Source: Introductory letter from the Reading School Building Committee to Town Meeting attached to an information packet.
October 29, 1999
Dear Town Meeting Members,
The School Building Committee, in its Article before Town Meeting, is asking Town Meeting to reaffirm its support for the building of a new school on the Dividence Road Site.
It does not do so in any attempt to subvert the will of the people or ignore the special election of last January.
It does so, simply put, because it would not be true to its responsibility were it to do otherwise.
Town Meeting, in its decision to move forward on the new school and on the renovation and addition to the Barrows School, approved a comprehensive plan that solved the enrollment crisis at the elementary level and which was acceptable to the Department of Education, thus making it eligible for 66% reimbursement by the Commonwealth. The net cost to the Town of Reading for both projects was $5,000,000.
Town Meeting clearly understood that both projects had to be done, and was informed prior to debate, that if the new school was defeated, then the Barrows project would be removed from the table since by itself it was not an economically or educationally sound move.
The addition and renovation at Barrows, without a new school does not solve the enrollment problem, and thus is not acceptable to the Department of Education and is not reimbursable.
Without that reimbursement, the net cost to Reading of adding on and renovating Barrows alone would be $6.6 million. The Town would spend $1.6 million more to do less and not solve the problem.
For whatever reason, the voters chose to do exactly that. The Town is now left in a quandary which has severe economic and educational consequences. Those consequences fall directly in the lap of Town Meeting which must ultimately deal with them.
The School Building Committee is convinced that the answer necessary to avoid those negative consequences remains the building of a new elementary school along with the approved renovation and addition to Barrows.
The need of Town Meeting to deal with the consequences of their vote being overturned is hopefully apparent. The need of the School Building Committee to bring it back to Town Meeting should be equally apparent.
Enclosed with this packet we outline:
We hope that after review of this data, members of Town Meeting will come to the subsequent Town Meeting aware of the problem, aware of the negative consequences of not addressing the problem, and further aware of what your School Building Committee believes to be the answer that best addresses those negative consequences. The School Building Committee thanks you again for your continued support and interest and looks forward to seeing you at the informational meeting we have scheduled for Town Meeting members on November 6th from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Parker Middle School.
Reading School Building Committee