Hatfield School Committee adopts new choice policy, eyes sixth-grade move to Smith Academy

HATFIELD — April 10, 2024 — Hatfield School Committee weighs moving sixth grade to Smith Academy amid preschool deficit and enrollment uncertainty. At its April 10 meeting, Chair Christy Boudreau led a roughly two-hour public session in which administrators presented a draft seven-day schedule that would bring sixth graders into Smith Academy's middle school rotation while keeping them with a dedicated core academic team — citing research on the benefits of looping and fewer daily transitions for sixth and seventh graders. Finance Subcommittee reporting, attributed to a member identified as Adam Sullivan, put the current-year projected deficit at between $42,000 and $56,000 across accounts, with over $100,000 in unencumbered funds expected to produce a year-end balance. The preschool program faces a roughly $75,000 shortfall for fiscal year 2025, with tuition revenue of approximately $85,500 against costs exceeding $170,000, prompting discussion of aftercare expansion, sliding-scale tuition, and a possible application deadline extension. The committee voted unanimously to adopt an updated school choice admissions policy for fiscal year 2023-24 — tightening timelines and adding a 10-business-day enrollment commitment window — and deferred kindergarten slot numbers, a broader choice policy rewrite, and a first-reading cell phone policy to May.