Residents File Lawsuit Against Brookline Over School Site

BROOKLINE, MA — A group of residents calling themselves "Taxpayers concerned for Baldwin," are accusing the town of violating Open Meeting Law and not doing enough due diligence "before wasting Town money on impossible plans," according to a 51-page complaint with some 20 exhibits filed in Norfolk Superior court on Nov. 26.

Brookline Town Counsel Joslin Murphy told Patch in an email that the town was in the process of reviewing the lawsuit seeking to redress allegedly "unlawful expenditures and violations of the Open Meeting law by certain elected officials seeking to build a ninth elementary school in Brookline."

For years, Brookline has been working to find and select a location to build a ninth K-8 school in town to address enrollment increases in schools. Many times the School Committee have noted that the town might soon also need a tenth school and also began to work on increasing capacity at the high school. The ninth school process has been a contentious one, with nearly every site proposal meeting resistance from residents, usually nearby. But it has been largely supported and the town voted to fund the process through tax increases.

Then both the School Committee and the Select Boards voted to move ahead with a project that would build on the former site of the old Baldwin school, and Town Meeting voted to fund it.

And not everyone has been happy about that.

Neighbors have argued that the space is too cramped for the school and worry about whether the playground can be used, and then there's the matter of traffic. But the Select Board has said if the town agrees to buy three units next to the school that the owners just agreed to sell to the town, it could be used to address many of those issues. That proposal comes up for Town Meeting to decide in a special meeting Dec. 13.

But "Taxpayers Concerned for Baldwin," which include Kate Chuprevich, Frances Gershwin, Lisa Goldin, Sherry Leventhal, Dale Adler, Stacey McCarthy, Donna Robinson, Jon Rotenberg, Elinor Ross, Debra Teperman, and Jeffrey Wolk through their attorney Stephen Wald and Robert Callahan are asking for an injunction on all spending related to the Baldwin site, and that any moves taken related to a ninth school at Baldwin since June be voided. They're also asking for public records related to the school site that they haven't already received.

"While paying lip service to ... process, however, the Town Defendants developed a secret plan for a school that, in the words of an oversight body, was 'neither investigated nor evaluated by [consultants] nor previously discussed... in public,' " reads the complaint by Wald and Callahan.

Murphy told Patch that many of the complaint's concerns have been raised and rejected in the past.

"Although we are in the process of evaluating the complaint, it is seen by us as one more in a series of strategic moves by those who are seeking to extinguish the proposed Baldwin project. Previously, we have considered and rejected the legal arguments raised by these opponents. In any event, we can expect a robust debate of the proposed Baldwin project at the December 13 Town Meeting, and stand ready to take whatever steps are necessary to implement the decision that is reached, " wrote Murphy in an emailed statement.

Read the full 2018.11.26 Baldwin Complaint:

Previously: Brookline Could Soon Add Land To Baldwin Ninth School Site

• Brookline Ninth School Search: What's On The List In 2018
• Brookline Passes Budget Money For Baldwin Ninth School Site
• After a firefighter shuts down Baldwin School input meeting, mixed

Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff