We are writing to ask you to consider attending the Feb 9 School Committee meeting at 6:45 100 Hemlock Rd, Wakefield for the Northeast Metro Tech school. The committee wants to construct the new school building in the hilltop forest across from the current school, which will require cutting 2000+ trees and blasting through dozens of feet of water-filled bedrock near wetlands in endangered species habitat. The resulting school will be difficult to access and may make it hard for all students to participate in campus life.
We have been asking the committee and the member towns to build the school on one of the alternative site options which meet the educational plan requirements and can accommodate the same number of students and are the same size buildings.
District towns and cities:
Chelsea, Malden, Melrose, N. Reading, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winchester, Winthrop, Woburn
All MA residents help to pay for the school through sales taxes.
Each week more people have gotten engaged to try to bring about a more common sense plan. The district School Committee meets monthly and the School Building Committee (mostly the same people) meets as needed, so the regular School Committee meeting is the most reliable way we've had to make public comments on the project to the committee members (who include representatives from each town, see list below).
It would be quite powerful if the committee had a sense of the numbers of people who are concerned about the current plan, which is why we are asking people to make an effort to attend Thursday's meeting in person (unfortunately it won't be available on Zoom).
Making a public comment is great but not necessary (details below if you are interested in making one). Of course, it's unlikely that a single meeting would bring about the change we're asking for- but combined with other simultaneous things going on (local officials and representatives up to the state level are engaging more, Disability Commissions are coordinating and asking to review the project, etc) it may certainly have a beneficial effect at this point in time.
If you're willing to go, please also consider inviting at least one other person or more.
Thank you for considering this request, and if there's anyone you know who you think would be interested in going then feel free to share this information.
Meeting details below:
Getting there:
The meeting is in person at the school library. Parking is available in front of the school near the Wakefield side entrance to Breakheart Reservation on Hemlock Rd. Once in the building, the meeting is in the library- up the stairs and down the hall to the right, you can't miss it.
Making a comment:
Sometimes the committee has changed up the agenda order to move the public comment period either first or last, causing people to either miss it or have to wait a while for it. That means if you're late you could miss it, so please arrive early or on time.
Last time they limited overall public comments to 10 minutes. When you speak they'll ask for your name and address. Usually you can get away with just giving the street you live on, and town. I've never seen them deny a chance to speak based on where someone lives. The public comments period is not a question-and-answer period. The committee doesn't make any commitment to respond to questions; however, they do usually listen respectfully. Even if you don't get a comment in, we still think it has an effect to see a lot of people in attendance. Bear in mind public comments are part of the public record.
Address:
100 Hemlock Rd, Wakefield
Agenda:
6:45p, Grades, Promotion, & Handbook Subcommittee, https://www.wakefield.ma.us/home/events/101346
7p, School Committee Meeting, https://www.wakefield.ma.us/home/events/101336