Five Things You Missed at School Committee: Cabot's Condition, Buffer Zones

While the focus of Monday night's Newton School Committee meeting was , a number of other important items came up during the evening including discussion on facilities and buffer zones.

Here are five things you may have missed from the May 14 meeting:

1. A number of parents spoke during the public comment period about the conditions at , asking the School Committee to consider making Cabot's facilities a higher priority and possibly bump up the timeline on its rebuilding/renovation. , Cabot is not scheduled for rebuilding for a few years.

One Cabot parent and PTO member, Suzanne Wakefield, told the School Committee that during Monday's rain storm water "poured into" one of the school's modular classrooms. Lindsay Pike, another parent and PTO member, noted that the Cabot facilities are "equally as depressing as they were 10 years ago."

"It's hard to sustain and support enthusiasm for a school and community as the physical structure continues to deteriorate," Pike said.

During its facilities discussion later that evening, the School Committee agreed that it will consider bumping up the timeline on Cabot's renovation, and speak to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) about the possibility of working with them on two simultaneous projects, as the district .

2. The School Committee held its annual public hearing on school choice, where it votes on whether it would receive school choice students into the district. School choice allows families to send their children to other districts for a specific program, and that receiving district is paid tuition for the student. 

As it has done for several years, the committee voted to not open up the district to school choice students, as Newton continues to deal with space constraints and large student populations. 

3. Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Joe Russo discussed proposed buffer zones to alleviate some crowding at . According to Russo, Burr is projected to have a bump in students next year and would need to add a 19th classroom, resulting in the loss of an art room.

To help with the space needs, Russo said the administration is looking at changing some buffer zones for and , which would result in some kids in the Burr neighborhood going to Williams or Franklin instead.

Russo reminded the public and the committee that the buffer zones only apply to new kindergarteners that do not have siblings already in the school. 

The committee is expected to discuss the buffer zones at its next meeting and will likely vote on the changes June 4. 

4. The district recently found out that some of its health care rates with Tufts will not increase next year, resulting in some permanent savings for the district. Although details are still being worked out, administrators said Monday night that this savings will give the School Department more of a "cushion" with elementary staff as well as possibly more room for staff in the secondary schools. 

5. The School Committee received a number of updates on facilities from Deputy Superintendent/Chief Administrative Officer Sandy Guryan, including information that the bids will go out Wed., May 16 and general contractor bids will be due by mid-June. This means the School Committee should have some answers soon on the cost to the reconstruction project. 

The bid opening for the owner's project manager for the Angier Elementary project is also scheduled for May 16. 

For a full update on the facilities, check out the memo in the .pdf section above.

In addition, the committee discussed some more long-term facilities plans and agreed to speak with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) about the possibility of partnering with them on two projects at once (Angier and Cabot). The committee also agreed it needs to further discuss and research the impacts (staffing, traffic etc.) of larger elementary schools, rather than the neighborhood schools it has now. 

The committee will be meeting with the Board of Aldermen for a joint facilities discussion on Wed., May 30 at .