Above: Next steps for dealing with Neary School building woes include appointing a committee to help with the next phase of pursuing a renovation project. (image from Neary’s website)
Last night, the Select Board approved the charge for a new Elementary School Building Committee. In less than two weeks, they will interview applicants to serve on the committee.
The Select Board will seek to appoint three members at a dedicated meeting on March 31st. The School Committee will participate in the interviews, then vote on appointing two more candidates at a special meeting the following week.
Following up on the choice voters made at the Special Town Meeting on March 2nd, the new committee will “provide oversight, coordination, and public engagement related to the feasibility study and schematic design process” for potential renovations of Neary School.
The intent is to help Town and School officials be ready to ask voters to fund a building renovation project through a Special Town Meeting next fall. (That would be followed by a ballot vote.)1
The committee is charged with working collaboratively with officials and contracted consultants to “evaluate renovation strategies and improvement options for the facility.” That includes:
ensuring that potential project options address educational programming needs, building systems, safety requirements, code compliance, and long-term sustainability (for “Option 1” and similar proposals), while providing clear cost estimates and implementation timelines to support municipal decision-making.
Membership is open to the community at large. But the charge makes clear that they are hoping to find some members with at least one of the following areas of expertise:
- Architecture, engineering, or building design
- Municipal finance, budgeting, or capital planning
- Large-scale construction, project management, or facilities planning
- Communications, public engagement, or marketing
- Education, school operations, or instructional programming
You can read the full charge here.2
If you are interested in applying, you can find the application online here.
The charge was drafted by Select Board Chair Andrew Dennington. The full board and Southborough School Committee agreed on most of the details. The one area of disagreement was how to appoint members. (Scroll down for more on that.)
All of the applicants will apply for consideration by both committees, and be interviewed in a joint meeting. That is scheduled for the Town House Hearing Room (and zoom) on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:30 pm. That night, the Select Board will vote on three members.
The School Committee will wait until Thursday, April 2nd to make its appointments. The delay is to allow their full board to weigh in on their votes. (At least one member can’t attend on the 31st.)
Project Status and Timeline
During the discussion, School Committee Chair Chelsea Malinowski updated the board on the RFS issued for a consultant to conduct the work approved by voters. She said the bids are due in by April 6th. Vendor selection is due by April 9th, with a deadline to sign the contract by April 17th.
The timing for a fall Town Meeting is still TBD.
The Debate Over Appointing Authority
All agreed that the most important goal was to succeed in putting together a project that could get approval from over ⅔ of Town Meeting voters, and the majority of ballot votes. But they disagreed on how the public would view a committee that was jointly appointed by both groups.
Select Board member Al Hamilton advocated for the split appointments as Dennington drafted. He described to the School Committee’s past opposition to studying “Option 2” for a short term-less expensive Neary renovation. He worried their position would taint the public’s perception of the work that came out of the committee that was fully (though jointly) appointed by them.
School Committee Chair Chelsea Malinowski and member Roger Challen expressed dismay at the approach. Malinowski responded by pointing out that the committee had included details for studying both options in the bid documents they issued last week. She followed:
I’m not sure that it’s fair to say that school committee has an agenda.
Dennington agreed with Hamilton. He explained that based on input from Hamilton and others, the Select Board may appoint members that “have a fiscally conservative approach”. And stereotypically, the school committee “would appoint people who would emphasize more the educational aspects of the project.”
Between the two groups, he thought they would come out with the “best of both”. Challen countered that working jointly, rather than “pitting” boards against each other was a better way to find the best group of members. (In his comment, he revealed that the School Committee had initially considered advocating that the majority of the members be appointed by their board.)
He worried about people perceiving specific members as belonging to one of the boards.
In a public comment, parent Mary Tinti “nervous” that the split approach and discussion around it wasn’t helpful for that:
it would be so lovely if the next part of this whole process was far less fraught than the last part was. . . I think The way that you get trust is by having consensus on the back end. . . in a way where neither committee can be pointed to as a scapegoat in any way. So I think cohesion is best
In the end, the majority of the Select Board chose to vote for the 3-2 split in appointment authority. (Member Marguerite Landry, who voiced support for the joint approach abstained. Member Kathy Cook leaned towards a joint approach out of deference to the School Committee, but said she was also fine supporting the preference of the majority of her fellow members.)
There was some initial confusion and differing opinions about how to deal with applications and appointments. Malinowski worried about making people interview twice. In the end, the consensus was to jointly hold the interviews as suggested by Cook.
- Note: Given the timing, I assume officials hope to add a question on the ballot for the November 3rd state election. But I haven’t confirmed that, and how that timing would work.
- Note: The Town hasn’t posted the approved charge yet. I created the linked pdf by copying the draft in the packet and editing a typo as stipulated in the Select Board’s vote.
