Opinion: Facilities have little to do with academic achievement

Businesspeople rely on data-based decision making. For many years, Springfield Public Schools has declared it is a “data-driven” district. SPS claimed that by means of ongoing testing, individual, class and school performance could be accurately tracked for appropriate interventions and improved outcomes.

However, SPS bond proponents now assert something quite different. They explicitly disparage the relevance of achievement scores and, instead, campaign on promises of providing “happy learning spaces,” “quality learning environments” or other word salad combinations equally impervious to measurement.

The metrics SPS has previously professed to follow do not, in any way, support the undertaking of the current proposal.

A comparison of student proficiency at the four newest facilities in the SPS inventory with scores at older demographically similar schools reveals no ongoing superiority (Harrison and Hickory Hills), some declines (Sherwood) or substantial deterioration (Westport). The Westport case is especially troubling since it is the prototype for three other high-poverty, “co-located” K-8 configurations at the heart of Phase I of this scheme. Supporting analyses and data are posted to SaveR12Schools.org.

The most dangerous phrase in investment finance and economics is “this time it’s different.”

Some proponents also have alleged that older school buildings are inherently incapable of “21st century” uses. This must come as a surprise to downtown and Commercial Street residents and business owners. It also must be troubling to Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Harvard.

While the greatest share of the increased taxes in this proposal will be borne by owners of business properties and affluent homeowners, the most significant damage will be experienced by struggling neighborhoods.

Up to 10 existing school sites will be entirely abandoned upon implementation of both plan phases. When schools are relocated, neighborhoods are dislocated. This is widely understood and explains why residents of the Rountree and Pershing attendance areas have so consistently resisted prior persistent efforts to close their elementaries.

Many neighborhoods will be suddenly transformed from communities with a school hub at their heart into areas subject to immediate decline. Residential property values are linked to the proximity of a school. This will significantly complicate current efforts to combat poverty.

Additionally, several more buildings will be demolished and replaced on-site. We believe the wise and sustainable course of action is to repair, rehab and renovate, where necessary, but don’t generally replace. No rational homeowner confronted with a clogged toilet or a leaky roof would conclude that only replacing the whole house would suffice as a remedy.

This issue neither lends itself to the false binary choice between embracing this particular proposition or doing nothing nor, only by fervency of support, gauges the depth of one’s concern for this community’s children.

Please act prudently and vote “no” on Proposition SPS.

Virgil Hill is chairman of the Save R-12 Schools committee.