Norwood Town Meeting Approves Budget Monday Night

NORWOOD, MA - Norwood kicked off its Annual Town Meeting Monday night with the approval of the town and School Department budgets as well as the approval of six projects that will be funded through the Community Preservation Act.

Historic moments

The night made history as Gerri Slater presided as the town's first female Town Moderator, taking over for attorney David Hern, her veteran predecessor. It was also the first time that two female members of the Board of Selectman, Helen Abdallah Donohue and Amanda Grow, have served simultaneously as board members during a Town Meeting.

"Tonight's going to be a night of some new traditions," Slater said.

Slater's first "new tradition" was to ask Hugh Galligan, who recently was named the Massachusetts School Administrators Association High School Principal of the Year, to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.

It was also a time for reflection, as lifelong Norwood resident and Building Commissioner Matt Walsh, who died on May 4 at the age of 59, was honored in a moment of silence.

Special Town Meeting

Members got down to business, starting Monday's session of three and a half hours with the Special Town Meeting's 10 articles. Passing easily, they were mainly administrative in nature and dealt with the transfer of municipal funds.

The most widely discussed of these was Article 4 regarding the distribution of the town's $10 million in proceeds from the sale of the Forbes Hill to expand Moderna's campus.

The article, which was approved after some debate, allocated $6.2 million for a newly created Open Space Stabilization Fund. Also, $2 million was appropriated for the Override Stabilization Fund. If the article were not approved, the money would go into free cash, where it could be allocated to a variety of uses.

"We felt that this was a good use of this money, and we do need some open space," said Anne Marie Haley, chair of the Finance Commission. Others agreed that the money would be on hand to purchase available of rare open space. One potential purchase mentioned by members was the 20-acre Cofsky Farm property.

Not everyone agreed, however. A few members questioned whether that was the best use of the money, including Donohue. She was the only selectman to vote against this proposal during a recent Board of Selectman's meeting.

Donohue suggested that the funds be better spent by going toward electrical and maintenance repairs at Town Hall or toward the building of the new Coakley Middle School building.

"I don't think we should be in the real estate business," she said.

The measure, which needed to be passed by a two-thirds majority of 120-27.

Article 6 also generated some debate, but it passed unanimously. It transferred $67,000 from free cash to the School Department to purchase information technology equipment. Some questioned why the allocation wasn't part of the school budget.

General Manager Tony Mazzucco explained that in order to capitalize on the grant cycle for state and federal grants to fund this type of technology, the funding needs to come forward now rather than in the fall, when traditional capital requests are presented.

School Superintendent David Thomson added that the technology needs to be added while school is not in session so learning will not be disrupted.

"We cannot take our network down in the middle of the year," he said. "It's just not possible."

Article 9, approved unanimously, appropriated $14.1 million to pay for the costs for upgrading the Norwood Light and Broadband distribution plant to upgrade its broadband capacity from hybrid fiber coaxial cable to a fiberoptic system. The town is one of the few in the state to have its own light department.

Article 7 established a local water and sewer enterprise fund.

Annual Town Meeting: The budget

Town Meeting approved the $215,376,945 proposed town budget in Articles 4 through 7. The School Department budget request for $52,801,033 generated the most discussion before approval, as Thomson explained the challenges of serving an unexpected swell of students this year with disabilities or whose primary language is not English.

He noted that this school year, 26.9% of students speak a first language that is not English, and many of the new students in that category speak little or no English. There are about 812 special education students in the district as well.

"We have a moral and legal obligation to meet their needs," he said. "And we are working diligently to do that."

The number of students moving in this year from out of the district has skyrocketed, causing the need for more staff, Thomson noted. The special education budget increase requested was $352,896 for new staff; for English learner instruction, it was $210,553.

Questions were raised about addressing these needs, which are expected to grow over the next few years. Some of the issues for younger learners may have arisen because their early years were spent in class online rather than in the classroom because of the pandemic.

Community Preservation articles

The members also approved the following projects, which will be funded via the Community Preservation Act:

• A request for $10,000 to join the Regional Housing Services Organization for one year. It would allow the town to access housing experts to compile a subsidized housing unit inventory.
• A request for $10,000 to restore and preserve the original rendering of the construction of Town Hall, as well as another $14,500 to restore and preserve the town's annual reports.
• A request for $72,000 for a pocket park on a town-owned parcel at Stearns and Elliot streets.
• The creation of a park on the Saint Streets lot to be named in honor of Bernie Cooper, the late assistant town manager who worked for the town for 49 years.

The Annual Town Meeting will continue Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Norwood High School. If a third night is needed, it would continue next Thursday, May 19, at the same time and location.