School Committee Member Urges Voters: Check Your Facts

In reviewing recent articles posted to patch.com, I found reference to several items included as “facts” which do not match the facts as presented at public meetings. To double-check, I went to the source of the most accurate information about our public preschool, Elizabeth Billings-Fouhy, Supervisor of Early Childhood Special Education. Ms. Billings-Fouhy oversees all services for children aged 2.9 years to 5 in Lexington.
To be clear, under state law, Lexington Public Schools provides some services for children in this age group on an hourly or consulting basis as individual children visit with specialists, and some services are provided when a child attends our public preschool "Lexington Children's Place (LCP)" for regular programming.

Program overview from Ms. Billings-Fouhy: “Lexington Children’s Place is a State mandated program. Our program serves children age 3-5 with and without special needs. It started 25 years ago with 15 children, 7 with special needs, 8 without. In addition to preschool programming we are the evaluation team for ALL preschoolers who may have special needs. Our program grows as children move to town with Individual Education Plans (“IEPs”), or get identified with special needs during the school year. Our program also grows as Lexington children who are part of the state Early Intervention program reach 3 years old. We provide school programming for children who need it as well as discrete Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech and Language services and classroom consultation to children who attend area preschools.”
“While previously published articles have minimized the need for this building based on the number of children served, over 1200 children and their families have been served by LCP in the past 25 years. We have provided support and guidance to more than one thousand families at a very challenging juncture in their lives. LCP is the entry point for our youngest and most vulnerable students.”

The Lexington Children’s Place preschool has moved in part or in entirety 14 times in 25 years, most recently to occupy space in both the new and old Harrington buildings. Old Harrington was decommissioned as a school in 2005 and the preschool cannot use any more space in the building without triggering the need for a full renovation of the building to bring it up to code.

Current Facility Deficiencies

Mark Andersen’s recent article urging people to vote “NO” on the preschool project claims: “These students are currently served at the Harrington site, and no material programmatic deficiencies have been identified which cannot be addressed at the existing site.”

In fact:

• There is inadequate space to accommodate all students under one roof which is how the program was intended when new Harrington Elementary was designed to include the preschool.
• The preschool services are now provided at both Harrington and the Central Office, and soon there will be inadequate space to accommodate all students across both sites, necessitating out of district placements.
• The Central Office was decommissioned as a school. When the administration and School Committee proposed having temporary housing for part of the preschool at the Central Office, we received special permission to use a limited number of square feet in the building. The existing building does not have fire sprinklers, and is not compliant with today's accessibility requirements.
• At the Central Office site:
  • There is lead paint under latex paint on all the windows and asbestos under the carpeting and in the ceiling.
  • Staff do not let the children drink the tap water.
  • The heaters and window air conditioners are noisy and need to be turned off to provide required. services because staff are not able to hear the children when they are in speech therapy.
  • Bathrooms are located outside classrooms, which means staff time is required for toileting.
  • There are no sprinklers which is a safety concern with children who are not yet independent.

A video tour is available so you can see the facilities for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLON1bnp-c&feature=youtu.be

Curing the problems at the Central Office - bringing it up to today's standards for a school - requires upgrading the entire facility, which the School Committee (and Selectmen, and finance committees) agreed was not a worthwhile long-term investment for the town. Instead, when the Pelham property became available, we reviewed whether it could be part of a solution for our ongoing master planning. We reviewed it for a full-scale elementary school, as well as a preschool. We learned the site would not support a full-scale school with fields, and that it could not support the 30 classroom size school we are able to build on the Hastings parcel. Renovating the existing building did not prove economically wise. A rebuild for the preschool was the wisest option for the town's long-term investment and a major capital resource. Several designs were considered, and the recommended option allows space on site for community center expansion, as well as expansion of the preschool in case a future School Committee finds that is necessary.

Tuition facts at Lexington Children's Place

• General Education students pay tuition to attend Lexington Children’s Place.
• Students with Individual Education Plans "IEPs" attend for free as mandated under State law requiring that we provide free and appropriate public education for students with identified special needs.
• To provide services for students with special education needs, they must be educated with students who are considered “general education” or “neurotypically developing”. Thus, we have an inclusive preschool program, with 48% special needs and 51% general education students.
• Fees for general education students range between $325 - $940/month, depending upon the services for which a child is enrolled. The tuition is $325.00/month for 4 day a.m. or p.m. slot (10 hr/wk), $130.00/month for lunch; $486.00/month for a 5 day a.m. slot (15hr/wk). Families can combine “slots” for a longer day.
• Because our preschool program is run by the Lexington Public Schools, general education children can qualify for financial aid if they qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Student Enrollment, Scheduling, and “Slots”:

Mr. Andersen bases part of his argument against the preschool on his notion of calculating space and use in the LCP program. He writes: “Although the 28 students today take 45 slots, a program with 187 slots will be created at that site, far larger than the state mandate [for] the preschool.”

There are multiple problems with this statement. In fact, the inclusion of general education students is also state-mandated. In addition, it is not useful to scrutinize the student population in the fall, as the program grows through the year for several reasons, including that children reach the age of 3 on a rolling basis.

Further, it is misleading to imply that the preschool is not judicious in the use of current capacity, and it is inaccurate to say that there is not a need for added capacity.

Ms. Billings-Fouhy details the nuts and bolts of how she manages the program to ensure she can keep a maximum number of students in Lexington (avoiding costly out-of-district placements).

Ms. Billings-Fouhy: “Our program starts each year with a smaller number of special needs students and this number grows as the year goes on. The general education students remain constant throughout the year. Looking at November data does not tell the true story because our numbers will look very different in June. At the end of last school year we served 88 children in our school program and 26 children received discrete services. We graduated 45 children with IEPs into Kindergarten programming at all of Lexington’s Elementary Schools.

In managing enrollment, we use the term “slots.” To clarify, we do this because unlike full day elementary school enrollment numbers, preschoolers do not necessarily fill a seat in a school all day. Many come for just the morning, others the afternoon. Some students attend all day. One year we had 85 children using 129 slots and the following year we had 88 children filling 139 slots. We are being transparent; this is how we schedule to meet the mandated needs of each child and their families. At the end of last year we filled 139 out of 143 available slots and the remaining 4 slots were all in the afternoon and across the two campuses which did not allow them to be combined for children who need a longer day.”

Planning

Ms. Billings-Fouhy: “There have been over 100 meetings over the past 3 ½ years to plan for the preschool and for elementary capital projects. A plethora of various plans and options have been vetted and deliberated over in countless meetings with elected and appointed town officials including but not limited to:

• Board of Selectmen
• Appropriations Committee
• Capital Expenditures
• Permanent Building Committee
• School Committee

Options that were explored include:

• Siting the preschool on Worthen Street
• Siting the preschool on the existing Harrington/Central Office campus
• Siting the preschool on Laconia
• Siting the preschool within a new Maria Hastings Elementary School facility
• Leasing space from Minuteman Tech
• Creating a combined new wing at new Harrington
• Renovating a larger portion of the Central Office building
• Renovating Pelham
• Building new at Pelham

In evaluating all options, the plan that is now before voters was considered the most cost effective way to meet program needs, add capacity, and address outdated facilities.

At the Special Town Meeting this fall, 144 Town Meeting Members voted for this project, 5 voted against, and 9 abstained. The Board of Selectmen and School Committee are unanimously in support.”
And, further, Ms. Billings-Fouhy adds: “We provide an invaluable and mandated service. Citizens of the Town of Lexington need to determine, “How much is the preschool worth?” Elected and appointed Town officials have already done so and overwhelmingly support the plan being proposed, now it is time for the electorate to decide. Just please make your decision knowing the correct facts.”

Please make sure to review the facts and learn about the preschool before Monday’s vote. And please do reach out if you have further questions. If I am not able to answer them, I will try to find someone who can help.