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The Blackstone Board of Selectmen is sponsoring an article at the Special Town Meeting, March 13, that seeks to allow the Board of Selectmen to sell a town owned 32.12 acre parcel of land on Federal Street to the Blackstone-Millville Regional School District.
The District School Committee and the Board of Selectmen have agreed to the sale of the parcel in principle. The purchase of the land would allow the District School Committee to move ahead in the planning for a middle school to be constructed on the Federal Street property.
Town meeting permission to sell the land to the School District would merely allow the school committee to move to the next stage in the planning process - namely the development of a formal proposal to be presented to the voters at special town meetings in Blackstone and Millville sometime in the June /September time frame. In order to present an accurate proposal to the member towns, the opportunity to purchase the Federal Street location is a necessary step in the process.
Once permission to purchase the property is obtained, preliminary design plans and cost projections will be developed for presentation to the voters. Only after town meeting approval of the project, would the District School Committee purchase the Federal Street land.
The process of site selection is one that has been ongoing for some time. The current configuration that has the middle school sharing space with the high school limits the middle school programs. The shared site has drastically limited the middle school's development due to overcrowding as well as not supporting the middle school philosophy and the Committee's stated goal of raising the academic achievements at all levels of the system.
The middle school years are critical in a child's development. Students in the middle school age group need to establish themselves and identify with their peers. A student's middle school years are unique. It is imperative that we address these critical years in a student's developmental cycle. Each child must be made to feel they are part of a program that is designed to meet their specific needs. They must identify with the program and philosophy. The opportunity to locate a middle school on the Federal Street property will assist in the accomplishment of these goals.
The Blackstone Valley is seeing resurgence in the development of commercial, and business properties as well as private homes. The towns of Blackstone and Millville, as well as the School District, need to look to the future as much as possible and position themselves to address future space needs. Acquiring this land would be the cornerstone of this strategy.
The Blackstone-Millville Regional District School Committee believes the Federal Street property offers many unique features that would enhance a middle school. Please consider the following:
- Construction of the middle school on the Federal Street would allow the middle school to grow educationally beyond the shadow of the high school. Middle school students are unique and need their own identity.
- The available green space the thirty-two acre parcel offers would enrich the middle school programs.
- Municipal water and sewer service is available to the project.
- The value of the project would be enhanced since the middle school would not be located on a crowded site as originally proposed.
- The Federal Street parcel will allow the middle school programs to flourish in an atmosphere that preserves the rural nature of the two communities.
- The Federal Street parcel addresses the long term issue of future school development.
An important issue will be decided at the March 13th special town meeting in Blackstone. A positive vote is needed to allow the Blackstone-Millville Regional District School Committee to move to the next step in the planning for a middle school.
