By Carol Britton Meyer

The school committee voted Monday night to accept the Best Educational Use of School Facilities Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendation to consolidate all grades into two buildings, with a PreK-7 configuration at Jacobs Elementary School and grades 8-12 at Hull High School. The Memorial Middle School would be used for other municipal and educational uses.

Following some discussion at its summer retreat, the committee took its formal vote at the first meeting of the new school year. The ad hoc committee had recommended Option 4 to the committee in June; other options ranged from making no changes to surrendering the middle school building entirely. The final decision on consolidation rests with the school committee, with the overriding focus of doing what is in the best interests of Hull Public Schools students. A timeline has not been established for the realignment of grades.

Chair Stephanie Peters asked fellow board members to compile a list of questions and concerns for consideration at the next and upcoming school meetings as the process moves forward.

“This is a giant undertaking for the town and a big decision. In the short-term, we will proceed with Option 4. The goal is to keep this on the agenda for every meeting,” she said. “We talked at the retreat about having a SC meeting where the main agenda topic would be the BEUSF so that the public is aware of what we are considering.”

The ad hoc committee’s recommendation came after contemplating during the 2021-22 school year the pros and cons of possible school consolidation based on the earlier report from the MARS consulting group.

Before making its recommendation, the committee considered the results of a community stakeholder survey and input from a number of forums that gathered input from teachers, students, parents, community members, and others.

The overall purpose of the BEUSF report, upon which the ad hoc committee’s work is based, was to evaluate the educational adequacy of the three school buildings currently in use – Hull High School, Memorial Middle School, and Jacobs Elementary School – in view of declining enrollments and other factors.

Under the chosen option, the school committee would maintain control of the Memorial Middle School, which could be repurposed for other public/municipal purposes.

Option 4 would also provide an opportunity to develop a memorandum of understanding between the select board and the school committee to guide future use of the middle school building.

Choosing Option 1 would have meant that the Hull Public Schools would continue to operate under the current model — Jacobs, Pre-K-5; Memorial Middle School, grades 6-8; and Hull High School, grades 9-12.