Dear Members of our School Community:

As we enter the early months of 2010, there are two very important developments taking place simultaneously in your schools. We ask all our parents and community members to actively follow and participate in the process of developing school budgets for the 2010/2011 school year. We also ask you to be aware of the efforts underway to fully regionalize our school district in the near future.

The development of a school budget is a comprehensive process that begins in the fall at each school and culminates at town meeting in the spring. As you know, we are a partial region, meaning there are three separate districts, three school committees, and three budgets. There will be a public hearing on all three of these budgets in March at a date to be determined. We encourage all community members to attend school committee and board of selectmen meetings whenever the budget is being discussed. We are in very difficult financial times and our schools’ educational programs are being significantly impacted. Class sizes already exceed thirty in some elementary classrooms and budgets for educational supplies, maintenance, technology, and the like have been slashed to bare bones. There is little room to cut more. Active participation by our community will decide the future of our schools.

The second development is a study of full regionalization that has been underway for well over a year. As you may know, we are three districts; Lakeville K-4, Freetown K-4, and the Freetown Lakeville Regional District (5-12). The current structure has served the towns well in the past, but changing financial times and increased mandates have brought extreme stress, particularly to the K-4 elementary schools. We also have a one grade (5) school that is more than half empty. This is both educationally and financially unsound. As your superintendent, my goal is to provide the towns the best educational program possible. From a curriculum, instruction, leadership, management, and financial perspective, full regionalization may be a way to address some of the challenges facing our schools, but it is not without its detractors. The relinquishing of local control and trust of a region are central themes to the concerns. Ultimately, it will be the citizens of the towns who decide the future of the schools. Your active participation is encouraged and welcomed.

John E. McCarthy
Superintendent of Schools
Freetown-Lakeville Public Schools

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