Susan Wolf Ditkoff, Chair of the Brookline School Committee, asked me as Vice Chair of the School Committee and Town Meeting member to forward this letter to the listserv. Barbara Barbara Scotto TMM Pct.8 Dear Town Meeting Members: I understand that there is a great deal of emotion, fear, and misinformation circulating about the Driscoll project. As TMMs, you have received several letters asking you to vote “no” on the option to spend $1m for a Feasibility & Schematics Study at Driscoll (which under MSBA rules could only be spent if they invite us to partner with them). I am writing to ask that you vote yes. Two primary objections have surfaced. First, that the Driscoll community was not robustly involved before the School Committee voted in September 2013 to adopt its long-term master plan to address our town-wide enrollment crisis (which includes renovations/expansions at Devotion, Driscoll, the High School, and then Pierce—the master plan which the MSBA required in order to re-start stalled discussions about funding for Devotion). Second, that the School Committee refuses to promise that the project will not leave Driscoll worse off than other schools, and that we are “solving the town’s problems on Driscoll’s back.” The first objection about involving the Driscoll community is understandable, and partly true. The second has no basis in fact, especially since the population within Driscoll’s existing core and buffers are already large enough to fill a 4-section school. And neither objection is a compelling enough reason to derail this vital project. The background below addresses these issues in more detail. The School Committee, the Board of Selectmen, and many in this community understand that a full-scale Feasibility Study for Driscoll, conducted ASAP, is the only path forward to answering our very legitimate questions as to what is “feasible” on the Driscoll site, and what we should or should not do about it. Regardless of whether you ultimately support expansion at Driscoll, any delay or “pause button” on the Feasibility Study itself means a delay in answering the community’s very legitimate questions, or worse, puts the Town in the position of needing to proceed with insufficient information to make critical decisions. We have proceeded with insufficient information in the past, and nobody—nobody—wishes to repeat that experience. Further delay also means a further cascade of negative impacts on children around the system as we kick the can down the road. Overcrowding worsens, and we face increasingly unpleasant space choices to deal with it. Some believe that policy changes will be necessary (e.g., reducing METCO, Materials Fee, or other valuable programs), and you know that those serious conversations are underway at the School Committee level. But only substantial cuts would make enough dent to truly “solve” our space problems. Meantime, the ripple effects throughout schools around town will create even greater burdens on the excellent education we demand for our children. Much has been said elsewhere on this topic, but it really is a seamless web—the solutions for the entire town are connected and we need to approach them together as a town. I hope you read the background context below, ask questions, and ultimately, decide to support the feasibility study funds. The bottom line is that we need this information to proceed, because we simply do not build bad schools in Brookline. Haven’t yet, and won’t now. Thank you, Susan Wolf Ditkoff Chairman, Brookline School Committee Background 1. Involvement of the Driscoll community With respect to the timing of the School Committee’s decision, we are deeply sensitive to the fact that many in the Driscoll community do not feel they were a part of the general town-wide discussion and consensus that emerged during and after the B-SPACE process, and we very much regret that events played out that way. Having been down this road before, it is worth remembering that every building project has its fears and issues (as veterans of the Baker, Lawrence, Runkle, and Devotion projects know all too well). Folks who have been around Brookline for a while know that at the end of the day, we always work through each project’s challenges in close concert with the parents and neighborhood, despite bumps in the road along the way. Many Driscoll families do understand that the plan involves expansion at every school. In addition to the previously-completed 6 classrooms added to Heath and the renovation/expansion at Runkle, it includes bringing Devotion up to 5 sections per grade, Driscoll up to 4 sections per grade, 4 additional classrooms at Lawrence where they already have 4 sections per grade, a plan to accommodate 2,500+ High School students town-wide, and ultimately Pierce expanded also to a 5 sections-per-grade school (it is currently 4 sections per grade). The timing of the School Committee’s decision last fall, driven by our relationship with the MSBA and its unequivocal message to us that a master plan needed to be articulated by September, unfortunately did not allow us the time to deliberate extensively with any of the school communities in the plan about the details of the recommendations—and we knew that important specifics were to be hammered out in close concert with each community over time as the projects played out. So, we have been actively involved with each community since the decision, starting with Devotion. Since the most pressing Devotion community conversations have gotten traction this past winter, the flow of information and dialogue between the School Committee and the Driscoll community has ramped up, specifically during and after the Statement of Interest on the Driscoll project was submitted to the MSBA last month. Clearly, communication is still not perfect, and we will continue to take steps to fix it. We are genuinely excited about the prospect of working closely with the Driscoll community in a feasibility study process over the next year, as specific ideas and possibilities take shape about how to build an outstanding experience for children at Driscoll. 2. Equity across schools The second assertion, the School Committee’s supposed “refusal” to guarantee equitable treatment of Driscoll in this project, is simply untrue. As has been stated repeatedly since September 2013, the sketch offered during B-SPACE was a hypothetical sketch, and that sketch was neither deliberated nor adopted by the School Committee as “the plan” for the site. Never. Therefore, it is simply untrue, as has been repeatedly stated, to call it the School Committee’s vision of the site. What is the School Committee’s plan? Again, a full, rigorous analysis including play space, parking and transportation, and many other items, ASAP, is the only pathway to enable the School Committee and the Town to make optimized decisions on what the project could or should be. The School Committee has always been, and remains, steadfastly committed to equity across schools, both in policy and in practice. This has never been seriously challenged over our very long track record on School Building Projects. The School Committee’s objective, shared by the Selectmen and the Building Commission, is to generate a plan that is comparable to other schools around the district. We direct our representatives on every School Building Committee to push very hard on the equity issues, and in this instance, play space as well as common areas are top priorities for us. We will judge the feasibility of this project according to a wide range metrics, including but not limited to the ratio of students to outdoor play space, common areas, etc. On every building project, we have repeatedly and unequivocally followed MSBA requirements and standards (which are often quite favorable) in terms of classroom sizes as well as common areas like gyms, cafeterias, multi-purpose rooms that function as auditoriums, etc., and we will do so here as well. We also look very carefully at studies of parking, transportation, and traffic in every Feasibility Study, again as demonstrated by our track record. So just to be crystal clear, in case it needs to be said again, we will not accept plans for Driscoll that leave it disadvantaged vis. other schools—on play space or anything else. As a side note on equity: I will not reiterate the case for renovation at Driscoll, only note that multiple things are currently not equitable (5 lunch periods, the currently-substandard common spaces, a too-small gymnasium, etc.). I will note that without an expansion project, we do know that the MSBA will not partner on a renovation-only project. I feel confident in predicting that given our other very pressing needs, the likelihood of a Driscoll renovation to deal with its existing and growing population in the next 10 years is slim to none, given everything else we are confronting as a town. 3. Other considerations One critical additional consideration is the very real priority of continuing to have a strong working relationship with the MSBA, something Brookline now has after successful projects at Runkle and Heath, and our responsiveness to MSBA concerns last fall around our commitments to the K-8 elementary school model. If Brookline sends a message to MSBA that it is not committed to the plan we presented to solve our enrollment crisis, it will damage that essential good relationship and put at risk all future projects. So how do we proceed most responsibly, given the uncertainty? As has been communicated, the MSBA provided language to the Town to use in its vote on funding for the Driscoll feasibility study (which was provided to the Advisory Committee by Sean Cronin and is currently reflected in the May 20th vote on Article 8 by the Board of Selectmen). As we have said elsewhere, it is untrue to say that the “MSBA’s own policies prohibit what we are doing.” We should proceed to vote that language, continue to work with the MSBA, and look forward to a rigorous analysis of how we can build a wonderful Driscoll school. I hope this addresses many of the questions and mis-statements that are floating around town. Please vote the feasibility appropriation, unencumbered, and allow us the best chance of addressing our challenges successfully and together.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 03:21:32 +0000
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