By BILL ABRAMSON October 13, 2011 12:00 AM LAKEVILLE — Members of a subcommittee studying the configuration of elementary schools in the regional district said at a community meeting Tuesday that they have “kept an open mind,” responding to parents’ concerns that a decision already had been made.”There is posturing in the towns and people saying where we are leaning,” said Cindy Stork, a Freetown resident and kindergarten teacher at Lakeville’s Assawompset school who serves on the district’s Education Model Subcommittee. “We have kept an open mind as committee members. There has been no decision made.”About 45 members of the two communities, mostly parents expressing their concerns, heard the presentation Tuesday by Superintendent of Schools Dr. John McCarthy, outlining the material the committee has been sifting through for the past eight months.”There’s a population out there that thinks we have already decided what to recommend on Thursday,” said Will Sienkewicz, a Freetown member of the penal and its chairman. “We still don’t know. My mind has changed over the process. I had been thinking one way and have been swayed another way. I still don’t know which way we’ll go.”The subcommittee will vote on its recommendation tonight and present it to the Transitional Regional School Committee on Wednesday. The full report will be available online Monday.The sense in the two towns has been that the committee will recommend a configuration of three community elementary schools with kindergarten-to-Grade 5 populations, using the Freetown Elementary, Assawompset and George R. Austin Intermediate School buildings. That opinion was expressed by Stephen Olivier, chairman of the Lakeville Board of Selectmen, at a September meeting.”The general consensus is the superintendent already has the idea for a K-5 model,” but at a recent meeting a different sentiment emerged, Olivier said. “The majority there suggested we use (the Austin school) for what its intent was, an intermediate school.”McCarthy explained that “we made a presentation to the public in June and polled the members as to where they (were) leaning at that time.”"The numbers leaning toward a K-5 and a 3-5 or 4-5 intermediate school rose to the top,” he said. “We had said we couldn’t find research on a Grade 3-5 intermediate model, so some people extrapolated through the discussion that we were leaning toward a K-5 model.”This committee could come up with a different recommendation, but the K-5 notion came out of the June meeting. The committee’s charge is to come up with the best school/grade configuration for the future of our district. It will be up to me and the School Committee to budget for it.”McCarthy said the committee is looking at the best education model, not necessarily the most affordable.”These communities will support the budget if it is within reason,” McCarthy said. “We have good buildings and can have good educational programs.” Ads by Google