The Middle School

By Jonathan Lundell

Build a new middle school at Cunha.

The Master Plan told us that middle school enrollment would grow to 1,137 by 2001 and to 1,369 by 2010.

Instead, enrollment dropped to 866 in 2001, and state projections suggest a further drop to 815 by 2010.

While nobody expects projections to be perfect, the Master Plan has major flaws, and we shouldn't be blindly following it. The Master Plan promised us annual public hearings to review the progress of the plan and to correct its mistakes. Six years later, where are the hearings?

Careful review has convinced me that our new middle school should be built at the Cunha site, integrating, if possible, the best of the existing structure.

The Master Plan says that we'll eventually need a second middle school. If we outgrow Cunha, we should consider building that second middle school in the northern part of the district, for better community access.

The Master Plan proposes to sell off six acres of the Cunha site and to use the remainder for a new elementary school. But a giant Cunha/Hatch elementary complex flies in the face of our policy of having elementary schools distributed in neighborhoods across the district. If we need more elementary school space, either convert Hatch to a pair of K-2 and 3-5 sub-schools, moving the administrative facility elsewhere, or build a new elementary school in another neighborhood--for example, Moonridge.