Proposed school facility moves meet resistance from some Brockton School Committee members

BROCKTON - Several schools and programs within the Brockton Public Schools could be relocated for the next school year as members of the Brockton School Committee are considering a handful of facility moves.

The school district has until August to vacate the building located at 365 Westgate Drive, a facility that BPS leases to house the Brockton Therapeutic Day School and the Community Schools of Brockton. The school district received notice from the owners of the building that BPS must vacate the property, leaving the district to find another home for those programs.

To make room for the programs inside buildings the district currently owns, the committee has discussed and voted on a number of location changes for more schools and offices across the district. While some moves were approved by the committee at its meeting on May 7, others are still up for debate.

"All these moves will put students in buildings that we own and real estate that we already own and we're not paying any leases on," said Acting Superintendent of Schools James Cobbs.

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Brockton Fairgrounds lease

The district currently leases space at the Brockton Fairgrounds to house the New Beginnings Reengagement Center. Cobbs, in his facility moves report, recommended moving this center into the Jones Building, along with the Therapeutic Day School. School Committee members were not convinced this was the best move for the program.

But the lease for this space expires this summer and Cobbs said the district cannot just renegotiate the lease with the Fairgrounds without first putting out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a space for the program. The committee voted at its May 15 meeting to send out an RFP.

The School Committee has postponed a decision on the location of this center, pending the outcome of the RFP.

Champion School could move to Crescent Street

The committee voted to move the Community Schools from the West Gate Mall to The Goddard School, where the city's Adult Learning Center will also be moved to over the summer from its home at 211 Crescent St. The Goddard School currently houses the community organization SABURA, which will be displaced until a permanent location is found.

With the Adult Learning Center building on Crescent Street left vacant by the approved move, the committee is considering bringing the Edison Day Academy, a program for students who learn better in a smaller academic environment than Brockton High, into the Adult Learning Center facility.

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Edison Day Academy, previously known as the Champion School, has shifted locations multiple times in the last few years. The program was at one point housed at The Goddard School, then moved to the Huntington School before closing down.

In the fall of 2022, Edison Academy reopened at a new, state-of-the-art facility on Summer Street called the Jones Building. After one year there, the school moved into the green building at Brockton High School.

"It seems like all we do is we move programs around and they outgrow these locations, and we end up spending money," said School Committee member Joyce Asack. "Sometimes these moves are not the best moves and that's why we really need to look into them a little further."

Although the Jones Building was designed and built for the specific needs of the Edison Day Academy, Cobbs said that with the growth of the program, it won't fit inside that facility anymore. Cobbs said the Adult Learning Center building is a better size for that school.

No decision has been made on moving the Edison Academy.

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What will move to the Jones Building?

Currently, Promise High School operates out of the Jones Building on Summer Street, but the School Committee voted to move the program to the Huntington School next year. Now, the Jones Building will be vacant, and the committee is talking about possibly relocating the Therapeutic Day School and the district's reengagement center to that facility.

The Therapeutic Day School will need to leave its current home at the West Gate Mall before the fall, but the committee has postponed the decision to move it to the Jones Building, which has a capacity of 150 students.

"It's more than just the classrooms, the environment both exterior and interior are Zen," said committee member Jorge Vega of the Jones Building. "I think in terms of the types of students that our therapeutic program serves, the type of students that our reengagement programs serve, there is something to be said about being at that address with that particular population of students."

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: BPS leases are up at West Gate, Fairgrounds. Schools relocating