WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Elementary School is gearing up for an enrollment spike as it enters the 2021-22 academic year.

 

"I feel like our enrollment is exploding a little bit," Principal Cindy Sheehy told the Mount Greylock School Committee last week. "In Grades 1 through 6, I've had 35 new students, who have enrolled since the end of the school year. In kindergarten, I've had 53 students enroll.

 

"From last year until this moment, I've had 88 students who have been registering. I use the word 'new' loosely. We have some students who left us last year for myriad reasons. Some of them are returning. But we also have a tremendous amount of new families who are joining us in town."

 

The school had up to 59 kindergarten pupils as recently as 2018-19 academic year. But a year later, that number was 38, and last year it stood at 36.

 

Sheehy said she and Superintendent Jason McCandless are monitoring the enrollment figures to see whether the elementary school will need to add another kindergarten section for September. Currently, the school is planning for two 18-pupil sections and one 17-pupil section, which is higher than the normal at WES.

 

McCandless implied he does not think the school is at a tipping point where it needs to add another section right now.

 

"Certainly, the smaller the better is a pathway to go that is, in some ways, hard to argue with," McCandless said. "I think many school districts would look at fewer than 20 kindergartners and be thrilled with that.

 

"Personally, I am not thrilled by the notion of 17 or 18, but I'm also not the teacher going in to teach those 18 5-year-olds every day or the paraprofessional helping out. I would say we're probably a week away from wanting to make a final decision."

 

And McCandless said the school may have more families enrolling for the fall as a 41-unit affordable housing complex comes online at 330 Cole Ave.

 

"We know we have some new housing opportunities that are wonderfully opening up on Cole Avenue," he said. "We know we have Realtors still showing houses and people who thought they might be moving away from Williamstown for various reasons who are looking hard to find new living situations and will keep their kids in our schools.

 

"We're probably about a week away … When we get into that third week of August, we really have to fish or cut away our bait. I'm pretty confident of our ability to find high quality staff to work with our children, even at that late date, at both of our elementary schools."

 

All three of the district's principals reported that the enhanced summer programs put in place to help address learning gaps from the pandemic were successful.

 

"The opportunities we had were both warranted and welcome," Mount Greylock Principal Jake Schutz said. "We ran, in addition to our special ed programming that we typically run, programming for five weeks from July to Aug. 6. It had two components. The first component was credit-bearing costs. The second component was enrichment and remedial classes.

 

"I was very impressed with the dedication and work ethic of our students during our summer programming. They definitely set themselves up for academic success in the coming school year."

 

Schutz said 20 students took courses for credit over the summer. More than 40 students, including some members of the incoming seventh-grade class, took advantage of the enrichment and remedial classes.

 

One of the major topics at last Thursday's School Committee meeting was the district's plan for safely reopening in September in light of the continuing pandemic.

 

The panel also tackled topics ranging from the ongoing issue of whether and how to improve the athletic fields at the middle-high school to a title change for the district's special education director to more accurately reflect the focus of the position.

 

Committee member Jose Constantine also passed along concerns he heard from a constituent about a long-standing safety concern at Mount Greylock: the danger of entering and exiting the campus from Route 7.

 

"It's a scary intersection," Schutz agreed. "I've had conversations with the former [Williamstown] police chief, the current interim police chief. We have gone to DOT to advocate for something. Based off what we were told, they said [flashing yellow lights] is all they can do because of the specs they look at. Per their specs, it fits the bill, and there is nothing more they can do."

 

Schutz said Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials indicated that if there were more accidents at the site, the traffic guidelines would warrant additional controls.

 

McCandless said the administration would be happy to reach out to state officials again and that he would contact his colleagues in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District about their experience trying to get MassDOT to address a similar issue at the entrance to the Monument Mountain Regional High School campus on Route 7 in Great Barrington.