Back to SCHOOL; So Much is New: Schools Open Their Doors Tuesday

The Patriot Ledger

One fewer elementary school, fewer school buses and a lot of new faces in the classrooms.

Those are some of the changes Randolph students and their teachers will find when school opens Tuesday.

The Devine School building no longer houses an elementary school; it has been converted into a kindergarten and early childhood center. Students who had attended Devine will go across town to Kennedy Elementary School.

Tower Hill School, which housed kindergarten and early childhood classes, has been closed.

Students in grades 1-12 who live less than two miles from school won’t qualify for school bus transportation. For those living more than two miles from school, elementary students will receive free transportation while those in grades 7-12 must pay $360 a year to ride.

Superintendent of Schools Richard Silverman, who started work July 1, said the school committee plans to seek money at a special town meeting in the fall to restore some of the school bus cuts.

“We’re very concerned about student safety,” Silverman said. “It will be a greater concern as winter weather sets in.”

The number of school crossing guards posted at busy intersections also has been cut.

The school budget of $29.17 million is essentially the same as the budget for the 2004-05 school year, but like other town departments, the schools must also absorb the cost of employee pay raises and increased expenses.

One option that was ruled out by school officials was fees for school athletic and extracurricular activities. The fees, which had been implemented in the 2003-04 school year, decreased student participation and failed to raise the projected revenues, school officials said.

Silverman said the system has tried to make cuts as far from the classroom as possible.

“You can’t make the kind of reduction Randolph has made without affecting education in the classroom,” the superintendent said. “Everyone is working hard to make modifications to accommodate the budget without hurting students.”

While the ranks of the system’s professional staff have been reduced by about a dozen jobs, more than 50 new teachers and guidance counselors will be in the schools this fall, slightly more than one-sixth of the staff. The new staff are filling openings created by retirements or teachers moving to other school systems.

The system will welcome the staff on Monday with a celebration Silverman said is geared toward creating a sense of community and common purpose.

Nearing the end of his second month on the job, Silverman is still getting to know the town and the system and isn’t planning any major changes in the short term.

“I don’t have a full picture of the strengths and the weaknesses of the school system,” Silverman said.