News
Schools Survey Performance and Preferences
By Ann Needle
At last night’s brief, 45-minute Nashoba School Committee meeting, members reviewed a summary of their individual evaluations of the superintendent for the year, and made plans to issue several surveys on how the schools are meeting the public’s expectations.
Reviewing new state criteria for rating school administrators, the Committee spent the past few months looking at how to revamp Nashoba’s ratings criteria. As part of the new rules — which will take effect next school year — the Committee also must shape those results into a formal, publicly-presented evaluation. Committee Chair Nancy Federspiel of Bolton cautioned that this means the format and content of Wood’s evaluation next year could be quite different.
BoH Holds Dangerous Dog Hearing
By Ellen Oliver
With approximately 20 people, and two news crews, in attendance at Town Building Tuesday night, the Board of Health held a public hearing to determine the dangerousness of several Stow dogs. The hearing was a result of a complaint filed by a Boxborough man after he and his dog were injured during an altercation with the Stow dogs on March 2 while walking in the Delaney project.
David Barr and his border collie Stella were walking at the Delaney Wildlife Management Area on the Stow/Harvard line when they encountered the three dogs. Julianne North of Stow was walking two of her own dogs, a shepherd mix and a puggle, along with a boxer mix owned by North’s son, Jay Rappa, also a Stow resident. All four dogs were off leash, which is prohibited on the Delaney property, managed by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Nashoba Trims School Choice Program
By Ann Needle
After weeks of debate, the Nashoba School Committee voted last night to nix the school choice program in kindergarten through grade 8. The amount of debate over the topic throughout several meetings easily outpaced discussion devoted to the approved 2013/14 budget, which was the subject of an annual public hearing that started the meeting.
Once again this year, the Committee took up its annual option to review the standing school choice policy, which regulates how many out-of-district students can come to school here in different grades. The Committee finally voted to keep the program only at Nashoba Regional High School.
Nashoba Panel Talks School Safety
By Ann Needle
Newtown and Columbine have become places all too familiar in many parents’ minds. Protecting children from incidents like the school shootings these towns experienced has become a very visible priority for law enforcement everywhere.
Last Wednesday, the Nashoba District hosted a public forum at Bolton’s Florence Sawyer School to discuss how administration is working with law enforcement to keep students safe, and how district families can help. The discussion panel, put together by the district, included school administrators and law enforcement from Bolton and Lancaster. Stow school administration did not attend, but answered questions in separate discussions.
Nashoba Budget Passes, with Cuts
By Ann Needle
The Nashoba School Committee passed the proposed 2013/14 budget last night, minus about $443,000 in cuts agreed upon before the vote. Also taking center stage was another heated discussion over whether to scrap the district’s school choice program, and a look at how Nashoba is tuning up school security.
At the Committee’s request, at the last meeting administration laid out several levels of cuts it could make to trim the $49.1 million proposed budget. These cuts were placed in four tiers. Trimming a half-percent (tier 1) would mean, among other changes, tapping another $50,000 from the district’s free cash and cutting a planned technology position. Heavier cuts would come in the next three tiers, including reductions in existing staff.
Dog Fight Injures Boxborough Man
By Nancy Arsenault
A Boxborough man and his dog were both injured on Saturday after an altercation between several dogs at the Delaney Wildlife Management Area.
A little before noon that day, police departments in Stow, Bolton and Harvard received several 911 cell phone calls from the Delaney Wildlife Management Area. Stow EMTs and Police responded to the Finn Road entrance of Delaney, just over the town line into Harvard, the closest point to the origin of the cell phone signals.
Nashoba Budget and Choice Heat Up
By Ann Needle
The Nashoba School Committee scrutinized possible cuts to its potential 2013/14 budget last night, with members agreeing to return later this month with decisions on what (if anything) could be trimmed. And, the school choice debate rolled on through sometimes heated discussion over whether profit from extra students makes up for resources that could be better used for residents.
At the Committee’s request during the last meeting, Wood presented what the $49.1 million proposed 2014 budget would look like if trimmed at three levels.
UMASS Creating Gleasondale Master Plan
By Nancy Arsenault
Planning Board Coordinator Karen Kelleher announced that Stow, and specifically the Gleasondale Village area, has been chosen by UMASS as the subject of a 14-week intensive exploration by students and faculty of the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Department in Amherst.
Their project will result in a specific Master Plan for that part of Stow, including an inventory of most properties contained within the village boundaries, analysis of economic and environmental issues, concluding with recommendations that could ultimately preserve the character of the area, ensuring its vitality and value to the town, well into the future, according to Kelleher.
Nashoba Postpones Budget Vote
By Ann Needle
The Nashoba School Committee put off a vote on the district’s proposed 2013/14 budget last night, agreeing that it needs to look more closely at what could be trimmed, especially given that the district towns’ assessments have become questionable. The Committee also looked at the potential calendar for next school year, along with changes to how Superintendent Michael Wood’s performance is evaluated.
In This Week’s Print Edition… February 13, 2013
Where to Buy a Copy Subscribe for Home Delivery Capital Projects Still Alive The Selectmen last night agreed to appoint an Oversight Committee to monitor a reevaluation of the three municipal capital projects that had failed at the Special Town Meeting in November. The Board also received a preliminary budget proposal for FY2014 from…