Education

After the vote in 2014, an Educational Task Force concluded that Swampscott should educate all students in the same grade together. This approach would promote equity and inclusion for all and be more efficient for educators. Following the recommendations of a Community Idea Exchange (2019) and Community Forum (2020) to create a Project Charter and in-depth Educational Visioning workshops and Faculty discussions, the new facility should contain grade level learning neighborhoods with flexible learning areas, right-sized classrooms and integrated special education and student support areas - along with dedicated art, music, physical education and STEM spaces.

Creating a lower school for grades K-2 and an Upper School for grades 3-4 in one building allows children to be educated in smaller environments. Each school will have its own entrance, administration and designated neighborhood. The new K-2 school will have more K and 1 classrooms than we now have across the District and will allow for smaller class sizes for our youngest learners. Combining all of our elementary resources will allow teachers to collaborate, create and educate ways they aren’t able to do today because they are isolated in multiple buildings and working within deficient spaces.

We will finally have a designated gym, and a cafeteria with the ability to provide hot food. Our art rooms will have natural light, storage space and work areas and sinks, and kiln rooms – all things we currently do not have in any of our elementary schools. We will have a STEM workshop. All our support services will be integrated among our general education classrooms. Again, these are things we do not currently have. We will also finally house all our specialized learning programs in one building with complete handicap accessibility and access to purposely designed occupational and physical therapy rooms. Our school nurses will finally have multiple exam, testing and isolation areas. Our staff will have private meeting and conference spaces. We will be able to store science supplies, books and other materials in storage closets rather than hallways, as we do now. Our music teachers will have designated classrooms with band and chorus spaces. We will have two sinks in every classroom, bathrooms in all kindergarten classrooms and we will finally have adequate bathrooms around the building for staff and students. Most importantly, all of our elementary students and teachers will be together in safe, healthy and educationally appropriate spaces

Fifth graders will continue to be educated in the middle school where they are currently thriving. The future plan is for Pre-K and our District administration to move into Clarke School. This will allow the middle school to expand its spaces and programming.

The school is being designed for an enrollment of 900, about 125 more than our current enrollment. This extra space is something for which we fought, and now we are especially happy to have this extra space as lessons from Covid-19 Pandemic have shown us, the space along with the healthy air is essential.