The scheduled March 4th School Committee meeting contained a limited number of agenda items, and the longest discussion within the two-hour meeting was regarding the physical condition of the eight Newton Public Schools (NPS) elementary schools that have not recently been rebuilt or renovated, and are not imminently confirmed for such actions. These schools are Bowen, Burr, Mason-Rice, Memorial-Spaulding, Peirce, Underwood, Ward, and Williams.
The architecture firm Perkins Eastman submitted an 85-page presentation that describes the results of the work the firm has been conducting since April 2023. The presentation contains detailed floorplans of each school building, space assessments against MSBA recommendations for square footage, and a building conditions report for each facility. The presentation also included cost estimates — some provided by City of Newton and some generated by Perkins — to bring each building to what the architect described as “current building standards,” without expanding the building footprints or changing the educational programs currently provided. The total cost estimate for all eight schools was approximately $145 million.
During discussion with the School Committee following the presentation, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller noted that these costs will not necessarily all be incurred, and almost certainly not in the near-term, pending more citywide debate and discussion about long-term planning for school facilities and the City’s budgeting. The Perkins report is the third item in an eight-step process the district is undertaking as part of its comprehensive School Facilities and Enrollment Planning Study.
Prior to the Perkins discussion, Assistant Superintendent Liam Hurley and his financial team gave a budget update for actual spending-to-date for the current academic year (FY24). NPS is presently estimating completing FY24 with a surplus of $1.8 million, compared to expected expenditures at the start of the year. Contained within the update was an estimate of $300,000 (0.1% of the total budget) for the year’s legal services costs incurred by the district, which includes lawyer fees related to the Newton Teachers Association contract negotiation. This amount had previously been the subject of questions submitted during prior public comment periods.
Other topics discussed included:
- A Facilities Memo containing updates regarding the Lincoln-Eliot, Horace Mann, Countryside, and Franklin projects:
- Affirmative votes confirming salary increases for the Newton Educational Secretaries Association (NESA) and Non-Aligned Staff (which includes central office administrators); and
- The regular Superintendent’s update.
The meeting replay is available on NewTV.