Monday night, Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald shared a plan to renovate rooms at the Phillips School to move pre-school classes to free up spaces at an elementary school to relieve the enrollment pressures at all three elementary schools. The shuffling of plans is a complicated one, Fitzgerald explained at the School Committee Building and Grounds Subcommittee meeting. It begins with the Early Steps Preschool program from Hosmer School to the Phillips Building. Three classes will go into a renovated maintenance area on the first floor
one class will go into a room used as a conference room by the Watertown Public Schools
a full-day preschool class and a Connections class (which includes mainstream and special needs students) will use two classrooms that had been used by the Growing Places preschool before it moved out
The rooms at Hosmer that had been used for the preschool will house four classes, including some from other schools:
a Lowell Pre-K class,
a Cunniff Pre-K class
a Cunniff kindergarten
a Hosmer English Language Learner (ELL) class
one extra room at Hosmer will remain and could take another room if enrollment keeps growing
Meanwhile, the spaces freed up at the elementary schools will allow for additional classes. the Lowell Pre-K room will become a new first grade classroom
the Cunniff Pre-K room will become a special education classroom
the Cunniff kindergarten room will become a new third grade classroom
the Hosmer ELL room will become a new fourth grade classroom
Fitzgerald said she would rather spend money on property the district owned, rather than renting space or modular classrooms. She added that she expects the Phillips School – which has two more floors – to become a school down the line as the district grows.
