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Sitting in the Hallway - Recusal

Here's what I am hearing as a parent and community member:  

  • Memorial rebuild is separate from the cost containment issue that we are trying to resolve by closing Johnson.
  • Julie:  Do you feel confident that we can keep class sizes where we have worked to get them?
    Dr. Nolin: There is no way any superintendent can tell you that for the next 10 years. I can tell you that I am confident in recommending this.  The modulars are a possibility of a swing space - and the TA felt uncomfortable issuing another enrollment report
The floor is opened to the community members to speak:
  • Interested in the savings for the coming years:  tinyurl.com/johnsonfinances
    • 50K first year
    • subsequent years - $500K
    • Save on principal, nurse and admin assistants.  Teachers, Paras, specialists typically go with students.
  • Close Johnson there is no wiggle room in the other schools.  
  • Reasonable people often can and do disagree but the administration was willing to do the work and meet the needs of our students.
  • Every decision to invest somewhere is a decision to not invest in another place - that is the reality of budgets
  • Prioritize - dyslexia, guidance counselors, every dollar should be put towards student services
  • The entire town needs to be considered, not just one location.
  • consider 2 questions:  
    • 1) Do you believe we need to close Johnson  
    • 2) Has the information been sufficient?  
    • I agree with you on number 1.  On the second question, on the impacts of closure, on the options we will have on the table for the next 10 years I wonder if you feel confident?
    • We are on the right path - a path to get aligned - but that path ends here without full alignment if you vote to close the school without an amendment.

  • I have some worries - how this school closure can impact MSBA process.
  • I'm worried we will be bumped down the line b/c we are submitting a proposal after closing a school.
  • $50-80million scares me in this current finance setting
  • Invest in our teachers - you don't get to cut ribbons but it where are we headed?  

  • I empathize with the families who we affected most directly - for those who have felt this was rushed.
  • The conversations predate my participation.
  • This is solely about the Johnson building and moving forward
  • It would take a lot of money
  • Less about saving money today and more about future money. 
  • We can make a good educated guess about the MSBA process. 
  • I have heard and know that Mr. Wood is a great teacher.
  • Plan put forth would be the best for the most people and maximizing our budget
  • Any leader who is 100% loved all of the time is not doing what a leader needs to do.  
  • They have worked and looked at every angle 
  • I encourage the SC to support a phased closure of the Johnson school.

  • Equity -is not maintaining porportional space as equality 
  • It begins with data
  • I have been surprised by the absence of student achievement data
  • Johnson has had the first or second most economically diverse 
  • Economically disadvantaged students at Johnson preform at 
  • The equity based conversation we would be having would be how has Johnson had success with those students and how do we expand it.
  • 1990 study was referenced  - that was the last time Natick earned a blue ribbon distinction and it was for Johnson.
  • Move to identify the Johnson facility in the MSBA process.
  • Make it time bound and see what is possible.

  • I hear this is rushed and 6 years ago when I sat on the committee and heard about a plan to close Johnson.
  • Past school committees to have done everything in there power to keep Johnson open.
  • To say this town doesn't care is a lie
  • I know that you are sitting here 
  • Johnson has outlived its time.  We have done everything 
  • I've heard a lot of negative comments about this process but this has been open and transparent and I can assure you all that this process would have been different.
  • Under Dr. Nolin things have changed.
  • If it was the last administration it would have been a done deal - one meeting, one vote.
  • Under Dr. Nolin's leadership this has been one of the most well thought out plans I have ever seen as a citizen.  

  • If cost containment is the mission - it is not a growth model -  as much as it pains me - it means we do not add until we 
  • an override in 24-25 cannot be garaunteed
  • If we are going to be diverting funds from a Johnson closure, you need to think really carefully about how those funds are going to be spent.  
  • Best case/worst case discussion
  • could lead to 10 or more years of making do with schools with modulars, no room in the cafeteria - pushing lunch hours - where teachers are crowded - where we are having more kids in classrooms.  


  • Law makers: 2 mile radius rule gets the free bus 
  • They wanted to encourage policy makers to create neighborhood schools.
  • MSBA application process - doesn't comfort me with all the data
  • How do we make decisions in our house - Nobody is denying the fact that the life of Johnson is coming to an end - but what are our options.
  • We are building a new Johnson - when you are comfortable with it then we phase it out.
  • I was looking for strategy thinking in this process - 5 years.
  • It's how we make decisions in our family and how I encourage you to do it.  
  • The decision that you make tonight will be there for a long time.
  • Demand for better data, better plan and socialize it with us before you take a position.

  • Comments that I've heard tonight is that this plan has been here for awhile - the conversation has been happening for sure - it's how I got involved in 2008.
  • my observation is that it is not the best communication flow 
  • things have gotten personal.
  • Change has to occur.
  • It's about opportunity - we have opportunity costs and opportunity
  • What concerns me is the system that we have been making these decisions.
  • High School was so urgent and we missed opportunities b/c of it. 
  • Urgency doesn't allow us to think long term
  • Not only an override but also a debt override
  • Office space is widely available- the world has changed.
  • Thank you for this opportunity.
Sorry... headache is coming need to turn the screen off.  

Back on at 10:17

Motion by Cathi Collins, Seconded by Henry Haughland
  • Move to direct the Superintendent to close Johnson no later than 2025  - passed 5-1

MSBA conversation happening now - Conversation about whether the timing for a debt exclusion override in the context of also the very real possibility that the town may need a structural override.


Ms. McDonough: We need to get in line. We have received one of the largest state allocations. So we need to get in line now and see how it all plays out. We need to see how this will all play out.  

Donna: Do we know the size of the need for the operational override?

Ms. McDonough:  There's been no discussion of that.  No financial planning committee.

Dr. Gray: Core (replace or renovate)  Accelerated (roof, boiler, windows.) 

Statement of interest is about replace or renovating memorial

Motion: To direct the administration to develop a statement of interest to the MSBA's Core program renovation/rebuild for the memorial school ...( I missed the end.)

From the Community:
I have a concern that if Ms. Brunell was unable to vote b/c of her home value that there are school committee members voting right now and it may effect their home value.  

Ms. McDonough:  It's an opinion that was provided and is not relevant to this discussion.

From the Community:
Pretty significant interest in passing the community preservation act - I agree get in the cue - as the feasibility study is done, if other options come up - to say consolidate pre-k and K into one location. 

Could we conceivably lease space to use in the district to give us flexibility? 

Dr. Gray: I have seen other districts submit more innovative things ... (confusion about what he was saying)- they are looking at what the district desires to do.  

Community:
Where afraid to ask the tax payers about what we need - this is the time to say this is what we need and deal with what is known - there are too many unknowns otherwise.

Amendment proposed by Dr. McKenzie- 
Add that a feasibility study would happen for a downtown site.

Dr. Gray - you are suggesting putting two ideas in the statement and they do not recommend that.  I recommend you put in a Memorial proposal - see if that is the best idea or put it somewhere else?  

Statement of interest needs to come back to the school committee before it goes to the Select Board.

Dr. Gray: If it is a new build - and they find a location downtown, then the MSBA would expect us to close memorial.  

Dr. Nolin: You cannot shift away from Memorial once you name that as the site

Ms. Sonnenborn:  My concern

Ms. McDonough: The vote we took brings us to 4 schools.

Ms. Sonnenborn:  Is that our long term goal?










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