Planning continues for 5th graders’ move to Galvin

An exterior rendering of the new Galvin Middle School courtesy of Ai3 Architects

By this time next year, Canton school officials expect to have a much more definitive plan in place for the logistics of a newly built and reconfigured Galvin Middle School.

However, after a full year of meetings and planning by the grade 5-8 transition working group led by Assistant Superintendent Sarah Shaw and Galvin Principal Jon Mulhern, a rough picture has begun to emerge of what the school experience will look like for fifth-grade students when they move up to the new school beginning in the fall of 2028.

For example, Shaw and Mulhern said grade 5 students will continue to have recess, including access to a new playground in the good weather and the gyms and activity areas inside the building during the winter months and periods of inclement weather.

The current scheduling of core academic subjects for grade 5 will also remain the same at GMS, but students will get to travel to other rooms for specialty classes such as art, music, and physical education. The building itself will consist of two separate wings — one for grades 5-6 and the other for grades 7-8 — but transportation will be mixed, with students in all four grades riding together on the same buses. (A final decision on bus arrival and departure times, as well as school start and end times for the new school, is still to be determined.)

Both Shaw and Mulhern said they were pleased with the progress that the transition team made in its first year, but both said they expect to see more robust planning this year when they reconvene starting in early October. That includes taking a closer look at staffing levels, particularly in the specialty subjects like art and music. Shaw said they first need to determine how much the current GMS staff can absorb when the fifth graders move up before making any recommendations on possible staff additions.

Shaw said everyone who served on the original transition team, which included a cross section of parents, teachers, and administrators, is invited back this year, and there may be some more involvement from the grade 5 teaching ranks. There will also be two professional development days set aside this year for staff to work on 5-8 transition planning — one in January and another in March — and a series of public forums are being planned to gather more feedback from parents.

Last year the group met with administrators from the Norwood, Medway and Foxboro school districts — which all have experience transitioning to a grade 5-8 model — and sought their input on everything from programming to scheduling to logistical considerations. They will continue to gather data points throughout the school year, and by June, Shaw and Mulhern plan to release a progress report to the School Committee outlining their findings and recommendations.

Both Shaw and Mulhern said they were pleased with the progress made during the summer construction season and they’re appreciative of the efforts made by Consigli Construction to get the site ready for the opening of school. They also praised the collaborative spirit of the design team, including Consigli and Ai3 Architects, who met with the 5-8 transition group last year and sought their input on classroom design.

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