Tisbury School plans change again

K-4 students are being housed in 1993 wing of school until portable classrooms are in place.

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The town has set a special town meeting for Oct. 15 to deal with issues surrounding lead at Tisbury School. — Gabrielle Mannino

In a letter sent to parents and staff Monday, Martha’s Vineyard Superintendent Matt D’Andrea says the school district is moving away from using Camp Jabberwocky to house students in grades K-4 and instead the town is looking to keep students isolated to a newer section of the school where lead paint was never used.

“After consultation with town and state officials, we have decided that there is a better option. We greatly appreciate Camp Jabberwocky’s willingness to help out,” D’Andrea wrote. “The newer section of the Tisbury School was constructed in 1993, thus no lead was used. We are able to isolate this section of the school, with the help of certified professionals, and will ensure that children will not be in areas that have lead paint.”

In his letter to parents and staff, D’Andrea wrote that the town is looking to procure portable classrooms, as well. “We are expeditiously working to construct these classrooms on the current site,” he wrote. “Any lead remediation will NOT begin until all grades are safely housed in the modular classrooms.”

The school will use the Emergency Services Building across the street for a cafeteria, he wrote.

“While we have known lead paint existed in the building for many years, deterioration of the building, including paint chipping, has increased at a faster rate than in prior years, even in areas that were previously remediated,” D’Andrea’s wrote. “We were advised by the Department of Public Health to clean all chipping paint, regardless of whether it contains lead.”

Meanwhile, Tisbury selectmen and the Tisbury School Committee are scheduled to meet at 6 pm at the Emergency Services Facility. The MVRHS school committee has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday at 5 pm in the high school’s library conference room to talk about housing students in grades 5-8 from Tisbury at the high school.

In his letter, D’Andrea clarified where students will be located at the high school. “Classrooms will be grouped together and isolated from the rest of the school as much as possible. Students will have a designated set of bathrooms and will eat lunch in the Culinary Arts Dining Room,” he wrote. “Students will use the entrance near the Culinary Arts Dining Room to access their classrooms and will operate on a different time schedule, All students will be accompanied by an adult while in the High School.”

Assistant Principal Melissa Ogden will be stationed at the high school, along with a secretary and a nurse, he wrote.

D’Andrea also outlined other key information:

  • School start date: School will start on Sept. 9. For families who need help with childcare from September 3-6, the district has arranged care for k-5 grade at the YMCA from 8 am. To 3 pm. Parents will need to provide their own transportation. Please contact Nina Lombardi at 508-696-7171 to arrange.
  • Transportation: Transportation will be provided for all students to and from school. Buses for students to the high school will only include students from the Tisbury School. A final schedule will be completed no later than Sept. 4. 
  •  Kindergarten: Half day kindergarten will take place for two weeks, as planned. Due to the delay, the half-day schedule will go from Monday, Sept. 9, through Friday, Sept. 20.
  • Orientation: There will be separate orientations for both k-4 and 5-8, Detailed information will be sent to parents in the coming days.
  •  How will the delayed start impact the school calendar? “We will need to make up four days for school due to the delay. Once we have that schedule in place we will share it with families.
  • Will my students have specials and access to band and strings? Yes.
  • Will my Student’s IEP need to be adjusted? No changes changes are anticipated. All IEP requirements will be met. If you are concerned about you child’s special needs or you think your child will need special accommodations, please contact Nancy Dugan at 508-693-2007 ext. 20. 
  • For special health needs/concerns? Contact Catherine Coogan at 508-696-6500. 

8 COMMENTS

  1. Moving some of the students to the 200 wing of the high school displaces all of the Math and Language teachers, and forces them to travel, causing a domino effect, where other teachers are now forced to travel, in short: CHAOS. This patch, until modular classrooms are available, will last several months, if not the entire year. D’Andrea should be suspended without pay for this lack of forsight and mismanagement. Not only will this impact the Tisbury students, but disrupt the classes for MVRHS. Bad move all around. Shame on you Superintendent of schools Dr. Matthew D’Andrea.

    • I am deducing from your comment that you are well versed about the inner workings of the high school. How about picking up the phone and calling the superintendent with a well thought out less impactful plan that keeps kids in classrooms. This is not an ideal situation for anyone, but it is a solution. Let’s hear your better solution soon that takes care of kids and teachers. I would love to read more solution oriented commentary.

      • The solution is regionalization. Keep kids with their peers, consolidate resources and maximize the spaces we have. A jr/sr high school and 3-4 elementary schools.

  2. I agree, D’Andrea should be suspended for his lack of oversight. It’s his job to be a leader, not play victim to the ‘process’, the ‘town’, and the ‘voters’. The school was unsafe last year when he attended the public tour promoting the new school vote, he knew it, and he ignored it as a leader. Shame, shame.

  3. I am having a hard time understanding why people are trying to blame the superintendent for this issue.
    The problem is the Town of Tisbury didn’t have the courage to face the responsibilities they owe to the children of their town and deal with their school building. The first time I walked into the gym when me son was playing basketball for the Edgartown team in 2004 it took me 2 minutes to determine the building need to be replaced. Tisbury went through a one year process of forming a committee to determine the buildings needs, hiring an architect and securing millions of dollars in state funding to have their selectmen lose their courage and walk away from the project. Leadership sees a need and acts, how could you allow one of your selectmen to abstain from voting is beyond me. This problem can’t be laid at the superintendents feet it was the Town of Tisbury’s voters and the lack of leadership that have caused the current crisis.

  4. In response to Huh… I would suggest keeping the upper students (6-8), within a similar educational environment, to be bused to OB, EDG, or West Tis. In that way, no impact on high school, and Tisbury students stay within their peer groups. I pay attention to school matters, as they are the foundation of any good community. To me, when the education of students’ are disrupted, and could have been avoided,if it is about education on the island, it is the responsibility of the #1 within the district, that is D’Andrea. He needs to be more proactive, and less reactive. I would also suggest, that this is the time to talk regionalization, build a new 6-8 school near the existing high school, with a new admin office, save money, build school spirit, and move the island schools into the 21st century. I just feel let down by the continued lack of vision from D’Andrea.

  5. I agree with keeping the younger kids with their peers! Putting them in the MVRHS is a HORRIBLE idea all around! I don’t see one positive thing about it OTHER THAN it’s located close to VH. I want to make VERY CLEAR IN MY COMMENT I DO NOT BLAME OR HAVE ANY BAD FEELINGS towards the younger students of course but closing off part of the school for them in a school that is already VERY small for the students is only going to cause more issues. Kids are given such a short amount of time to get to class and if I am being correctly informed, they’re blocking off a HUGE part of the MVRHS forcing the High School kids to go around, and of course taking more time! They lock several of the bathrooms through out the day due to kids allegedly using vapes in the bathrooms. So how is this going to be affected?
    I can’t help but feel if something was wrong with MVRHS parents of Younger children wouldn’t be comfortable with allowing the high school aged kids to enter the middle schools. Am I wrong? I can’t help
    But wonder if they would want to allow them
    To be mixed together? Am I wrong? My sons a Junior at MVRHS and I’m not crazy about younger kids being at the High school. If my child was on grades 5-7 I definitely wouldn’t want them mixed with High School aged children. I am all for finding a solution but let’s be realistic? How long is this going to last? I think ALL THE IDIOTS who voted down building the new Tisbury School should have to help in solving this problem. Since they played a big part in it! I’m also all for helping where we can but I just don’t feel this is the solution, it’s a VERY BAD IDEA and mark my words SOMETHING will happen and then they’ll be hell to pay. I don’t see why we don’t divide the kids up my grade and alphabetical order and lace them in the middle schools in all the other towns, Edgartown, Oak bluffs, West Tisbury and Charter School. Was that even considered?

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