Next Up Natick

 In what I believe is an unprecedented amount of time, Spring Town Meeting finished on Tuesday night!   Thank you to Dani Newland, Town Meeting Member Precinct 8, for taking these notes for those who would like to read about what happened.  Link to the warrant (agenda) of the meeting.  For those who want to watch the meetings. Watch it on Pegasus  here !  (THANK YOU PEGASUS!)  Articles Of Note: Money was appropriated for the collective bargaining units on the town side. The sale of Town owned land near Scrub A Dub passed A series of zoning changes  time to rewrite a by law on cluster developments - accepted changes in the Golden Triangle region to bring consistency - accepted changes to language when calculating open space - referred back to the planning board reappropriate money to do trail improvements at Pickerel Pond - accepted Town Meeting Rules committee - handbook created and accepted Article 29 was recommended indefinite postpon...

Monday, May 2nd - School Committee Meeting   Find all of the materials  here There was a theme that ran through 3 aspects of our meeting last night... (and maybe all over our meetings)  How do we get the job done well?  In the Facilities presentation, we learned that we are severely under staffed in custodial and maintenance based on industry standards. Mr. Spratt, our facilities director, advised that we take a long term approach to the remedy: First operationalize efficiencies, then add staff once the systems are improved. The additional staff will eventually come out of the Natick Town budget in Shared Expenses by the Schools and the Town. As one member noted last night, the need for staff begins to demonstrate the need to increase the our Town Budgets in the coming years. As you know, as a whole, our Town and School budgets are running a deficit every year. We can't go into the red by state law so we continue paying bills with savings and other one time fund...