Although it’s been nearly a month since the School Committee approved a consolidation plan that would leave the city with two high schools and two middle schools by closing Aldrich and Gorton Junior High Schools, re-purposing Warwick Veterans Memorial High School as a super middle school for those students and splitting Vets students among Pilgrim and Toll Gate High Schools, it’s work with Symmes Maini & McKee Associates (SMMA) is not done.

SMMA is the outside consulting firm the committee hired at approximately $238,000 to study the school district and develop two alternatives for a long-term education and facilities master plan for Warwick Public Schools.

When asked what’s the next step in the process now that a plan had been selected, School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn said via an email to the Beacon, “The planning process is not complete, we still need to address the elementary schools as part of the facility master plan for the whole district. We have been speaking with the consultant to see how that facility assessment usage at the elementary level will fit with the current secondary consolidation structure, and options for consideration. We continue to be methodical and measure all options in our assessment process, as has been our practice, and continue to [be] engaged with SMMA.”

Although the contract signed by SMMA only called for two alternatives, the firm initially proposed nine to 10 possible consolidation options. That list was whittled down over a series of workshop meetings between the committee and SMMA that were open to the public, as well as public hearings.

The move became controversial when the options were narrowed to two, the other still calling for the consolidation of Aldrich and Gorton but keeping all three high schools intact and converting them into two-school campuses housing both middle and high school students in the same building, with grades 6-8 separate from grades 9-12 through separate bus routes, building entrances, gyms, lunch rooms, and library/media centers. The majority of community members that attended the workshops and hearings favored three two-school campuses because it would keep the identities of the three feeder communities (Gorton-Vets, Winman-Toll Gate, and Aldrich-Pilgrim) of the district intact, rather than consolidate a section of the city.

Many also pointed out the option approved by the committee was essentially the same recommendation given by the Long Term Facilities Planning Committee (LTFPC), which was initially tasked with studying the district and determining how best to address declining enrollment, when it recommended closing Aldrich and Gorton and re-purposing Vets as a super junior high school nearly two years ago.

However, many in the public felt that process was tainted and called for an independent consultant from outside the district to be hired, which the School Committee voted in favor of, thereby tabling the LTFPC recommendation and later hired SMMA.

Last month, the Beacon reported that Superintendent Richard D’Agostino, whose retirement will be effective July 13, 2015, disclosed that school committee member Beth Furtado is taking on the task of coordinating the committee’s decision to close Gorton and Aldrich Junior High Schools and consolidate them at Vets High.

D’Agostino said that process started on June 15, when Furtado met with department directors. All three schools – Gorton, Aldrich and Vets – would close at the end of the 2016 academic year with the reopening of Vets as a middle school at the start of the 2017 academic year.

The School Committee’s next scheduled meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 14 in the Toll Gate High School auditorium.

Neither Furtado nor School Committee Vice Chairman Eugene Nadeau could be reached for comment on this story. Ahearn could not be reached for further comment.