Hi Folks,
Here’s my take on the 6/29 Monday night First Community Forum to discuss the framework for evaluating Watertown’s aging school buildings and facilities in light of changing educational needs, teaching modalities, and enrollment numbers.
Some topics that were touched upon: What is a Master Plan? Existing Conditions, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century Design Patterns. There was a bit more but without a written agenda, I’m sure I missed something. There were no handouts regarding the power point presentation that often could not be read on screen. Approximately 50+/- people attended the forum. After the presentation we were broken into four groups. We were asked to brainstorm the strengths, challenges, opportunities, and goals (SCOG) regarding Watertown’s facilities and educational environment. Upon completion of this task we were given sticky dots and told to pick our top three issues on any group’s list. And that ended the forum.
I asked for a copy of the power point presentation to distribute to the broader community given the low turnout, multiple community meetings, and various resident constraints. I was told by Michael van Hamel, the presenter – No, that he doesn’t work that way. I then asked for a summary after each meeting that could go out to the community to keep people informed as to what’s happening. Again, No.
This really concerns me. I hope it concerns you. I then spoke to Joel Seely, the SMMA Project Director, about the need to provide some info to the broader community about this process as people need and desire clear information, face multiple time constraints and may only be able to attend one meeting, the tight project timeline (presently to be completed by late August), and that community buy-in will be critical down the road. I also asked if SMMA could give us a list of communities that they had worked with that were similar to Watertown – old buildings, land constraints, population, socio-economic demographics, and $$$ constraints. I was heard, but received no commitment on his part.
So if any of this concerns you, if you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to these Steering Committee members: John Portz, Co-chair; Liz Yusem, Co-chair; Dr. Jean Fitzgerald, Superintendent; Charles Kellner, Director, Business Services; Vincent Piccirilli, Town Council Vice-President; Michael Dattoli, Town Councilor; Steve Magoon, Assistant Town Manager and Director, Community Development and Planning; Deb King, WEA President and WMS teacher; Toni Carlson, K-12 Educational Technology and Library Coordinator; Dr. Kimo Carter, WMS Principal; and Alyson Morales; Pete Caron; Mike Shepard; Elaina Griffith; Chris Lowry – parents.
The educational future of Watertown’s kids is a stake, your tax dollars are at stake, and thoughtful, transparent, quality decision-making is at stake. Fifty people cannot possibly speak for the entire Watertown community.
Again all meetings, whether listed as a Steering Committee meeting or a Community Forum, are open to the public.
Please get involved and let your voices be heard.
Best,
Elodia Thomas, Ph.D.
Marion Road
617-926-3952
elodia.h2otown@gmail.com
Elodia …
Thank you for this summary of the meeting and your concerns. I was one of the people who was interested but had competing commitments … so would very much appreciate the PowerPoint presentation and a summary of the “findings” and top issues identified.
The facilitator’s response — at least as you describe it — to your simple requests is appalling, in my view. If the point of this forum is to generate public input, then those who attended (and those who did not) are entitled to a summary of what was learned. To me, it’s the simple step of “closing the loop” of communication and sharing.
Equally important is the opportunity to spread the word and share the learning with the larger public — an opportunity that is completely missed if there is no effort to communicate with concerned constituencies. This seems at odds with what I understand to be a new priority by the School Committee for better communications with parents and the larger community.
… Chuck
I was a parent that also attended the meeting and agree with Elodia’s sediments. The lack of communication is troubling, frustrating and just plain wrong. Great solutions need input from all constituents. I fear that the end result will not be optimal given the input/participation and communication from the company we hired to ‘facilitate’ a solution, to our own School Committee enabling this lack of communication. This is a great opportunity to really pull in residents of all sorts to the table, to engage, inform and activate! I’m hoping that the School Committee and company hired are listening to the residents and will change the current climate in order to enable, inform and activate for a better Watertown. Please stop enabling status quo reactive and insular behavior! We don’t want another missed opportunity! How much are we paying for this?
I will speak for myself, but would imagine stand for a broader group of parents who have several children in the school system and will NOT attend these meetings as it doesn’t fit into the already hectic schedules we lead. This does NOT mean we do not care and it also does NOT mean we don’t want a summary of the topics and concerns raised at these meetings. PLEASE SHARE WITH THE COMMINUTY AS WE ARE DEPENDENT ON THE COMMUNICATION ON THESE ISSUES>
Dear Chuck, Watertown Mom, Mary Ann, and other concerned folks,
Two more steering committee meetings have taken place. There are still no detailed agendas or handouts. Some minutes have been posted at the WPS site. Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/a/watertown.k12.ma.us/wps/sc/watertown-high-school-project.
According to the the request for proposal the budget for this project is $50,000. I still can’t figure out who is leading the band and continue to be concerned at the low community turnout. Where are the teachers, the PTO groups, parents, taxpayers, etc. I know people are busy but how about some organized tag teams so that different people attend and report back to the community. The remaining meeting schedule as of now is:
Tuesday July 19 6:00pm Steering Committee, Phillips School, 3rd floor
Wednesday July 27 7:00pm Community Forum, High School Auditorium
Wednesday August 3 6:00pm Steering Committee, Phillips School, 3rd floor
Tuesday August 16 6:00pm Steering Committee, Phillips School, 3rd floor
Wednesday. August 24. 6:00pm Community Forum, High School Auditorium
Hope to see you at these meetings. Elodia
If the minutes posted to the WPS site are not quite enough to get the full picture of what is happening at these meetings, then I offer the link that follows, where you can watch and hear the Steering Committee meeting from June 29, in full, for yourselves:
http://wcatv.org/vod/school-committee-steering-committee-meeting/
Thanks for the link love, David.