Community Corner

Letter: School Committee Shows Little Transparency

A parent questions why the preference for the K Flex plan was not heard.

On Nov. 5, the School Committee voted to adopt Map 1 for the redistricting plan. Following the vote, numerous people in town expressed surprise by this decision. They felt that the K Flex plan had received wide-spread support and should have been the chosen plan.  

However, aside from Chris Nixon, the four other School Committee members continued to pursue and support their own agenda. They even failed to endorse their own Superintendent’s recommendation for the K Flex Plan. The preference for K Flex had fallen on deaf ears.

Following the vote, I once again looked at Map 1 and was uncertain which school my house was being redistricted to. Since the beginning of this process, the maps posted online have been unclear and extremely difficult to read. I could not tell with certainty which school my children would be attending. 

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After contacting the Superintendent for clarification regarding my house and my entire block, I learned that there had been a mistake on the map given to the public. Certain houses had been incorrectly colored in on Map 1 and would be moving to a different school than had been indicated.

Could the School Committee and Superintendent make changes to the map after the vote?

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How many other mistakes were on the map? 

Were other property owners aware of these changes? 

This was yet another example of how disorganized the entire redistricting process has been. From the start there has been little transparency from the School Committee, and I continue to question why.

In the near future the town will ask taxpayers to support another over-ride.  This time it will be for the high school. Does Winchester High School need to be renovated or rebuilt? Probably. Do I trust the School Committee with more of my hard-earned tax dollars? After the debacle they created with this redistricting process, I will have to think long and hard about that answer.

-- Marsha Durbano
Washington Street


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