In July, the School Committee appointed a Brick School Task Force to examine a number of issues related to the continued operation of that facility. The School Committee will take the information provided by the Task Force into consideration when setting the budget for the next fiscal year (FY09 which runs from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009).
As part of its work, the Task Force was asked to attempt to reconcile the differences expressed in statements for keeping the facility open versus closing it, and to make recommendations to the School Committee. Accordingly, the Task Force was charged with addressing the following issues and is expected to issue a written report on or before Tuesday, December 18, 2007:
- Determine of the Brick School is, in fact, the oldest continuously operating one room brick school in America? How was that determined? There is a school house in NH that claims to be 12 years older than the Red Brick School (See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5316645&ft=1&f=517860)
- What are the administrative issues related to a standalone classroom (i.e. library time, specials, nurse, etc.).
- Address equity and accessibility issues related to continued operation of this facility.
- Address safety issues related to the building
- Address finances and report on how the building may be funded in the future (i.e. public and/or private grants, private donations). Identify sources of funding and the likelihood of availability in years to come.
- Address other potential uses for building instead of as a classroom (i.e., museum, gathering spot, etc.). In addition, explore whether, as opposed to just taking students from the Davis Thayer population, we opened the enrollment to anyone in town through a lottery.
