The School Committee has proposed a plan to move grades 3rd through 5th from Cashman Upper Elementary School into the Middle School, making it the upper Elementary School housing grades 3rd through 6th. Simultaneously, they would move grades 7th and 8th into the High School, making it a Junior High School. They claim that Cashman requires too many repairs, totaling roughly $2 million, and therefore should be closed down on behalf of it not being in the budget. 
When the people in our city voted for the construction of Shay Lower Elementary School next to Cashman, it was proposed as being this “Elementary School Campus” it was highly appealing to residents, obviously. We’ve only had this “campus” model for one whole school year and teacher and parents alike speak of the benefits they’ve witnessed. If they move the upper elementary school this will be lost. 
The budget issues at hand are understandable, there is no denying that or their reasoning for proposing this plan, but only purely from a money standpoint. More thought must be put into the well being of our younger children, as thus far most focus has been on the potential benefits for the upper class students. 
The school committee and all elected officials need to be held accountable and hold up their promise of an Elementary Campus that they pitched to us, not begin to abandon the entire idea in just the second year of it finally coming to fruition. 
There is a number of things yet to be discussed, such as what dismissal time the upper elementary school would follow, how to update the middle school to bring it up to elementary school standards (like a playground), how middle schoolers and high schoolers would be separated, among other things. I’d rather they turn their focus onto a whole new idea rather than try and amend this current one any further. 
Let’s show the school committee this is not what our community wants and save yet another school building from going to waste in this city by signing this petition. 

Please also complete the questionnaire linked below provided by the School Committee and give your honest opinions on the matter. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwda1ZgIL37SvdfLNlasaJeZZo69jss3rrvepNdvELGFyBnA/viewform

For full transparency, here is a link to the report the superintendent had done by the Abrahams Group to take a closer look at how to use the buildings in our city in a more efficient and cost-effective way. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dCLPwoOrCN8FkCJ1kdhj-pMVzUCBL6kj/view?pli=1