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11/20/2017 11:00 PMSuperintendent of School Maryann O’Donnell has confirmed that rumors the Board of Education plans to close the Abraham Pierson School are false.
“Pierson is not going to close. It’s not on the radar,” O’Donnell said. “There’s nothing on the table now.”
There are currently four schools in Clinton: Lewin G. Joel Jr. School for Pre-K to Grade 3; Abraham Pierson School for Grades 4 and 5; Jared Eliot Middle School for Grades 6 to 8; and The Morgan School for Grades 9 to 12.
Rumors that one of the town’s schools is set to close are not new, said O’Donnell .
“Probably four years ago there was a facility study for Grades K to 8,” she said. The study reported on the state of those three school buildings including maintenance issues, as well as considering enrollment and decreasing class sizes in the Clinton school system.
The study sparked “lots of conversation” about closing Abraham Pierson School, O’Donnell said, noting that a proposed option of that plan was to close the school and possibly convert the building into the town’s library, moving Grade 4 to Lewin G. Joel Jr. School and Grade 5 to Jared Eliot Middle School.
“There was definitely a push in town,” she said.
O’Donnell stated that there would be significant costs associated with changing the configuration of the schools. She also noted that the downtown location of Abraham Pierson School, close to Andrews Memorial Town Hall and the Clinton Town Beach, is a positive asset that ties in well with the Grade 4 and 5 curriculum.
“At this point, I don’t see it happening,” O’Donnell said, however she left the door open to future discussion of the issue. “In the next three to five years, perhaps it’s a conversation we’ll need to have.”
In that case, O’Donnell said another facility study would need to be completed to address the question of ‘how do we use our buildings?’ with strategic planning input by the Board of Education.
“We have to be smart with what we do,” O’Donnell said.