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MassDevelopment In The News
MassDevelopment Seeking RFPs for Education; Finalist by March
January 4, 2008: Harvard Hillside, by Gregory Barros
DEVENS - By mid-February, MassDevelopment expects to have received responses to its request for proposals (RFP) from nearby school districts to provide education and educational services to Devens students beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
The selected district's contract to serve Devens' pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade students will begin following the expiration of the current contract with Shirley in 2009. The selected district will also receive about $10,000 for each Devens student it educates.
Last week MassDevelopment, the state agency responsible for managing Devens' redevelopment since 1996, presented the first draft of its RFP to the Devens Educational Advisory Committee (DEAC) for review.
MassDevelopment's Victor Normand said the state agency will send the RFP out Jan. 4, 2008, to the Ayer, Bolton, Clinton, Harvard, Lancaster, Lunenburg, Littleton and Shirley school districts.
It will select a finalist by March 28. On April 8, MassDevelopment will conduct a public hearing on its proposal selection. Its board of directors will vote on the proposal May 8 and award the contract June 13 after final negotiations are completed.
Normand pointed out that MassDevelopment won't consider responses to its RFP it receives after Feb. 16 at noon.
The Harvard School District's contract to provide educational services for Devens' middle and high school students doesn't expire until the 2011-2012 school year, said Normand.
"We're looking for a contract with a school district for the term beginning with the 2009-2010 year," said Normand. "We'd prefer a three-year contract, but we'll consider a one-year contract with renewal option."
MassDevelopment can legally contract with any school district within the commonwealth, he said, but it prefers districts within close proximity of Devens, those abutting the community or within about 20 miles.
MassDevelopment is responsible for managing Devens under Chapter 498. Its mandate includes entering contracts with one or more school districts for education and education-related services on behalf of Devens' residents.
DEAC assists MassDevelopment in an advisory capacity on all educational matters, including reviewing all contracts for educational services. Its membership includes four elected Devens residents - two of whom must have school-aged children - and one representative from each of the school committees in Harvard, Ayer and Shirley.
MassDevelopment will evaluate each RFP on each district's organizational capacity, compatibility with the essential-school model, experience with school-choice students, standardized-testing scores, length of contract proposed, distance from Devens and other services offered, said Normand.
The essential-school model embraces "small, personalized learning communities where teachers and students know each other well and interact in a climate of trust, decency and high expectations for all," reports the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES).
The model's principles "incorporate democratic practices and maintain a strong commitment to equity." As well, those principals commit schools "to work to create academic success for every student by shared decision-making and deliberately and explicitly confronting all forms of inequity."
CES maintains that the essential-school model focuses on "helping all students use their minds well through standards-aligned interdisciplinary studies, community-based 'real-world' learning and performance-based assessment."
Dr. Theodore Sizer developed the essential-school model as part of his work in educational reform in the United States. He founded CES in 1984, and is currently serving as its chairman emeritus.
MassDevelopment's RFP is also looking for a new contract for regular and special-education services, out-of-district special education, vocational education, school choice, charter school obligations and any associated required transportation.
Qualified school districts will provide evidence in their responses that the district has a minimum of five years of experience operating public schools, has complied with all laws and regulations related to equal educational and employment opportunities and is in good standing with the commonwealth's Department of Education.
Prospective educational-service providers can select a level of service for pre-kindergarten through grade five, pre-kindergarten through grade eight in defining the scope of their proposed services.
Responding school districts must also provide a cost proposal including cost per pupil, special education, vocational-technical placement and other costs.
There are 79 Devens students, said Normand. Forty-one are in the pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade program. Thirty-eight Devens students are either The Bromfield School, charter school or school-choice students.
But the number of Devens students could more than double during the new contract.
"If the current housing production plan is approved and development activities begin in 2008, the result could be 170 new households and 85 additional school-aged children by 2013," said Normand.
The school districts providing educational services for Devens' students act as the school boards for those students because the commonwealth classifies Devens, which currently doesn't operate any schools, as a non-operating school district, he said.
"If Devens' status changes to an operating school district, then MassDevelopment shall act as the school board of the Devens School District," he said.
© Copyright 2008 Nashoba Publishing.
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