As part of the eight-year effort to address enrollment growth and the overcrowding of school facilities, Superintendent Bott presented a summary of Facility Needs to the School Committee on October 10th. Superintendent Bott’s presentation used the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s standards to assess whether or not our schools’ classrooms, science labs, gyms, cafeterias, art and music classrooms, and other learning spaces are appropriately sized. The presentation outlined the classrooms, core spaces, and offices that are undersized in each elementary school. It also documented the space deficit for more than a dozen types of learning and operations spaces in each school.

Some of the key points made during the presentation include:

• Every K-8 elementary school has undersized classrooms
• Significantly more small learning spaces for special education, math specialists, literacy specialists, and English language learner classes are needed
• The majority of schools need larger cafeterias in order to schedule 3 lunches and avoid starting lunch periods before 10:30 a.m.
• School kitchens are too small to serve the increased number of students efficiently
• Space for music and additional art spaces needed
• Additional space for guidance and school administration needed
• Additional space for physical education needed in all schools

Please click here to view the presentation.