Absolutely not. We fully support the rebuilding of the Winter Hill school ASAP. The city is funding roughly half of the new building with MSBA dollars, which has a very strict process and timeline to follow. The city has diligently followed that process to date and we have full expectations that it will continue to do so. The current stage of planning with the MSBA is called the Feasibility Study, which requires the city to be exploring a number of options in parallel paths. While the 925 enrollment option is the city's preferred option, they have been simultaneously building out plans for the 690 enrollment, in a number of iterations. It a major requirement of the MSBA feasibility study. - MSBA Feasibility Study
See Section 3.1.6 - " To ensure that the Feasibility Study determines the most cost effective and educationally appropriate solution that can be supported by the community and the MSBA Board of Directors, it is imperative that the preliminary evaluation of alternatives is sufficiently comprehensive in scope to initially consider all possible solutions. Each alternative should satisfy significant components of the Educational Program, Standards, Policies and Guidelines of the MSBA to the extent feasible, unless specifically authorized in writing by the MSBA."
You can see what has been presented to the School Building Committee at the March 2nd meeting here. It lays out in great detail a number of iterations of 690 and 925 enrollment options. All of these plans are fully developed at this stage in the planning.
Great question! One that the city and school committee are responsible for answering but have yet to do in any level of detail. Under the smaller school model of 690 seat capacity building, there's still the possibility in the future to absorb the 225 seats from the current Brown School, including through grades 6-8. But choosing the smaller enrollment size means the school committee can provide the answers needed to assess city-wide impacts of closing a school prior to that decision being made as part of the MSBA submission (they need to answer questions about enrollment needs on the west side of the City, reassignment of all catchment areas districtwide, transportation needs for the dead zone created in wards 5/6, proposed reuse of the facility for community benefit, cost savings in closing the building). Retirement
of Facilities - Closing Study excerpt from SPS Policy Manual
That's okay! Asking the city to build the 690 seat enrollment size gives the public the possibility to have meaningful engagement with the school committee about the future of the Brown, including addressing concerns about ADA accessibility and equity as well as how to finance any improvements. It also gives the public the possibility to ask questions of the school committee of the impacts of closing the Brown School. All important discussions that we want to have! The problem with the city's current proposed plan of building a 925 seat school is it forces the eventual closure of the Brown School as a condition of accepting the maximum funding offered through the MSBA process, with no chance to engage meaningfully as a public and get answer to all of these unanswered questions.