Fall River School Board delays decision on restructuring Tansey Elementary

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — Another community faces a possible school district restructuring, this time with Tansey Elementary in Fall River.

On Monday night, the Fall River School Board delayed a vote to change Tansey Elementary from a K-5 school into a Pre-K school.

Thus, Tansey is safe from a merger with Spencer Borden Elementary School, for now.

But another school, Stone Day, may be on the docket next month.

A swift turnaround for the Fall River School Board, after parents were made aware of the Tansey proposal just three days ago.

The proposal would have merged Tansey with Spencer Borden to make space for expanded Pre-K classes, but the board decided to delay its decision.

“We all want parents to be involved, so any time we get parents to advocate for their children is a good thing,” said Fall River Superintendent Maria Pontes. “We’re not always going to agree on everything, but it’s important to respect one another’s decisions.”

Parents came out in droves to speak against the proposal, telling ABC 6 News they were blindsided that this was even a possibility.

“Well, I think it’s very disrespectful that they feel like they’re going to just go ahead and make this decision without talking to us,” said Goretty Medeiros, a parent of a student at Tansey.

All of this comes as part of a drive to improve access to Pre-K across Massachusetts, with Tansey being one of a handful of options the district had to address that issue.

However, even board members say they are unclear on how they got to this point in the process so fast.

“As one member of the committee, I only learned about this on Thursday night,” said school board member Sara Rodrigues. “I only had access to the meeting playback just when the rest of the community did on Friday afternoon, and, at best, that is not nearly enough time to make a decision as significant as this.”

Now, the community is gearing up for whatever comes next, hoping the district will give fair warning the next time this topic arises.

“The support that Stone needs, they’re going to get,” said Medeiros after the meeting. “And I think the families are going to feel respected if they come to them and let them know first.”

Pre-K is still a focus for the district, which said it will take more time to make a decision on Monday’s proposal to talk about moving another school, Stone Day, around at its next meeting.

The board will meet again next month, but that agenda has not been set yet.