PITTSFIELD

1. The middle and high schools are combined in one building that was built in the 1940's with additions built in the 1950's and 1960's. It is extremely overcrowded. The wiring in the building violates state building codes.

2. The building does not meet the requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

3. The Middle-high school does not offer advanced placement classes and only one honors class.

4. The gym doubles as the auditorium. Health classes are conducted in the bleachers, music classes are conducted in the stage area that borders the gym. It takes two hours to set up the folding chairs in the gym for a school assembly during which time gym, music, and health classes are canceled.

5. The district does not have the resources or the personnel to incorporate the Curricular Frameworks into their curriculum.

6. There is no special program or alternative school for "at-risk" kids.

7. Teachers teach 6 or 7 periods out of the 7 class periods per day. There is no class prep time for the teachers.

8. Because of a shortage of teachers and classrooms, guidance counselors use a scheduling method called "ghosting" where a teacher teaches two different classes during the same class period in the same room.

9. Only 20% of Pittsfield's High School graduates go on to a four-year college.

10. One biology lab, comprising 24 students, has only 2 electrical outlets, no gas and only 2 functioning sinks.

11. There is only one computer in the Middle-high school with Internet access. 12 Some of the textbooks in the Middle-high school are over ten years old and the information they contain is dated.

13. There is a high teacher turnover rate due to low salaries and lack of professional development opportunities.

14. The school district can't afford transportation for a standard half-day kindergarten schedule so kindergarten students have to go full school days. One week they go three days a week, the next week, two days a week.

15. In the elementary school, the art room and the computer room were converted into regular classrooms because of overcrowding.

ALLENSTOWN

1. There are no computer classes available to students in the primary grades.

2. The school district went without an art or a music teacher for four years in violation of the Minimum Standards, due to a lack of funding.

3. The Armond R. Dupont Middle School in Allenstown does not have a full time principal, is not accredited, has no computer curriculum or networked computers, nor does it offer a foreign language, sports, physical education, full-time art or music, Industrial Arts/Home Economics or a full time nurse.