17 March, 2011
Top 10 Reasons to Vote Yes for the New School
1. We have a very good staff, teachers and administration that will always be there for our children. The building simply helps them do a better job and get better teachers. The Center School Principal says she has a hard time recruiting top teachers because of the physical building.
2. The school committee presented the MSBA with 2 options regarding Center School – renovate or build a new school. After about 2 years of careful analysis and discussions it was determined by the MSBA that a new school was the most effective decision for the state and the town of Hopkinton.
3. The MSBA is willing to give us about $14 million dollars to help pay for this – that’s a lot of tax money and interest on a loan we do not have to pay!!
4. Now is a good time to build due to the economy. The building is estimated to cost about $294/100 square feet (the average now is $289 - $302) but the SC and MSBA think it can come in lower due to the economy,
5. In 2001 a number of committees were formed to analyze the best educational structure for our town. It was determined and voted in February 2002 that districts would be the best for our students and town. When the SC submitted in 2007 it said district school because of this vote.
6. The teaching model in colleges and universities, for teachers, is training teachers for K-4 (or5) so this is what our teachers have been taught to do.
7. The SC submitted the request in 2007 and the school will open in 2013. Do we really have time to taken another 5 or 6 years to do this!!
8. We elected the school committee (by the way…why do they often run unopposed?? because you and I don’t want the unpaid job that requires a huge time commitment) and pay the administration to make these decisions because that is the way it has been set up in most communities – no matter how big they are. We may not all agree on all of this but the SC and administration think it is best – they are the ones who got us this well rated school system so far – why not trust them on this.
9. If we vote no on the new school we still have to pay tax dollars to fix Center which is very expensive and risky in my mind. If you live in an old house you never know what is going to go wrong next and you have to pay for it now not on a planned basis
10. Wayland put off building their school because it failed by 2 votes. 4 years later it passed but instead of being a $57 million dollar school it cost $70 million. Let’s not be penny wise and pound foolish.
11. If we vote this down who is going to come up with another solution and resubmit everything to the state – the SC and administration did what they thought was best already. I don’t think it is right to tell them after all this time that they should go back and do something differently simply because we don’t agree with them.
Dorothy Maruska
8 Alprilla Farm Rd
