Students at the Healey School will no longer be seperated by academic program next year for the first time in almost 30 years.

Two schools in one building to merge

By George P. Hassett

Somerville parents and educators are working to unify the Healey School after children in the building were divided into two separate programs for 30 years.

Volunteer parents, teachers and school officials presented plans to the School Committee on Monday to “create a new Healey School,” said Healey Principal Jason DeFalco.

The School Committee decided in a five to three vote June 21 to unify two Healey School programs, the Choice program and the neighborhood program. The Choice program bills itself as focusing on project-based learning and parents, including four current School Committee members, go through a lottery system to get their children enrolled.

The neighborhood school program serves many of the children from the nearby Mystic Avenue housing project. Ninety percent of the children in the neighborhood program receive free or reduced lunch compared to 38 percent in the Choice program. The neighborhood program is composed of 90 percent minority students, while the Choice program is 43 percent minority.

Former Principal Mike Sabin said last year that faculty and parents from the two programs compete over resources while children are isolated from one another.

On Tuesday, the Healey’s School Improvement Council – made up of parents and educators – presented a plan that DeFalco said would bring the best of the neighborhood and Choice programs together.

Healey School teacher Stephen Stephano has taught in the Choice program for 10 years. He said the new plan is “going to be difficult and trying but a unifying experience for the school.”

Donene Williams, a parent at the school, said there has been a lot of confusion surrounding the school’s unification. “Parents are saying, ‘I thought the Choice program was dead and the Healey is like every other school.’ There is still confusion about what the healey is or will be,” she said.

The council said the Healey curriculum will focus on “theme-based learning” – in which one theme runs through the different core subjects – and integrating the arts into the curriculum.

Williams said the council’s priorities include creating a climate for parents who don’t speak English to feel welcome and encouraged to volunteer and participate. “The Choice and Neighborhood programs have strong parental involvement. Not as much in the neighborhood program, we want to expand that,” she said.

Williams said one challenge is blending the two school’s parent councils. “It can be very emotional,” she said. “How do we make one new body where everyone feels welcome and feels like they’re not losing anything?”

Ward Five School Committee member said the effort was like “inventing a new school.” School Committee president Adam Sweeting said the unification process at the Healey “is an opportunity to do something dynamic important in urban public education.”