The first of three meetings on elementary school consolidation is scheduled next Thursday, and the community is preparing.

The meetings, required by the Department of Education before a vote to close a school, will be held October 6 at Warwick Vets, October 13 at Pilgrim and October 17 at Toll Gate. All start at 6:30 p.m.

The Warwick Teachers Union opposes the consolidation, said President Darlene Netcoh.

“The district did such a poor job with the secondary school consolidation,” she said yesterday. “The administration needs to slow things down and fix the problems at the secondary schools before it does anything to the elementary schools.”

Netcoh said she opposes any elementary consolidation for the near future since it already happened a few years ago. In addition, she said, new administrators need to learn more about Warwick before proceeding with actions.

“The district is in total chaos right now. We have so many new administrators with little to no classroom experience and who haven’t spent enough time here to fully understand…They need to educate themselves before they make any more decisions that are deleterious to education in this city,” she said.

John Wickes PTO President Michelle Haley said the moves the administration wants to make “don’t seem fathomable” right now. Consolidation will become “everybody’s problem,” she said, but she’s most concerned about are the children.

“Our biggest point is that the speed at which this is happening is not conducive to the benefits of the kids,” she said, also noting the work to be done with secondary school consolidation. “We’re just asking that they slow down and finish what they started.”

At a September 6 School Committee meeting, the plans were met with virulent responses from parents and teachers during public comments. School Committee member Karen Bachus tried to put out the flames by moving to table elementary consolidation.

“We’ve already bit off much more than we can chew and we don’t need a repeat at the elementary level. We’re hurting a lot of kids,” she had said.

Other committee members declined the motion.

Consultants SMMA’s initial recommendation was to close four to six elementary schools, but Director of Elementary Education Lynn Dambruch said the consolidation committee thought this was too much. The committee recommended closing John Wickes and Randall Holden Elementary Schools and to re-purpose John Brown Francis Elementary School and Drum Rock Early Childhood Center.

Dambruch said Drum Rock received the lowest possible score, a 1/5, with Rhode Island Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System Brightstars. The facility is overcrowded and sits on top of a hill, a difficult place for parent pickups and dropoffs especially during inclement weather. Since it’s located on Toll Gate’s campus, Drum Rock would have to follow suit every time the high school was placed on lockdown, which was hard for the facility’s 3- and 4-year-old children to handle. Drum Rock would be re-purposed as part of the Career and Technical Center, also on the Toll Gate campus.

John Brown Francis is more suitable for use as an early childhood center and is the least expensive to transform, Dambruch said. The building has classrooms with restrooms and sinks, meeting spaces, big hallways, ceiling fans, a newer roof, square footage that meets state and federal recommendations, and fenced-in playground areas. Drop-offs and pickup areas are easier to define and can be expanded if necessary. Francis students would attend E.T. Wyman and Holliman Schools.

The reasons Holden is recommended for closure are largely based on size. Holden has 209 students and is at about 54 percent capacity. It serves the smallest area of all Warwick schools, .8 square miles, and is in close proximity to other elementary districts. It needs renovations to make it ADA compliant, has no parking lot, and would cost $5.5 million to improve. Students there would be sent to Hoxsie and Sherman Schools.

Wickes, at 83 percent capacity with an enrollment of 352 students, according to the most recent resources available, also needs numerous renovations. A new roof, heating system, playground and plumbing are among the changes that must be made. The cost here is even higher than that of Holden’s, coming in around $9.8 million. In addition, the school is close to the extended Green Airport runway, and navigation is difficult with the reconfiguration of Main Avenue access and egress from Child Lane. Wickes students would attend Greenwood, Park, Robertson and Scott Schools.

Superintendent Philip Thornton said there have been no changes made to SMMA information or plans detailed in the Elementary Consolidation Committee Report (which is available online). The meeting will begin with an opening from Thornton, continue with a brief presentation from Elementary Education Director Lynn Dambruch “to frame the conversation,” and end with a question and answer session from the audience.