1973-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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129 aforementioned Project SPOKE. In conjunction with this project the local school will be transformed gradually from its present traditional and age-graded structure to a non- graded school made up of several units with an overlapping of age.groups.in each unit. The new design will make it pos- sible to provide. individualized, continuous progress learned for every child in ways and at a pace that, are suitable for each pupil. Beginning in September of 1974, there will also be a.structured and sequential program of study in every sub- ject area in fulfillment of a need felt strongly by the school faculty itself, as well as by many parents. To accomplish these goals in a time of severe inflation is not easy, of course, and our task in 1973 was complicated by having to live as much as possible 'within a state-required eighteen-month budget made up well over a year ago—before the worst of the inflationary increases became a reality. High costs for quality education will continue to be a challenge in the coming year, we know, and other important adjustments are ahead of us as well. The enactment by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of the Chapter 7.66 requirements presents an especially costly challenge, for ex- ample. This new law requires all Massachusetts cities and j towns to provide an adequate education for every child, re- j gardless of his or her special needs. This means that our school system must provide learning programs for the retard- ed, the crippled, and blind, and the deaf, as well as for the emotionally disturbed and the learning disabled, for whom programs are already in operation in Mashpee. While state reimbursements will relieve some of the costs of these added services, it appears as though the new law alone may add an estimated $20,0.00 to our local school budget. F Other challenges remain to be met too. The ever- increasing school population—up 10% last September, and still growing—has filled the Davis School to capacity already, in spite of the addition of three relocatable classrooms. Mean- while, efforts to regionalize with Falmouth to serve middle r. and high school students and efforts to arrange a vocational- technical school education for those who desire it, have not succeeded. Very soon—as soon as projections and recommen- dations from the Educational Research Council consultants have been received and studied—the Town will need to take hold of these challenges and turn them into positive action. Because the people of Mashpee have demonstrated con-. sistently their desire for excellence in education, and because