LETTER: Communications Key For Moving Forward With New School

I am very excited to see that the Framingham Public Schools has been moved forward to the next level in the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) process, which could lead up to the state reimbursing up to 50 percent for a new school.

As someone who sat on the Framingham School Committee and was a member of the building and grounds subcommittee, I know well the issues that the Fuller building is facing and support working towards a new building that would provide our students and teachers the learning environment they deserve.

I also want to thank the buildings and grounds department, its director, central office and the School Committee for their work in getting to this point.

At the same time, we also need to realize that this is the start of a process, not the end.

This will be one of the most critical communication tasks the district has faced, and communication has not always been the district’s greatest strength.

As the district and School Committee begins the process of communication to Town Meeting and other groups, they need to be able to clearly answer these questions:

1 . What exactly are the enrollment and facilities issues driving the push for a new facility?

2. What do they hope to build: aK -8 or 6-8 ? Why?

3. Where will they build: do they plan to build at Fuller, or at the Bethany site they are hoping to

purchase, or somewhere else?

4. What would happen to Fuller during construction? after construction?

5. What would the timeline be? What will the costs be?

6. What do they want to make sure a new facility has in order to best educate all our children and

to support all our staff?

As they do this work, I’d urge School Committee and central office to reach out to the community proactively so that many people can help shape the answers to these questions. This will increase the chances of community support and a project that earns MSBA reimbursement.

This is a great opportunity for Framingham’s future and I look forward to helping in any way that I can.

Ricky Finlay

Framingham