WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Elementary School will administer the PARCC assessment test this spring in preparation for the commonwealth's move to a PARCC-MCAS hybrid exam in spring 2017.

 

Superintendent Douglas Dias told the School Committee on Wednesday that he decided to make the move after consulting with all three principals in Lanesborough-Williamstown Tri-District: Williamstown Elementary, Lanesborough Elementary and Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

"They were unanimous in the request to go with PARCC this coming spring so we get exposure to PARCC questions," Dias said.

 

"If we didn't do that, 2017 would be the first time we'd see any PARCC-like questions, and that would count."

 

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education experimented with the multistate Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers last spring, offering districts the option to try the PARCC and be held harmless for the results.

 

After looking at the results from the experiment, DESE decided to incorporate elements of PARCC into its well established Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.

 

"Some places in the media, it's been called MCAS 2.0," Dias said.

 

To ease the transition, the commonwealth again is offering districts a round of testing that won't count against the schools this spring if they choose to try PARCC.

 

"It seems like ... we'll still be part of the consortium with PARCC so the state will be able to compare achievement across states," WES Principal Joelle Brookner told the School Committee.

 

"They're telling us there's not going to be a huge difference between what MCAS 2.0 ends up as and what PARCC is.

 

"It feels like this would be the time to try it."

 

Brookner said she met with her faculty on Wednesday, and the teachers agreed it is a good time to expose the children to the PARCC questions.

 

School Committee Chairman Dan Caplinger agreed.

 

"This seems to me the Goldilocks moment," he said. "You have the benefit of the communities that tried it. You have the 'hold harmless' that gives us a free trial. And you have the ability to do it in a way that isn't disruptive in terms of having to set up a lot of new technology."

 

The last time the Tri-District schools considered implementing PARCC, it appeared that the exam would be administered online. This spring's standardized tests will be given on paper, Dias said.

 

By 2019, DESE hopes to have implemented online testing throughout the commonwealth, he said.

 

"You get the analysis back faster, and you don't hav to deal with all the paper," Dias said.

 

The last time the Tri-District schools weighed PARCC versus MCAS, the school committees voted to stay with the latter. This time around, the decision was made by the superintendent. Wednesday's discussion was informational.

 

Dias also brought the committee up to speed on efforts to deal with the school's heating system. Recently, the failure of the last fully-functioning boiler at the school forced its closure on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

The committee already this fall had authorized the use of the district's building renewal fund to replace two of the school's three boilers. On Wednesday, Dias said he will ask the Building Renewal Subcommittee to look at purchasing a third replacement.

 

The good news is that the two new boilers are installed, working and more efficient than the old system.

 

"They're very high-efficient," Dias said of the new units. "So much that the plumbing they're using, which is temporary, for the exhaust is PVC because the exhaust is so cool.

 

"I think we were very fortunate we started the process back in early fall."

 

But going forward Dias stressed the need for more regular, comprehensive maintenance schedule. And he once talked about the need for a building supervisor to address infrastructure at all of three schools in the Tri-District. Dias credited Mount Greylock's Jesse Wirtes with helping WES get through its travails this fall.

 

"All three buildings need a component of someone like that on a regular basis, not just in crisis mode," Dias said.

 

In other business on Wednesday, Dias shared his impressions of a forum he recently held with Williamstown parents, one of a series of forums he he is holding with faculty and parents at all three schools, and Caplinger continued to update his colleagues on the work of the Berkshire County Education Task Force.

 

The group met recently and decided to rethink its strategy and timeline for studying the county's school districts. It received just one response to a request for proposals it issued for a research consultant, which prompted a re-evaluation of the RFP iself, Caplinger said.

 

"One of the holdups may have been that we had an ambitious timeline," he said. "If that's an impediment, or if there are other things that are keeping people from giving us bids, we'll pursue that."

 

Caplinger said the task force plans to talk to the one firm that responded to the RFP as well as other researchers who the panel hoped to hear from.