Brookline Officials Deny Withholding Information On Baldwin Site

BROOKLINE, MA — Although more than 5,000 people cast votes against funding it, conversation about the building of a ninth elementary school at the old Baldwin school site is not over.

This week, attorney Daniel Goldberg wrote and delivered a letter to the Select Board accusing them of withholding important information from the National Park Service. Goldberg is lead counsel for the New England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft who lives near the proposed site.

“It has become clear that critical information, disclosed only days ago by the Town in the pending taxpayer litigation, was intentionally withheld from the public until after the override vote,” he said in the letter. He goes on to point out that the National Park service expressed concerns about land use restrictions at the site.

The email is from Megan Lang of the National Park Service dated April 15 and addressed to Luke Legere an environmental lawyer at McGregor & Legere, and cced to Town Counsel Joslin Murphy. In it, Lang acknowledged that although the school project is in early planning stages there are parts that likely won't get approval by the Park Service because of protected land status there.

“We do want to make you aware that elements of the conceptual plans appear unlikely to be in compliance with LWCF [Land And Water Conservation Fund],” Lang wrote in the email.

Goldberg said he took issue with officials saying there were no basis to be concerned about any land restrictions.

"Neither the existence of that request for an NPS determination, nor the pendency of the questions then posed by NPS, were even disclosed to the Town Meeting Members in December, when Special Town Counsel downplayed the impact of any federal or state restrictions on the project and Town officials, who previously claimed that all legal due diligence had been completed, failed to disclose that the issue was actually being discussed with NPS," he wrote.

Select Board members and School Committee members said they had not seen the April 15 email before Goldberg brought it into the Select Board meeting, they told Patch.

Select Board Chair Bernard Greene said even when Goldberg brought it up, he thought the attorney was referring to something else that was a mistake.

Greene said Wednesday following the Select Board meeting he asked around to see if any others had gotten the April 15 email and checked his own email accounts.

Town Administrator Mel Kleckner had the town’s Information Technology department search the town's servers to determine whether the email had been sent to any town official, according to Greene. The email had not been sent to anyone, said Greene.

School Committee chairwoman Julie Schreiner Oldham concurred. Schreiner Oldham told Patch Wednesday she never received a copy of the email and asked both Neil Wishinksy and David Pollak and Andrew Bott if they had either. They hadn't, she said. Nor had any of them been told such an email had been received, she said.

"If this email had been shared with me, I would have shared this information with the public to keep them informed, as I have done throughout this process," she told Patch in an email.

Greene said now that he knows about the letter, he has some thoughts on it.

"It made no determination as to the use of the Baldwin School Playground by students at a new Baldwin School or students at the current school," he said in an email to Patch. "It merely stated that the Town’s preliminary plans raised questions for the NPS, listing three items that reflected, in my opinion, the NPS’ misunderstanding of the Town’s plans."

It also inferred that there would be continuing communications with the town as plans developed and that their concerns were expected to be worked out in those communications.

He pointed to the part in the letter where Lang writes:

“We know that this project is still in the early planning stages and hope that voicing these initial thoughts will help as plans progress.”

It's unclear when Murphy first read the letter, but she told Patch she was familiar with but did not forward the letter to either the Select Board or the School Committee. She also said she disagreed with Goldberg's assertion.

"I vigorously disagree with Mr. Goldberg’s assertion that the email offers 'critical information … intentionally withheld from the public,'" she said in an email to Patch on Thursday. "In fact, the Town requested a determination that the proposed Baldwin School Project is consistent with the terms of the LWCF grant from the NPS in October, 2018. To date, no such determination has been made, and unfettered public access to the Baldwin School Playground has always been flagged by this office as a requirement that I am confident could be met."

Override fails:

The effort to solve a problem of over crowding in Brookline schools by creating a ninth elementary school and expanding other schools, has been about a decade in the making.

Town Meeting Members, Brookline's elected legislature of 240 representatives, previously approved moving forward with funding the Driscoll School renovation and the Baldwin, ninth School, project.

On May 7 Brookline voters' had the chance to vote on funding both projects as a package deal to address rising enrollment through a debt exclusion override. There were campaigns on both sides of the issue knocking on doors and handing out fliers.

But voters chose not to approve a raise in what would amount to $780 in annual taxes for a single family or about $250 for a condo dweller.

Those against the ninth school at Baldwin pointed to this as vindication. Those who had been spending the better decade trying to find a place to build a ninth school expressed exasperation.

When it came down to it 4,299 voted for the override, and 5,169 voted against it. The vote was decided by 870 people.

Petition:

Some residents have circulated a petition and hundreds have signed on, asking officials to at least continue with the renovations proposed for the Driscoll School, but officials have expressed reservations about that, saying it could be akin to playing a game of whack-a-mole and cost more money to constantly be updating schools without addressing the bigger issue.

Previously:

Brookline Voters Reject Tax Override For Schools

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).