OpEd: It Is Time to Close the Heath Brook School

Former Finance Committee, Select Board member does the math and comes up with one conclusion

As I do every year, I am following the budgeting process for our community leading into May Town Meeting, and something recently caught my eye. There was an article in the Town Crier in early March that discussed the recovery of the Heath Brook School after significant flooding damage from the end of last summer. It is noted in that article that there will be a warrant article on the May Town Meeting warrant to move funds from our Stabilization Fund to cover the costs that are not reimbursable through insurance.

In a similar vein, the proposed budgets have been discussed at various sessions of the Finance Committee as the town staff builds and presents the FY25 budget. I was surprised to see that the FY25 Capital Outlay priority for the School District was the Heath Brook School. In fact, the presentation from the Business Manager indicates that they are reserving the entire capital budget for repairs to the Heath Brook.

What are we doing?

Figure 1: Tewksbury Public School Enrollment

Our district currently serves roughly 3,200 students in our six schools. That number has been flat for the past four years and has been in steady decline since a peak of 4,841 in 2005 (Figure 1). Current projections suggest that we will continue to hover around that 3,200 number, if not further decrease.

During that time, we have invested heavily in our schools, from the renovations of the Wynn and the construction of the Ryan, TMHS, and most recently the Center School. These were all necessary and responsible investments in our community. However, the notion of spending millions of dollars to renovate a school that we do not need is confusing at best, and irresponsible at worst. In addition to the proposed capital costs, we spend, at least, more than $500,000 in salaries and other operating costs that would simply go away. This includes the salaries for administrators, clerical staff, and custodial staff, as well as heating and electrical costs. That does not include any further savings by consolidating the grades that this school serves with the Dewing.

Table 1: Tewksbury Public School Capacities

Table 2: Enrollments with Grade Shifts

Our current schools can serve up to 4,600 students based on historical enrollments (2000 – 2024) and design capacities (Table 1). With a current enrollment of 3,200 students, we are utilizing just under 70% of our school capacity. In an always tight budget situation, this is fiscally irresponsible. If we were to simply close the Heath Brook and shift the students from there to the Dewing, our school capacity would still be 4,100 students, then utilizing only 78% of our capacity.

The Dewing has a current enrollment of fewer than 400 students, when historically it would regularly serve more than 600. In order to make this happen, we would need to add a third grade to the Wynn and the Ryan. Thankfully, both are well below capacity. With a slight shift in the grades, we could close the Heath Brook today and still be well under capacity at all five remaining schools (Table 2).

We could use those savings to address a long-term solution that eventually takes the Dewing out of service as well. I would leave the final implementation to the proposed Space Committee that has recently been discussed, but there are some simple options that I will leave to future discussions.

In May, I will stand opposed to any new funds for the Heath Brook School. Most of my 10 boys went through that school, so I will not do so lightly, and it will not be without some sentimentality surrounding the memories of some of the outstanding educators we had in that building. However, it is time to do what’s right for our community and our students and close that building down. It has served this community since 1957, but its time has come to an end.

Note: All of the data presented is publicly available on the DESE website and/or the Tewksbury School District website.

Bruce Panilaitis, PhD, MPM

Dr. Panilaitis is the Director of Academic Space Management at Tufts University and has served the Tewksbury community in several roles, including as a member of the Budget Advisory Committee to the School Committee, the Finance Committee, and as a member and Chair of the Select Board.