t reach any definitive decisions.LAWRENCE IS NO MORE THAN A HIGH SALARY SECRETARY !
Administrators will explain their ideas for further cuts during tonight’s School Committee meeting, which will be held at Pioneer at 7.

OK we will call it like we see it

OK...we will call BS when I see or hear it .
Miller states “Everybody’s really happy to have us in the school,” Does this woman EVER speak the truth?! She is here against her wishes and will make everyone in this building more miserable than needs be. If she cared about being closer  than the money she pissed away on main st could of been used to resolve the previous Superintendents building. It was CLEARLY stated her first year that it was maintainable and could be fixed So don't give us the BS line we all know better. ( What do you expect them to say ? No we don't want you here? They need their JOBS!)
The room Miller chose looks alot like Cathy HH room on top floor . Look closely .. she is trying to be a martyr stating how she moved into an empty storage area. My God does she ever quit? Cathy HH had this area for many years.

Than wait for it .......Asst Superintendent and another asst to the superintendent WHAT! Gail Healy can't handle that either so we pay for an extra? Why is she here still? ( Healy and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Pam Lawrence have their offices in room 410, and Miller’s office is in room 414, a former storage space.) Like with previous schools we are paying out more than what is needed in Millers office. Their no way she needs two that was what Healy was for .Seems again SC not doing their JOBS and watching for abusive incomes which already are clearly out of the park.Seems if we could lessen the amount we pay these people and remove some we would of had the money to keep vital teachers in place.

In other words more BS from Miller. How can we trust someone who does not live in the same reality as the rest of us?
Were watching .

NORTHFIELD — The long-awaited move of Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s central office is complete, with administrators settling into their new home on Pioneer’s upper floor.
The School Committee approved the move to rooms 402, 403 and 407 last month, after which administrators and custodians packed and moved everything from the leased space at 168 Main St. Assistant Superintendent Gail Healy said everything was moved Thursday, with administrators using Friday to unpack.
“It’s the perfect space,” Superintendent Ruth Miller said. “It’s great for kids (and) we didn’t take anybody else’s space, it was space that was available.”( BECAUSE YOU FIRED THE TEACHERS)
The move affected four classrooms and one closet space, not simply the three rooms that were approved by the School Committee. The special education office is in room 402, payroll and accounts payable is in room 403, and technology services is in room 407. Healy and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Pam Lawrence have their offices in room 410, and Miller’s office is in room 414, a former storage space.
Miller explained her position requires she have a room to herself to keep meetings confidential, and with extra space available, administrators decided to make use of it.

“They’re empty and it didn’t make sense not to use them given the confidentiality issues,” she said. “It really wasn’t a vote (the School Committee) needed to take.”
With significant staff layoffs at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, several classrooms were available for the central office, though computer and science labs were left alone. Moving upstairs was considered the most cost-effective option, as the district wouldn’t need to spend any money installing air conditioning.
By moving back to the Pioneer campus, the district eliminates $3,030 per month in leasing costs, while allowing administrators to work more closely to students.
“Everybody’s really happy to have us in the school,” Miller said. “We’re going to be part of the culture, and I think that’s important.”

Five Staff Members Resign

Nathan Holesovsky like so many others who are now gone was more than a band teacher , he was a friend. He made you wanna achieve and he was always available to listen. 
No truer words have been spoken than these "uncertainty at Pioneer" . Teachers  afraid of speaking up in fear of losing their jobs, lost communication with the teachers, students and parents, the list is endless here.Not to mention the parents  not wanting them to attend this school and school choice deciding on BUHS.
Its even harder to stand by and watch a school once so strong in spirit and togetherness fall apart like a landslide and be more of a prison than a school. 
To turn the clock back is now impossible. To much has been lost and Miller has once again achieved her line of destruction.Everywhere she goes it follows. Templeton is still rebuilding and will be for years to come.
We can and will promise her this, wherever you go WE will make sure they know  about you. This has to end at Pioneer. Her destruction of schools is over. What she did to Templeton and PVRS will not go unnoticed and she will never get another chance to hurt another school.That goes for the other two as well. You destroyed our schools and you think you can just walk away? NO! The people next in line deserve to know the truth and they will. This was the final straw. As for the SC its up to us as Taxpayers to hold them accountable and vote them out .Enough of this nonsense. They have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt they are incapable of leading a damn mud puddle.

Nathan we wish you the best and may your dreams be fulfilled. You will be missed at PVRS.

NORTHFIELD — In a year when Pioneer Valley Regional School lost more than one-quarter of its classroom teachers, students say it’s losing another crucial part of the Pioneer community: Band Director Nathan Holesovsky.
Holesovsky announced his resignation on the second-to-last day of school, after being offered a job as band director at West Springfield High School that morning. According to Pioneer Principal Jean Bacon, Holesovksy was one of five staff members to resign, and one of two to resign in the final week of school.
During Holesovsky’s 13 years at Pioneer, he worked to grow band participation to about 100 students in grades 7 through 12, roughly one-quarter of the school’s enrollment. He said he applied for the West Springfield job with the same goal in mind, seeing it as an opportunity to work at a significantly larger school with more opportunity for growth.
Though the West Springfield band has only 40 students in grades 9 through 12, enrollment is about 1,200 students, he explained, which he believes could align with his dream all along.
“When I graduated from college and started teaching music, I always imagined myself in front of a large program … and not just numbers, but more opportunity for growth,” Holesovsky said.

He said he is going to try to grow the West Springfield band to 75 or 100 kids.
“It’s exciting. I’m sort of building, just like when I came to Pioneer … but when we go up, the up can be even higher.”
By contrast, Holesovsky said there’s a level of ncuertainty at Pioneer, one of many local schools plagued by declining enrollment. Experiencing a 25 percent drop in enrollment over the last eight years, he grew concerned about how the numbers may affect his band, and with his daughter Annalise having graduated from Pioneer this year, Holesovsky felt it was the right time to think about the future.
Still, his new start has also given him pause to think about his time at Pioneer teaching music, serving as head of the fine arts department and occasionally assisting John Passiglia with shop classes.
“It’s hard to say goodbye,” he said, and not just to his students, but to his fellow teachers and the community. “I’ve come to know the community, the people that support us, the businesses. That’s sort of been my world.”
Under Holesovsky’s leadership, the Pioneer middle and high school bands earned bronze and silver ratings at the regional Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association (MICCA) festival, won an excellence award at the Heritage Music Festival in Toronto, worked with renowned composer Frank Ticheli, and took trips to Nashville and a Celtics game, to name a few accomplishments. In 2016, Holesovsky also won the Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Teaching.
To ensure his students the opportunity to say goodbye, Holesovsky sent a mass email on June 21 announcing his resignation.
“It was really sort of an intense two days there,” he said. “I couldn’t get anything done. It was just kids streaming in all day long.”
Though his students are happy for Holesovsky, the news came as a surprise, said Justin Hubbard, 17, of Northfield, who has played tuba in the band since seventh grade.
“I was shocked because none of us really knew, and also very upset,” Hubbard said. “He’s been my band director for so long, I gained a connection with him … It sounds like the right move for him, but he’ll be very much missed at Pioneer.”
“I was very, very sad,” agreed Ella Potee, 15, of Northfield, a four-year band member who plays the sousaphone, tuba and baritone horn. “He’s a crucial member of the staff at Pioneer … It’s a big loss.”
Hubbard remembers how Holesovsky, or “Mr. H.” as his students call him, made trips fun and memorable, and encouraged students to reach their full potential.
Potee added that though she “doesn’t describe herself as a great musician,” she received endless support from Holesovsky.
“He still made me feel very valued and crucial in the band,” she said.
Even getting up early to practice marching in heavy costumes was enjoyable, thanks to him, she said.
“He always seems to make it fun and exciting when we’re doing something we don’t necessarily want to do,” Potee said. “He is truly amazing. He’s endlessly committed and is always able to expand on what we can accomplish for such a tiny school. You wouldn’t think Pioneer would have such a great a band, and it’s because of him that we do.”

One More Time !~sigh!

One More time and honestly its getting old.So lets spell it out to Bacon and Perry.. WE WANT YOU GONE. YOU ARE NOT NOW OR WILL YOU EVER BE PIONEER MATERIAL.

It has to sting badly when the majority of your staffers say they have no confidence in you after a year on the job.
Pioneer Valley Regional School’s faculty and support staff overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Principal Jean Bacon and Assistant Principal Jennifer Albert Perry as this school year ended.
For Bacon, 95 percent of faculty voted “no confidence” along with 96 percent of support staff. For Albert Perry, 84 percent voted “no confidence” along with 87 percent of support staff.
Pioneer Valley Regional Education Association representatives say they took the pulse of the Pioneer employees because of several complaints over the course of the year that included “general mismanagement and lack of communication,” layoffs that are said to have affected some veteran teachers and “a lack of real response and authentic action” after the faculty presented a survey outlining concerns about the school atmosphere.LISTEN THIS IS PRETTY CLEAR WHERE EVERYONE STANDS AND FOR YOU TO IGNORE THIS AND THINK YOUR GET TOGETHER WILL MAKE IT RIGHT .. AHH THINK AGAIN.}
Also, association leaders said, most educator evaluations conducted by Bacon and Albert Perry came back “extremely negative and resulting in a rating for many teachers as ‘Needs Improvement.’” Some such teachers, she explained, have been teaching anywhere from five to 20 years without receiving bad evaluations.NOW YOU TELL THE TRUTH BACON AND PERRY , MILLER TOLD YOU WHAT TO WRITE BECAUSE SHE WANTED THESE TEACHERS GONE BECAUSE THEY SPOKE UP AGAINST HER AND YOU TWO ARE NOTHING MORE THAN HER PUPPETS!THIS HAS HAPPENED IN HER PAST EMPLOYMENTS SAME MO.
This all comes as the district’s new superintendent, Ruth Miller, has announced she’s going to leave next June after her third year, saying, in essence, that she didn’t sign up to manage a district challenged by shrinking staff and enrollment in tough fiscal times.MILLER IF YOU LEFT SOONER PVRS WOULD NOT BE IN THE MESS ITS IN AND IF WE HAD A RESPONSIBLE SCHOOL COMMITTEE YOU WOULD OF NEVER STEPPED INTO THIS SCHOOL.YOU ALSO KNEW YOUR TIME LIMIT WITH ANY SCHOOL IS 3 YEARS BECAUSE THEY SEE  WHO YOU REALLY ARE.

“Though we may be required to work under changed conditions, we cannot currently express our confidence that the best interest of students or the integrity of our school is being served,” Ariel LaReau, president-elect of the association, recently told the school committee.FINALLY SOMEONE WITH SENSE , THANK YOU
Bacon was hired by Miller with the strong recommendation of a search committee of teachers, School Committee members, students, community members and Assistant Superintendent Gail Healy. She was chosen among 19 applicants. Bacon in turn had the final say in selecting Albert Perry.
The pair came in for both criticism and support at a recent meeting where the no-confidence poll was presented to the school board.
Karen O’Neil, a retired Pioneer science teacher and Leyden resident, told the committee that actions taken by administrators “have lacked protocol, transparency and inclusion of professional partners.”TRUTH
Parent Deborah Potee supported Bacon, saying “I understand change is hard,” in reference to recent layoffs. “I feel very strongly the principal wants what’s best for Pioneer.” Potee said she found Bacon to be open, authentic and up front about the budget’s limitations, while supportive of moving Pioneer forward academically. She asked that community members focus on moving the school forward.
This seems like the right course of action here. In Massachusetts, school boards don’t hire or fire or even evaluate principals and vice principals. So if the goal is to meet the district’s challenges and to improve the school, then it seems the best course of action is for faculty and staff to work with the administrators, to discuss their concerns and seek mutually acceptable solutions.DEBORAH !! YOUR TALKING NONSENSE AND  THIS IS ABOUT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS THESE 3 NEED TO GO PERIOD!!!!!!
The school committee, for its part, will be looking for a new superintendent for the Pioneer schools. It needs to find a new leader willing and able to tackle the substantial challenges the district faces, including discontent in the ranks.LETS HOP THIS TIME THEY ACTUALLY DO THEIR JOB
In response to the “no confidence” vote, Bacon professed to understand the faculty’s frustrations.
“I think it’s coming from the difficult year we’ve had, the fact that we’ve been facing these difficult layoffs, and I can totally empathize with faculty feeling frustrated,” she said.BACON YOU WERE WELCOMED AND YOU BLEW IT AND YOU NEED TO GO! HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO BE TOLD?
Hoping to move forward, Bacon said she reached out to next year’s faculty to put together what she calls a “transition team” to figure out what faculty need to feel more supported by administrators. Ten faculty members have joined the team. That’s good news and a positive sign that teachers and administrators want to fix the problems, and not just complain.YOU CAN CREATE ALL THE TEAMS YOU WANT IT WILL NOT CHANGE THAT YOU DON'T BELONG HERE OR PERRY. 
“I’m really very hopeful that we can put this difficult year behind us and move forward in a positive direction,” Bacon said. I CAN ASSURE YOU IT WILL NOT
We hope so, too.

THIS  BACON , PERRY AND MILLER CAN BANK ON, WE ARE WATCHING EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE AND WE WILL REPORT IT . YOUR A DISGRACE TO PIONEER AND WE WILL NO LONGER STAND FOR IT , WE ARE GONNA BE EVERYWHERE.  

 

To much coincidence ?????

Sometimes 2+2 does not add up especially in this case.  Young for one cannot be trusted. He is the one who always defends Miller ..
“I think this is unfortunate,” said School Committee member David Young of Warwick. “She’s doing a good job for us, I’ll be sorry to lose her.
”
Secondly, its Millers boyfriend  John Graziano who is wanting to open a Charter School 
John Graziano came forward this week to talk about his concept for a brand new K-8 school that he has been privately working on for the past several months.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
FYI Graziano was also asked to leave Templeton, complaints from Teachers and parents. Jan 2017

Just after this article Miller announces she is leaving ??? 

To much coincidence ?????

Stay tuned we will find out.

 

WARWICK — At the request of Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee member David Young, community members have been asked to consider making Warwick Community School a Horace Mann charter school.
Young said his “motivation is the revenue side of the equation,” believing the switch could put Warwick Community School on a more financially sustainable path.
At the start of the 2016-2017 school year, Warwick Community School had 57 students, of which 23 choiced into the district. Whereas the district receives about $5,000 per choice student, he explained, it would receive significantly more if Warwick Community School became a Horace Mann charter school, which is still a public school and would remain part of the district.
For example, according to data updated in May by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Athol-Royalston Regional School District pays $11,169 per charter school student, and the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District pays $13,798.

“It is, in every case I’ve looked at, more than twice what we get as a choice option,” Young said. “You can’t grow a school on $5,000 per student.”
Becoming a Horace Mann charter school According to the Department of Education’s website, in Massachusetts there are Commonwealth and Horace Mann charter schools. The two differ in the sense that a Horace Mann charter school must have its charter approved by the School Committee, and in some cases, the local teacher’s union, as well as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/new/2015-2016QandA.pdf

Existing schools that are converted to charter schools, as would be the case with Warwick Community School, are considered Horace Mann II charter schools, according to the website. Though the application process involves more information for a Horace Mann II charter school, a board decision on awarding a charter may occur four months after the application is submitted.
“I think, by virtue of its Level I standing, its handsome campus, its great staff, it has a very good chance of being granted a charter school,” Young said during June’s School Committee meeting, when he first announced his proposal.
According to the website, submission of a charter application also serves as an initial application for a federally-funded Charter Schools Program grant, when money is available, which would help support the school during its planning period and first two years of operation.
Changes in Warwick Money would continue to come from the school district, in accordance with an agreement the district would reach with the Horace Mann charter school, which Young said would also outline transporting lunch from Pioneer, as is done currently. The school could also apply for private grants and receive individual contributions, according to the website.
Young said the primary difference would be that, as a Horace Mann charter school, Warwick Community School would be governed by a five-member board of trustees.
Young stressed a relationship between the school and the Pioneer School Committee would continue, with Warwick children attending Pioneer once they reach seventh grade. Another possible change, he said, is teachers could be offered incentives based on performance.
Young said he sees becoming a Horace Mann charter school as a more financially sustainable path for Warwick Community School, and a more agreeable option than closing the school, consolidating and transporting children to other towns. In fact, he hopes it might be a way of growing attendance at a school that was built in 2000 to accommodate 150 students.
“This may not be the solution, but we have to start thinking about doing things differently,” Superintendent Ruth Miller said in support of the idea during June’s School Committee meeting. “We have to think about our kids, we have to think about our district’s kids, and right now, at Pioneer, I’m not sure we’re doing that.”
Next steps For now, Young and other members of the Pioneer community are continuing to study Horace Mann charter schools. With his proposal in the very early stages, Young believes the earliest Warwick Community School might be a Horace Mann charter school would be 2019.
“We’re nowhere at the point where we need to debate the merits of it,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge public process.”
Reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257