Adult Learning Center moving to Goddard School despite opposition from students, staff

BROCKTON ― Brockton High School’s Little Theatre was filled with students and families of the city’s Adult Learning Center for the Brockton School Committee meeting on March 19, where many members of the packed crowd held large, colorful signs asking for their school not to be relocated.

Fast forward almost two months to the committee’s meeting on May 7, where the committee voted to move the Adult Learning Center (ALC) from its home on Crescent Street to The Goddard School.

Despite the previous pushback from many of the school’s students and staff, including the program’s coordinator, the committee unanimously approved the relocation of the ALC from its current facility to the smaller Goddard School building located on Union Street.

“At any given day we have about 20 new students register for English classes,” said ALC coordinator Mostafa Mouhieeddine to the committee at the March 19 meeting. “We have even started afternoon classes to address this unprecedented need. Going to a smaller building will hinder our growth and will not allow us to serve as many students.”

The move was part of a longer list of proposed facility changes ahead of next school year as Brockton Public Schools is required to vacate several facilities around the city that are currently under lease. Moving the ALC will free up room so those programs can move into buildings that are already owned by the school district.

Since the meeting on March 19, two online petitions have garnered hundreds of signatures against moving the ALC. One petition created on March 13 currently has 732 signatures, while a second one created on March 19 has received 134.

According to Mouhieeddine, 850 students are currently enrolled in the night school, and roughly 1,200 more are on the waitlist.

“This number will continue to grow given the current influx of immigrants to Brockton," he said.

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What is the Adult Learning Center?

In the fall semester of 2022, BPS parent Christine Painter started taking evening classes at the ALC in hopes of earning her GED, she said at the March 19 meeting. She said she completed her classes and testing nine months later and now works professionally as a medical billing and coding specialist.

“The ALC gave me hope and helped me carve my way to destiny,” said Painter, who dropped out of high school as a teenager. “Everyone believed in me when I didn't believe in myself.”

The school offers classes and tutoring in subjects like math, science, social studies and language arts, and many Brockton residents attend the school to help them learn English. Classes are held on the building’s second floor while the first floor houses a preschool program. The preschool will follow the ALC and move into The Goddard School, as well.

According to Mouhieeddine, the ALC receives $1.3 million from the state and federal governments every year to educate adults in the local community, but the school has to teach a certain number of students or it will lose that funding.

“If we do not meet this agreement, we will have to return the money back to the state,” he said. “We have a legal obligation.”

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Goddard School needs repairs

Currently, the Goddard School building is in poor shape. The roof leaks, several bathrooms don't work and there's no elevator. Renovating the building will cost an estimated $45,000, including $3,500 to repair roughly 100 loose roof panels, said Brockton Public Schools Acting Superintendent James Cobbs.

On top of that, installing an elevator will cost another $300,000. Cobbs said Wednesday that the elevator will not be installed before the move.

“Moving us to The Goddard School will require you to fix The Goddard School and get the ALC building ready for minors,” Mouhieeddine said.

According to committee members, the second floor of the building is already undergoing renovations, and all renovations with the exception of the roof will be completed in-house by the school district's facilities department, lowering the price of the project.

"I do have confidence that they can get into the Goddard and get that building to where it needs to be with the skilled labor force that we do have," said School Committee Vice Chair Tony Rodrigues.

The Goddard School currently houses SABURA, a community group that offers summer programs for kids as well as tutoring, English classes and workshops for adults in Brockton. SABURA will now be displaced as the ALC, along with the district's Community Schools office, will move into the building.

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Better for adults than kids?

Beyond the necessary repairs, The Goddard School is too small and inconveniently placed for the students who attend the ALC, according to those who spoke at the March 19 meeting. Many students travel to class by bus and the current facility is a 5-minute walk from the closest BAT stop. The Goddard School, however, could add 15 to 20 minutes to that commute, Mouhieeddine said.

"The building is very convenient for people who don't drive," added Painter.

With the ALC building left vacant, the School Committee is looking to move another program into the building. Talks at a recent committee meeting were to potentially move The Champion School from Brockton High's green building into this empty facility. But ALC students and staff said it might not be the best place for The Champion School to go.

"As a parent of a high school student, I feel this building where ALC is currently located is not an appropriate building for high school students," Painter said. "There is no gym. There's no cafeteria. There's no lockers."

"This building is OK for us adults at the ALC, but it's not for thriving teenagers," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Adult Learning Center will move to Goddard School