HUDSON – Hudson Superintendent Bryan Lane’s plan for a major overhaul the district’s elementary grades will come to fruition in September despite vocal opposition from parents and community members.

The Hudson School Board voted 3-1-1 Tuesday night to move forward with the administration’s elementary redistricting plan. Supporting the drastic change for grades pre-K through 5 were Vice Chairman Lee Lavoie, Patty Langlais and Mike Truesdell. Casting the only dissenting vote was Chairwoman Laura Bisson.

Amy Sousa was absent from the meeting, as she ran the Boston Marathon on Monday and was at mile marker 20 when the explosions happened. Lane said she is OK.

Lane cited stagnant and some worsening scores over the past five years as the reason for complete revamping of the district’s elementary grades. The district hosted two Q-and-A sessions where the overall sentiment from parents and the community was strong opposition to the plan, moving some to tears. Several parents spoke Tuesday night against redistricting after the School Board voted, one again choking back tears as she told the board how hard it was going to be to break the news to her 8- and 4-year-old.

“What I need to hear from the three of you after hearing everything … is do you feel that this plan is the best plan right now for the school district? I took emotion out of this,” Langlais said to Lane, Director of Special Services Jeanne Saunders and Assistant Superintendent Phyllis Schlitcher before the vote. “I know people want a guarantee but you’re never going to get that.”

Lane explained the district was ready for the change academically, but he was worried about the emotional aspect of the major restructuring of the elementary grades.

“Are we ready for it as a community? … The emotional pieces that exists, will that create more of a problem that educational change can resolve?” Lane asked. “No one wants bad things for their children, that’s for sure.
Children are resilient, children do great things, but change does create anxiety.”

“I fully think this proposal is great,” Bisson said, wondering if more time was needed. “But if we don’t have the community support, that puts our staff members out there, it makes them sitting ducks.”

The standardized test scores have remained virtually the same over the last five years, with no improvement in sight. The district’s special education students struggled with all parts of the tests and the areas of language arts and math have proven difficult for the rest of the elementary population. Lane said if the district’s scores don’t improve in three years, the School Board should fire him because he hasn’t done his job.

The redistricting plan will create an early education center at Dr. H.O. Smith and Library Street schools, which Lane views as one campus. Library Street would house the preschool program and all kindergartners. All of Hudson’s first-graders, who are currently split between three buildings, would attend H.O Smith. Grades 2-5 would be split between Nottingham West and Hills Garrison schools based on which side of Ferry Street they live.

District administration has posited with the major shakeup, the early education center would allow for better identification of students with learning disabilities or those who are challenged academically. If these students can be found and helped earlier on, the better the chances are for success later in their schooling, Lane said. It would also help even out class sizes, which are currently lopsided at district elementary schools.

Saunders said she believes the redistricting plan would be “phenomenal” for her department because her special education teachers and resources are stretched too thin. She said some of her teachers came up to her and said they were excited they would only have to cover one or two grade levels next year if the plan was implemented.

Lane said there are some logistical things to figure out. The reconfiguration would affect roughly 100 families, he said. Off setting the start time of the early education center, which would accommodate changes to the bus schedules, is one issue needing to be resolved. The superintendent added the Library Street area traffic pattern here would have to change drastically.

Erin Place can be reached at 594-6589 or eplace@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Place on Twitter (@Telegraph_ ErinP).

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