Community comment: school buildings

On South High Community:
These from Farrell, Nystrom, Shea, and Wynja
We see that South was built in 1978, but 150 kids in 6 classrooms in one room
"doing a disservice to all of them"
tough to "pick up a second language when 15 other people are talking"
kids learn from novelty; open classroom arrangement forces teachers to be "limited in novelty and movement"
from a parent: "what my kids say at home [is] it does not get easier, they do not get used to it"
"they deserve a room with walls"
"on an hourly bases [I] have at least three students who wish they had walls"
kids "have a thirst to learn...need to know that this is a place that they can learn"
they "kind of feel like they're the bottom of the barrel"
about tonight's meeting, asked "why is it at Doherty; why isn't it here?"

On Doherty Memorial High:
even when first built, was "not ever big enough to accommodate" the population
issues of parking, the cafeteria
"never have had athletic fields" to play at home
district basketball can't play at home
need to consider "the footprint we are on: is this a big enough space?"

Also, Mr. Scott raised concerns about environmental impacts on children's health

Questions

I'll catch my notes up later...low battery
This is Maureen Binienda, principal of South High
temporary walls/partitions from UNUM
had to take down the temporary ones from 1978 over the summer, as they were damaged.
ones donated from UNUM; more to come once they move
ideal would be putting up walls
need more than visual barriers; need sound barriers
"ideally we really need walls..."

O'Brien announces that Treasurer Steve Grossman will be coming out to visit and tour some of our schools on February 29th (the Mass School Building Authority is under the Treasurer's department)

come spring, doing a series of public meetings and hearings regarding school buildings and repairs
"would like to do a meeting at Nelson Place, as well as Worcester East Middle"


Foley: "reverse inter-high championship as to who has the worst facility"
"we've heard you and we know the challenges that are there"

South High partitions

request for partitions in South (as the ones that the building was built with)
Boone requests that this be referred to F&O
the superintendent points out that some of the half walls removed were required to be done so by the city
Allen further says that the work at South this summer required the removal of those temporary walls; we can't get new ones; we'd have to build new walls entirely
Biancheria asks if we have a timeframe, as what we have right now is not working for the kids that are there
Monfredo asks "what can be done?"