Special School Committee meeting scheduled to delve into Day

By Laura Paine/Staff Writer

Wicked Local Newton
Posted Oct 13, 2010 @ 01:55 PM

Newton — School Committee members and administrators in the Newton Public School
department have identified the long and short-term space issues at Day Middle School and
several of the elementary schools. They have even identified some solutions that may solve
the problem.
At the Oct. 12 School Committee meeting, Chair Claire Sokoloff acknowledged that with
space issues come funding issues, and members will need more than a half an hour in a
regular meeting to dig their teeth into the different options before them and really get
comfortable.
“All of [the] issues have been tackled, grappled with and this is a work in progress,”
Sokoloff said. “It’s breathtaking, also given the fact that we have budget problems. What we
thought we would do is have a special School Committee meeting and the sole focus of that
meeting will be to delve into the complexity of the short term space issues.”
The special School Committee meeting is scheduled for Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. in the Frazier
Room at the Education Center located at 100 Walnut St.
Deputy Superintendent/Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Guryan said that the space and
budget issues are not just a school department, but a citywide planning issue. Guryan and
Mike Cronin, Chief of Operations, have been working closely with Stephanie Gilman,
commissioner of public buildings for the city.
“The good news is that in looking at the shorter term and with the work of the principal
and the School Committee, we believe a year from now, Day could manage the population
they have and the number of teams with existing space in [the school.]”
Prior to this report, Guryan noted that there were classrooms that could be used more
effectively, but other choices, like team size, will be affected by the budget.
“If the budget pushes us in a direction where we push slightly upward on team size, Day
could work and not use any more than the two additional classrooms,” Guryan said. “But if
we make team size what we prefer and the budget will allow, it looks like there are two more
spaces at Day we could take, manage and change how the classrooms are used.”
Enrollment projections and current enrollment counts show that there are 25 fewer students
than were previously thought, however, the projections for enrollment for the next 10 years
still show an increase in students.

Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.

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