School Committee Looks To Improve Communication

In a press release Friday, the Hopkinton School Committee said it would like to improve how it communicates with town residents.

The school committee introduced this survey Thursday night, at its final meeting of the 2010-2011 school year. The survey lists methods of communication between residents and the committee, and asks how likely people would be to use different methods.

The school committee also released the surveys addressto media outlets, including Hopkinton Patch, Friday. In the release, the committee said it hopes as many residents as possible will complete the survey.

Though the press release didn't refer to two March votes - at a special Town Meeting and at the ballot box - not to go forward with a plan to build a new school on Fruit Street, the survey appears intended to address objections residents had about a lack of communication regarding the Fruit Street plan.

Many residents expressed surprise and displeasure with some or all aspects of the plan to replace the 80-year-old Center School, which all kindergartners and first-graders attend, with a kindergarten-through-Grade 5 school on Fruit Street.

The plan involved dividing the town's elementary schools into districts serving different parts of town.

Besides closing Center School, the plan would also have turned Elmwood School, which has all of Hopkinton's second and third graders, and Hopkins School, which all fourth and fifth graders attend, into K-5 schools serving school districts comprised of different parts of town.

Residents said they did not have enough opportunity to comment on or question some or all of the plan's aspects.

Objections included but were not limited to:

1. Dividing the town into school districts.

2. Strict state requirements for the new school (including districting and size).

3. Cost.

4. Lack of a plan for the Center School building.

5. The location of the new school, far from the town's center.

6. Lack of an alternative plan.

The survey will be available for completion through July 22, and may be accessed online at www.brgrs.com/2011sccommunications, (the same web address as the hot link at the top of this story).  

 Beginning on Monday, June 27, a link to the survey will also be available on the Hopkinton School District website. Hard copies are available at the Hopkinton Public Library and the Hopkinton Senior Center.

The survey is anonymous.

Its results, the press release said, will be used with other information to develop a new communications plan for the school committee.