Town Meeting supports schools
Published on March 13th, 2002
STONEHAM – MA, Town Meeting voted yes on Article 2, to give the schools the money. That’s the short version...
“It just goes to show you what hard work, perseverance and community can do,” said overjoyed School Committee Vice Chairwoman Jeanne Craigie.
What happened?
The March 11 Special Town Meeting voted 1,065 to 239 to add another $6 million to an almost $40 million debt exclusion from Proposition 2 1/2. Citizens approved the original debt exclusion in 1997 at Town Meeting and on a local ballot to fund construction of four new elementary schools under a partially state-reimbursed program.
Passage of Article 2 last Monday means citizens who own homes assessed at $250,000, for example, will pay around $20 more in fiscal 2003 property taxes and $50 more in fiscal 2004. And passage means the Town must borrows another $800,000.
But passage also means Stoneham gets close to $5.2 million more from the State. This money will help pay for the renovations and additions originally planned to bring Robin Hood and Colonial Park alive in the same state of the art incarnation as the South and Central Schools.
Article 2 needed two-thirds, or 67 percent, of the vote to pass; it got 82 percent. Town Clerk John Hanright said 1,344 registered voters checked in with his staff Monday night, and 1,304 voted.
Praise for a job well done
Everyone had rave reviews for the smooth and efficient proceedings organized by Town Clerk Hanright, Superinten-dent Joseph Connelly and all the members of their support staffs.
Hanright thanked his staff and everyone from the schools and tipped his hat to Moderator Michael Rotondi for handling the larger than life meeting with skill and class.
Don’t forget about me
Article 1 — the only other article on the agenda — asked voters to OK borrowing $600,000 for drainage work in the Oak Street area. A visible majority passed the article after listening to the favorable recommendations of town officials and two area neighbors.
Perspective
In total, 1,344 voters approved $6,600,000. In comparison, at the last Annual Town Meeting in May 2001, fewer than 400 voters determined the fate of more than $50 million.
Citizen John DeGeorge did not speak at the meeting, but he was present and mentioned in a brief conversation that the large turnout supports the idea that the Open Town Meeting format needs some updating.
“We rescheduled to accommodate ‘everybody,’ but you can’t accommodate all the voters, if they want to come,” DeGeorge said.
Truly special
The March 11 Special Town Meeting was unique even before it began.
The Meeting was originally scheduled for March 4 at Town Hall. Town officials expected a huge turnout, maybe close to 1,000. Town employees set up 1,300 chairs. On the night of the meeting after 1,286 people had checked, with hundreds more waiting in line, and the Fire Department getting nervous, Moderator Rotondi postponed the big event. He announced that the meeting would be held on March 11 at Stoneham High School.
The restless crowd, which had been clapping, swearing, and shouting, made a small fuss but then cleared out without any trouble.
During the week town officials decided to use the Stoneham High gym as the main hall with overflow seating in the school auditorium if necessary because the gym can hold close to 2000. All the bleachers were set up and seats covered a blue tarpaulin rolled over the basketball court and track. The Moderator’s stage and the tables for town officials were against the far wall opposite the bleachers.
There some unfilled seats scattered here and there throughout the gym, and approximately 25 people sat in the auditorium rather than hunt for a spot.
The town also set up a classroom with a TV hookup to the main hall where parents could stay with their children. Around 15 parents took advantage of this option. If any of these parents had wanted to speak, they would have been escorted to the gym. Craig Celli of 79 Westwood Road acted as satellite moderator from the room, communicating with Rotondi over police radios obtained by Hanright and set safely not to interfere with police communications.
For parents who wanted to stay in the gym but couldn’t find sitters, Stoneham girls who had completed the Girl Scout babysitting course babysat kids in the cafeteria.
Minutes of the Meeting
At 7 p.m. the High School parking lot was almost full. Shuttle buses were taking people from the Boys Club lot to the meeting. Police were monitoring the continuous traffic snaking up from Franklin Street toward the High School.
Inside at 7:05 p.m. lines were forming at all the check in tables just inside the interior entrance, and the gym looked full except for one set of bleachers that was filling up quickly. People kept streaming in for the next half hour. The School Department had citizens enter the High School through the front door and wind through the school to get to the gym so nobody had to wait outside in the cold.
At 7:40 p.m. Rotondi tried a sound check, and at 7:45 p.m. he gaveled the meeting open.
Because of the crowd the first order of business was explaining the fire escape routes. Rotondi told the assembly that he had postponed the meeting so that everyone who wanted in could participate in safety.
“For people who get out of order we aren’t near the police station, but we are very close to the Principal’s Office,” Rotondi joked.
And then the meeting got down to business.
Article 1
Selectmen Chairman Anthony Kennedy and Finance Board member Steve Geary recommended borrowing $600,000 to pay for the Oak Street work as part of an ongoing effort to improve drainage townwide.
Carol Feke of 25 Oak Street spoke in favor of the article, detailing the flooding of her home and her neighbors’ homes.
A Marble Street man then asked about the Route 128/93 interchange and its impact on drainage. Selectmen Kennedy said the matter would be discussed at the March 19 Selectmen’s meeting.
Then Nancy Fecho of 6 Greenway Circle added some perspective to the debate.
“My home floods, and so do others. It’s a much wider area than just Oak Street,” she said, urging the citizens to vote yes on Article 1.
The vote required a two-thirds majority and passed easily with a near unanimous show of hands. Reconsideration was quickly voted down.
Article 2
Around 8 p.m. Article 2 stepped onto center stage. In support of the article everything that had been said before was said again in detail with charts and graphs in a slide presentation. Building Committee Chairman Daniel Hogan, Building Committee Vice Chairman Ronald Fiore, Building Committee member David Campbell, Selectmen Kennedy and Mary Pecoraro, Finance Board member Peter D’Angelo and School Commit-tee Chairwoman Marie Christie laid out the yes position.
At 9 p.m. Rotondi asked if anyone wanted to speak in opposition to or ask questions about Article 2.
Michelle Maher of 21 Philips Road stood and called upon 25 people to rise with her to move the vote to a secret ballot. This motion does not end debate, but the crowd may have thought it did because people began hooting and hollering. Others stood to support her motion.
Rotondi told people to refrain from rude behavior and explained that debate would continue. He counted at least 25 people standing, and said the final vote would be taken on a secret ballot. Hanright and his team of elections workers were prepared with simple yes/no ballots and five, computerized Accuvote ballot machines set up against the wall near the exit/entrance.
Public debate opened again with Feke from Oak Street. She spoke in favor of the schools, talking about the advantages of higher property values derived from a good school system.
Rotondi again asked if anyone wanted to speak against the schools.
The first person to do so was Fred Kranefuss of 12 Gerry St. He asked whether there would be any increase from the costs the Building Committee presented for the final two schools ($12,090,000 for Robin Hood and $11,024,378 for Colonial Park).
Hogan said costs will not increase because these figures are accepted bids, not estimates.
A motion to move the question received deafening applause followed by a rebuke from Rotondi that the motion was not yet appropriate.
Rotondi called for more debate, and Frank Pignone of 2 Gigante Drive rose to speak. He started talking about children and Democracy, but Rotondi asked him to get specific. He asked about “illegal children in the schools,” and Rotondi told him to stay on the subject. Finally Pignone asked what the cost “of construction only” was for the Robin Hood and Colonial Park Schools.
Fiore responded: the Robin Hood construction costs is $9,688,000. The Colonial Park construction cost is $8,908,000. Contingency funds and design round out the total costs.
The floor remained open, but Pignone had nothing to add.
Then Tom Dolan of 6 Stone Ave. made a motion to move the question to a vote. The crowd cheered, and at 9:20 p.m. a visible majority of them raised their hands to move the question.
Voting concluded at 10:10 p.m. The results were read machine by machine, and waves of intensifying applause swept through the gym as the yes votes handily beat the no’s at each ballot box, securing the $6 million to finish the elementary school project.
Craigie made a motion to dissolve the meeting. It passed, and Rotondi gaveled the meeting closed at 10:20 p.m.
Then to the parking lot for a 20 minute wait to leave the Patriots’ game, uh Town Meeting.
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