WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE – 02/18/25

PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION

At their last meeting, the Parks & Recreation Commission discussed updates to the Pyne Field project, as well as expressed concerns from an abutter resident regarding the pedestrian safety with commuter cut throughs. The parking lot placement has been an issue of debate, and the commission will hold its initial review of design plans with two parking lot options on February 27th. The commission indicated that it would like input from other town officials and is committed to full transparency with all stakeholders in the process going forward.  

Parks & Rec commits to transparency in Pyne Field design review process (Article by Nick Schofield, 02/12/25)

TRAILS COMMITTEE 

At their Wednesday meeting, the Trails Committee brainstormed and identified around 30 goals to be refined and prioritized as they proceed forward as a new committee. Some ideas included trail connectivity, a comprehensive trails map, communication with both the public and other boards and committees, “TikTok-style videos on trails” to increase digital presence, establishing regular updates to the Select Board, and trail maintenance and preservation. The next steps will be categorizing, prioritizing, and establishing action time frames for the compiled goals, and ultimately forming a master plan. The budget will also be a topic of discussion at the committee’s next meeting. 

Trails Committee brainstorms priorities, creates focus areas (Article by Mary Ellen Gambon, 02/13/25)

SCHOOLS 

The Elementary School Building Committee – Charleswood School Update

At its last meeting, the Elementary School Building Committee heard updates on the Charleswood School. At the 90% construction document phase, the project is running under budget by approximately $8.7 million. The Committee discussed revisited items to be put back into bid documents including concrete sidewalks, granite curbing, and facilities maintenance – items that will be formally voted on as part of the construction bid when a contractor has been selected. Additional items for future consideration were also discussed, including the removal of soil on site and sitework irrigation points. It was also addressed that there has been no response to date from six residents to attempts to discuss mitigations, although other neighbors have engaged in the process. Finally, it was noted that the Select Board’s review of the town funding agreement for the Charleswood School at its February 18th meeting will commence the process for restarting reimbursement for the town from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. 

Estimators have Charleswood School project under budget (Article by Susan Gonsalves, 02/12/25)

School Committee

At its last meeting, the School Committee addressed the Town Manager’s request to reduce the FY26 budget, previously approved by the committee, by an additional $415,000. The Superintendent presented a proposed plan based on meeting with the building principals to meet this directive by not replacing an ESOL teacher position left open by a resigning faculty member, funding a district paraprofessional through a grant, reducing a reading tutor at Hopkins School from full-time to 0.75 full-time equivalent (FTE), and eliminating five FTE paraprofessionals. This final item caused the most discussion among the committee and more information was requested about the potential impact of cutting these positions. The Superintendent noted that the building principals could speak on the matter at the next meeting. 

The committee also discussed swapping a capital request to replace middle school entryway doors for the more pressing request for textbook licenses; approved increases to preschool tuition; and heard a status update regarding a finding by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from the 2023-24 year of disproportionality of identifying more white students with specific learning disabilities, for which the district will received training this spring to enhance understanding.

School Committee tasked with reducing FY 26 budget by $415K (Article by Susan Gonsalves, 02/14/25)

MAIN STREET CORRIDOR UPDATE

The following Main Street Corridor Project update has been posted on the Town’s Construction Project Updates webpage:

• Eversource has completed all of its overhead and underground work. They have started to remove their old overhead lines in the underground section of the project (from the Police Station to Ash Street).
• Comcast has started to install lines in their new underground infrastructure. Once completed, they will start pulling lines to the buildings so that they can schedule cutting-over services from overhead lines to the new underground lines.
• Existing utility poles located between the Police Station and Ash Street will be removed by Verizon once they have completed all of their work, once Comcast completes its work. Verizon may remove poles as their work progresses as opposed to waiting for all of their work to be completed.
• Amorello has been onsite making repairs – is expected back onsite at the beginning of April.
• Additional landscaping requested by the Town has been formally approved by MassDOT.
• Weekly Construction Advisories will resume when there are weekly updates on the project. Until then the Town will send Project Updates as needed.

TOWN ELECTION 2025 UPDATE

Keep up with the latest on the 2025 Town Election at eHop’s election information page. There is still time to run for office, and there are several open positions.