School Committee Chairman Joseph Crowley warned recently that the prospects for building a new Goodyear School would diminish significantly, if the Recreation Commission should reject a bid to use a portion of Leland Park for the facility.

In addition, school officials informed the city officials that if a new Goodyear is constructed — at the size being requested by state officials — the Clapp School would likely be shuttered and its students redistricted to the new East Woburn facility.

During an informational meeting with the Recreation Commission this week, Crowley opined that the Goodyear project may have to be abandoned if the Leland Park proposal was voted down next month.

According to Crowley, with no other viable space to erect a new building, the city may have no option but to consider how to address the district's five other aging elementary schools.

In particular, the School Committee Chairman suggested that should the Goodyear plans fall through, he would push to acquire land nearby Central Square, where a 1,200 student facility could be built to house the populations of the city's oldest elementary school buildings.

"If you turn this down, and I don't mean to talk scare tactics, it's the last best chance for East Woburn to build a school," said Crowley. "I don't see an alternative. There's no other land there."

During the meeting, Crowley and other school officials detailed a still unendorsed recommendation from the city's disbanded School Building Task Force, which advised that the city's six elementary schools be consolidated into three new facilities.

In Oct. of 2006, the advisory group, formed by Mayor Thomas McLaughlin, recommended that a new Goodyear be built on Leland Park, that the Hurld and Wyman be merged into a single facility at a neutral site, and that the Linscott population be folded into a brand new Altavesta School.

Based upon that same recommendation, school officials explained this week, students at the Clapp School would largely be redistricted to a new Goodyear.

"We would move some of the kids to other schools, but the lionsshare of Clapp kids would go to a new Goodyear," said Schools' Supt. Dr. Carl Batchelder, acknowledging that a Clapp closure will be considered, if a new school is built in East Woburn.

Based upon that revelation, Recreation Commission member Sandra Niemszyk challenged whether Clapp School parents were aware of the fact that a new Goodyear School was linked to a closure of their neighborhood facility.

"So when we vote, the Clapp School parents are going to have no problems with busing their children [to a new Goodyear]?" the Recreation Commission member asked.

"With all due respect, when we decide to consolidate, the School Committee is probably going to take the heat on that," responded Batchelder, who assured the city officials that a possible Clapp closure has been publicly discussed.

No other alternatives

The Recreation Commission has been asked by Mayor Thomas McLaughlin to endorse a proposal to build a new Goodyear School on a 3.2 acre portion of Leland Park, closest to the Central Street parking lot.

Leland Park's skateboard park, old wading pool area, and baseball diamonds would remain untouched, although McLaughlin has committed to relocating the field areas if the Recreation Commission so chooses.

In exchange, the city would designate the current Goodyear School site, which also contains an approximate 2.7 acres of space, as parkland.

According to McLaughlin and other proponents of the Leland plan, the current Goodyear site is too small to contain both an active school and a construction zone.

"There's no way, for safety reasons, we're going to have construction going on there with the kids," said Crowley. "The reason we end up with Leland Park is because there is no other land available in East Woburn that you wouldn't have to pay a fortune for."

"It's a zoo over there. It's organized confusion and invariably fire trucks come out [of the station across the street]," said Crowley of the daily scene during dismissal time at the school. "Our fear is someone is going to get hurt, and then the whole thing isn't worth it."

This week, Batchelder and Assistant Superintendent Mark Donovan reiterated earlier arguments that the district simply lacks adequate space to house Goodyear students during the construction of a new building.

According to Donovan, based upon his review of the district's enrollments and classroom spaces, there are only three rooms across the entire city that could be used by Goodyear students — if the school was closed for construction of a new building.

"The summary is I went through about 144 classroom spaces and there were three that were [available]," said the assistant superintendent, who explained that the 230 Goodyear students would need 14 classrooms.

Recreation Commission veteran Robert Morgan later asked about availability at the Kennedy Middle School, which was built for 1200 pupils, but currently houses less than half that population.

School officials later insisted that both of the city's middle schools lacked adequate space for the Goodyear students, as many of the rooms have been designated as computer labs, special education instruction rooms, and for English-language-learners (ELL) classes.