Although many students and parents from Warwick Veterans Memorial High School streamed into Pilgrim High School last Thursday night, it wasn’t because the Patriots were preparing to take on the Hurricanes in an athletic event. Rather, students and parents came out to attend an orientation for Vets students that will be transferring to Pilgrim next year due to consolidation, which was hosted by Vets principal Gerry Habershaw, who will be the new Pilgrim principal going forward.

Following a brief PowerPoint presentation, students exited the auditorium to meet up with Pilgrim students for a tour of the school while parents remained behind to ask questions and voice concerns for Habershaw to address. After the Q&A session, everyone met in the cafeteria for punch and cookies. There were also Pilgrim athletic coaches available for Vets students to meet and sign up for any teams they were interested in joining.

Habershaw opened the presentation saying all three high schools in Warwick are great, but school consolidation and declining enrollment is a sign of the times.

“This is a quick presentation on what to expect for the future,” he said.

Habershaw said students in the Park and Lippitt areas will go to Toll Gate next school year, with Park students going to Winman and Lippitt going to the Vets super junior high, and the rest of the students in the Vets school feeder pattern would go to Pilgrim.

Habershaw said the Pilgrim-based childcare program would remain at Pilgrim, while the marine trades program at Vets would be moving to Toll Gate and students in that program would go to Toll Gate full-time. He said that students in Warwick Area Career and Technical Center (WACTC) programs would also go to Toll Gate full-time.

“Busing kids across the city takes up instructional time,” he said. “This could be an issue for some students that want to stay with their friends, but it’s hard to make educational decisions based on that.”

Habershaw said one of the big questions right now is how the faculty will be made up, although he did say there will be a mix of faculty from Pilgrim and other schools in the building next year.

“Central administration and the [teachers] union need to work that out,” he said, adding his best guess is that would all be determined at the job fair in June.

Addressing student scheduling, Habershaw said, “The kids have chosen courses and we’re looking at the numbers and in the planning stages of a master schedule.”

Habershaw said because the faculty picture is still a question mark at this point, when the schedules are made up, students will have courses listed with teachers A, B, C, etc., until the teachers contract situation is settled and the district knows what faculty they will have and where they will be located, at which time the teacher names will be filled in on the student schedules.

“A complete schedule will be mailed out in August and I will be here all summer to answer your questions,” Habershaw assured parents.

Habershaw said students can expect a seamless transition as far as grading transcripts go since they will be the same ones that were used at Vets, however class rank and grade point average (GPA) will be affected because Vets students’ ranks and GPAs will be mixed with Pilgrim students when they transition into Pilgrim next year. He said there are currently approximately 900 students at Pilgrim this year, and with the Vets students being added next year that total will increase to about 1,500.

Addressing parking concerns, especially with the influx of additional students, Pilgrim resource officer Dennis Amerantes, of the Warwick Police Department, said the parking at Pilgrim has always been bad, especially when it snows like it did last year.

“The traffic division has worked on a new traffic pattern for the school next year,” he said. “We’re anticipating approximately 100 more cars. We’ll do the best we can and make it work.”

In addition to grade transcripts, Habershaw said a number of other things would remain the same between the two schools, including the same set of rules and ethics; the same graduation requirements, such as the student portfolio, senior project, and Carnegie units; the same daily schedule and period rotations; and the same credit system.

One of the things that will be available at Pilgrim that isn’t currently at Vets is a state-of-the-art TV production studio, complete with green screen. Habershaw also said that Pilgrim offers a great drama program and Vets students will be invited to try out for an upcoming production this spring.

Habershaw said the biotechnology and robotics program at Vets will move to Pilgrim. As for the various academies at Vets, Habershaw said he will push to keep them for next year, but it could be a transition year for academies. As far as athletics go, Pilgrim will now have a gymnastics program, but everything else will be the same. He also said middle school sports will happen.

As it stands right now, Habershaw said enrollment for Pilgrim is expected to be 1,531 and 1,187 at Toll Gate.

Habershaw said there will be a student shadowing program available to Vets students later in the year, following Partnership for Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing, in which they will have an opportunity to shadow a Pilgrim student for a few hours a day. Interested students will be able to sign up for a shadow day, which will be held on Wednesdays.

Before taking questions from the audience, Habershaw invited parents to a joint Pilgrim and Vets PTO meeting that will be held on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. in the Pilgrim library.

Parents asked about staffing levels (specifically guidance), available space, would there be enough lockers, where are the savings coming from and where will it be applied, and the Pilgrim evacuation plan in light of recent robo call events at Vets (bomb threat and active shooter threat).

Habershaw said while it’s hard for him to answer personnel questions since specifics have yet to be determined, he said staff will be increased at Pilgrim “at a decent number,” including guidance counselors and support services.

Habershaw said there will be three assistant principals at both Pilgrim and Toll Gate, as well as at the Vets super junior high school, and one assistant principal at Winman. He said Winman and Vets will consist of seventh and eighth grades only for next year, but the following year they will transition to middle schools by adding sixth grade.

Habershaw said Pilgrim can hold 1,800 kids at its max, even though current expected enrollment for next year is approximately 1,500.

“Not every teacher will have their own classroom like they do now,” he said, adding there is enough space at Pilgrim to accommodate everybody. “Average class size will be 25, which is down from 28 now. And we will be offering more AP and honors classes because we will have more students available to take them.”

Habershaw said with the closing of Aldrich and Gorton, lockers from those schools will be moved and added to Pilgrim. He said further improvements are being considered for Pilgrim, such as resurfacing the athletic fields.

“The superintendent is looking at facilities and prioritizing what to fix by spending the savings [from consolidation] on improving schools,” he said. “The savings will come from teacher salaries.”

Habershaw said Superintendent Philip Thornton believes he can cut 50 teachers, thereby saving approximately $5 million.

“The teachers union contract says a max of 20 positions can be cut, so the union is saying to go by the old contract and the superintendent is saying there is no contract,” Habershaw said, adding the superintendent thinks he will be able to cut more than 20 teachers because of declining student enrollment.

With regard to the evacuation plan, Habershaw said there are exits in almost every corner of the building at Pilgrim.

“I went over the evacuation plan recently with Mr. Habershaw and Assistant Principal Fairbanks because we’ll have more kids next year, so we’re working on and finalizing the plan,” Amerantes said. “We’re looking at a potential of three locations.”

Habershaw ended the Q&A session by saying the Pilgrim students are looking forward to the Vets students joining them next year and the leadership groups at both schools have been fantastic.

“I feel good about joining the kids,” Habershaw said. “We’ll make this work and take care of your kids.”