NEWTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE

SPECIAL MEETING - PUBLIC FORUM ON REDISTRICTING

 

BROWN MIDDLE SCHOOL, AUDITORIUM

JANUARY 29, 2001, 7:00 P.M.

 

 

PRESENT:               Chairperson Verne Vance, Susan Albright, Susan Heyman,

Anne Larner, Nancy Levine, Andris Vizulis, Mayor David Cohen

 

ABSENT:                 Vice-Chairperson Anne Borg, Rodney Barker, student representatives

 

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

Chairperson Verne Vance called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.  He announced that tonight’s meeting is for the purpose of hearing public opinions and thoughts around the criteria that the Committee should use in making decisions regarding redistricting for the high school project.  He introduced members of the Committee, provided some background on the subject, and reviewed the process for the hearing.

 

Superintendent Jeffrey Young outlined the five possible redistricting guidelines that have been discussed to date from conversations at School Committee meetings:

 

•Process must be fair, credible and in the long-term best interest of

students

 

Under these criteria they want to try to minimize disruption to

families, as much as possible.  They should focus on choosing

the best option in a positive manner, rather than by the process

of elimination down to one.

 

•Maximize use of facilities and provide stability for a reasonable

 period of time

 

The goal under these criteria is to avoid having to redistrict every

few years.  They will utilize building capacity analysis and enrollment projections data to use the current buildings in the most effective and efficient manner. 

 

•Respect and accommodate community values and traditions,

 where possible

 

             

 

           

            These criteria would consider and weigh the issues of community cohesiveness, impact on friendships, and keeping cohorts together.

 

            •The end product should be coherent and credible

 

            Under this criterion, even though they know they cannot please

            everyone, it is hoped that people will understand that the end

            product makes sense because a clear process was followed.    

 

            •Consider transportation time, distance, and cost

 

              These criteria deal with distance of transportation, impact on families,

              and associated costs.

 

Mark Laredo, 31 Philmore Rd., Ward Elementary School parent, outlined what he felt were the four major concerns around redistricting:  avoid change where possible, avoid splitting schools where possible, strive for parity but not necessarily numerical equality, and consider walking distance.

 

Jonathan Yeo, 152 Grove St., and Donna Vona, 25 Hawthorne Ave., Copresidents of the Williams Elementary School PTO, identified their most important criteria: geography, impact on families, impact on students’ participation in extracurricular activities, and need to consider the entire seven years of secondary school.

 

Becca King, 17 Leighton Rd., and Liora Goldensher, 10 Leighton Rd., 7th grade students at Brown Middle School, talked about having to be bused to the south side and that this can sometimes take as long as 40 minutes.  They are currently districted to go back to Newton North for high school and hope this does not change. 

 

Vincent O’Donnell, 10 Leighton Rd., Auburndale, Brown Middle School parent, believes the Committee is beginning with a very good process and thanked them for the opportunity to contribute.  The Williams/Auburndale community would like to continue their feeder pattern to Newton North High School.  He urged them to listen to the experiences of those who were impacted by the last redistricting.  His daughter has dropped out of after-school activities because of the transportation difficulty. 

 

Ted Hess-Mahan, 871 Watertown St., Horace Mann Elementary School parent and member of the redistricting task force, hopes that in the work that lies ahead they will not lose sight of the equitable distribution of the students in the elementary schools.  Horace Mann is one of the smallest schools in the City and yet has some of the highest class sizes.  The advantage of a small school is that it is a neighborhood facility, in a tightly–knit community, where families can still walk to and from the building.  The disadvantage is over-capacity.  He suggests that the Carr School be reopened after the Tier 1 renovations are completed to relieve overcrowding in the northern elementary schools that feed Day Middle School and Newton North High School.

 

Suzanne Salem Schataz, 28 Ballard St., Newton Centre, Ward Elementary School and Bigelow Middle School parent, thanked the Committee for the opportunity to contribute to this process.  Walking to and from school is very important to the Ward community.  If they are ultimately forced to redistrict to Newton South , she hopes that cohorts can be moved together, so that small groups of students are not being moved in isolation.

 

Rob Kline, 18 Groveland St., Williams Elementary School parent, expressed concern about the impact that distance has, not only on transporting children to and from school and their involvement in extracurricular activities, but the ability for parents to be involved in the life of the school as well.  He also hopes the Committee will give equal weight to all five of the proposed guidelines.

 

Sarah Kessel, 49 Moulton St., Newton Lower Falls, Williams Elementary School parent, considers time/distance and keeping elementary cohorts together as the two most important criteria.

 

Deb Crossley, 26 Circuit Ave., Newton Highlands, President of the League of Women Voters, is pleased that the Committee’s process involves long-range planning, so that the final decision will result in providing equal access to educational resources citywide.  The wishes of a few may conflict with what is best for the many and the Committee is going to have to make difficult choices.  She urged them to continue to keep the citizens current and informed throughout the process. 

 

Richard Alfred, 73 Grove St., previous School Committee member, believes that the Committee has developed an excellent process in this round of redistricting.  He stressed the importance of doing all the redistricting at once.  While they need to listen to all constituents, they will ultimately have to make decisions based on what is best for the entire community.  They should look carefully at geography and attempt to share the burden wherever possible.  He urged them to consider the schools that are being created rather than looking back at the ones from which students left.  He does not think they should reject splitting schools outright because he believes that will ultimately be necessary.  He urged them not to base their final decision on small financial issues.  The Committee got bogged down in the last round of redistricting on the cost of one bus.  Finally, he implored them not to rely too heavily on the statistics for small cohorts, as it is difficult to accurately predict at that level.  Eventually this City is going to end up with twowonderful high schools and the students will do fine. 

 

Seth Jaffe, 176 Grove St., Auburndale, Williams Elementary School parent, believes that minimizing distance should be the main criteria and one group should not be overly burdened.

 

Laurel Miller, 26 Fern St., Williams Elementary School parent, talked about the negative impact distance has had on volunteerism this year. 

 

Sherry Davis, 91 Pine Grove Ave., Newton Lower Falls, William Elementary School parent, echoed all the previous speakers comments.  As this process progresses, she hopes that the guidelines will be weighed and prioritized, so that the community understands the Committee’s decisions.  She commented on the fact that certain communities have experienced redistricting in the pastand that should not automatically make them easy targets for future movement.  If mistakes have been made in past redistricting decisions, they should be addressed in this round.  Finally, she hopes they will not split the Lower Falls and Auburndale communities.

 

Jane Wan, 11 Oakland Ave., Auburndale, Williams Elementary School parent, believes that location, distance and commuting time are the most important criteria in terms of the impact on families.  The estimates on the bus ride from their community to Brown have proven inaccurate and far longer than anticipated.  Parents have to drive across town to pick up students from activities that go beyond the timing of the late bus.  They have to deal with rush-hour traffic, while carting younger siblings along.  These factors diminish quality family time. 

 

Ken Krems, 55 St. Mary ‘s St., Newton Lower Falls, Williams Elementary School and Newton North High School parent, hopes that Lower Falls and Auburndale are not split.  It was very difficult to transport his daughter to and from activities at Brown last year and he hopes the Committee will consider distance as a major criterion.

 

Lisa Samuelson, 53 Channing Rd., Newton Centre, Mason-Rice Elementary School representative on the redistricting task force, stated that location is key.  If students live within walking distance to a school it does not make sense to bus them elsewhere.  Perhaps some flexibility could be included in the final plan that would address this issue.  It would also be good to develop some support systems to assist parents who have difficulty getting across the City.  The most important thing to remember is that this should not be a contentious process that pits communities against one another.

 

John Ross, 34 Ballard St., Ward Elementary School, Bigelow Middle School, and Newton North High School parent, is pleased that the Committee is articulating a clear set of criteria and hopes they will not make any changes once this has been defined.  He reminded people that many high school students drive and as the geographics get more distant, the incentive to break the law and carry passengers before they turn 17 becomes greater.

 

Bob Horvitz, 54 Maple St., Auburndale, Williams Elementary School parent, moved to Newton for the school system and the neighborhood.  Previously he had sent his son to a private school in another state and dealt with the negative issues of distance.  Geography makes a huge difference to families.

 

Maya Golomb, Mason-Rice Elementary School parent, hopes that the system will continue to provide parents the flexibility of choosing out-of-district placements.  A sense of community and long-term friendships are very important criteria.  Finally, there should be no differences in education between the two high schools.

 

Verne Vance thanked the speakers and encouraged people to stay involved in the process.

 

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.