NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The public schools are holding a forum on the closing of Greylock School and the resulting grade configuration for Brayton and Colegrove Park elementary schools. 

 

The forum will be held in person on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Brayton Welcome Center and via Zoom link here. Parents and guardians are encouraged to ask questions and provide feedback.

 

School officials are considering an accelerated consolidation of two of the three elementary schools. The School Committee last fall had approved a grade configuration of a prekindergarten through Grade 2 early education program, a Grades 3-6 upper elementary program and a Grades 7-12 middle and high school level. 

 

That decision had been based on the eventual closure of Brayton Elementary after a proposed new $60 million Greylock School is built. However, the failing infrastructure at Greylock and a $2.4 million school budget deficit has officials recommending closing Greylock at the end of this school year. 

 

School officials say a number of factors are being considered in accelerating the closing — declining enrollment, the building's physical condition and, not least of all, a looming $2.4 million budget deficit. Closing Greylock is estimated to save around $1.2 million. 

 

Brayton, built for 550 students now has only 213; Greylock has 315. The enrollment at each school is expected to be 397 at Brayton (assuming a full prekindergarten) and 372 at Colegrove Park, which has a capacity for 420.

 

The consolidation is not expected to increase classroom sizes as the state average is 24 students and the largest for North Adams is about 20. But the reorganization is expected to result in the elimination of about 22 positions, although the administration is recommending adding a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) specialist for each school.

 

Officials say the pros for closing Greylock now and setting up early education at Brayton and Grades 3-6 at Colegrove Park Elementary would allow for consolidating special education and programming at the grade appropriate schools, creating a familiar cohort for students as they transition through the school system and opening up opportunities for enhanced programming within each school. It would also remove children from an expected construction site.