SPRINGFIELD — The School Department is hoping to complete final plans in April to transfer eight of its schools from being operated by a collaborative known as the Empowerment Zone back into the control of the school district.
In November, local and state officials agreed that Duggan Academy, Van Sickle Academy, Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, Discovery Poly Tech and four schools within the High School of Commerce that include Aspire Academy, Emergence Academy and Springfield Honors Academy, have reached achievement goals and are ready to return to the control of the Springfield district.
Now administrators and teachers of the eight schools are each creating plans that will allow each to continue with some of the autonomy and flexibility they currently have while also fitting into the school department’s curriculum, priorities and goals. The process followed is similar to the one used to create the Springfield Renaissance School a number of years ago, said Michael Calvanese, former Duggan principal who is leading a team of educators working on the transition.
“We look forward to trailblazers and leaders around innovation schools because we know it is the right thing for the students and staff of the eight schools that are coming back to us from the Springfield Empowerment Zone,” Superintendent Sonia Dinnall said, adding this is the first time anyone in the state has faced this.
The Empowerment Zone, which joins Springfield Public Schools, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Springfield Education Association and some business partners to oversee the schools was created more than a decade ago as a compromise and an experiment to address many of the city’s failing middle schools.
At least six others, including East Forest Middle, Rise Preparatory Academy and John F. Kennedy Middle, will remain in the Empowerment Zone.
The first step to move from under the zone was to create an initial committee which wrote a prospectus that schools were to follow going forward. Now each school is individually working to create their own plans for each school under that framework, Calvanese said.
The process is arduous calling for multiple public meetings. Once they are completed, at least two-thirds of the teachers must vote in favor for the plan to be adopted.
The first to do so was the staff at Discovery Poly Tech, which adopted the plan with 100% of teachers saying yes, he told the School Committee last week.
At least two others had scheduled votes just before the winter vacation break and others are close and expected to have plans ready soon after they return to school.
Calvanese said he is hoping all the plans will be completed in early March so they can go to the School Committee for final approvals. The School Committee will first have to schedule meetings to receive public comment and review the plans before they decide if they should be approved or changed.
While he said they can all be completed in one meeting, Calvanese said the committee can also take the plans up at separate meetings depending on when the schools are ready.
“The timeline is flexible,” he said. “We would like to have it completed on April 9. Part of the reason we want it done is so teachers could know what their year will look like next year.”
