School board to review west side options at town hall follow-up

School board members will participate in a “town hall follow-up” as part of a future work session, and in doing so will also discuss what has become a fervent talking point among residents who have spoken up about the district’s proposed configuration plans: Why no options favoring the west side of Newton?

Newton Superintendent Tom Messinger said the reconfiguration options presented at the town halls — which recommend closing Woodrow Wilson Elementary and Thomas Jefferson Elementary — are viewed as “the most efficient ones to pursue,” but that did not mean others were ruled out.

In response, Messinger and director of business services Tim Bloom met with FRK Architects + Engineers to prepare a west side option with a cost comparison and timeline comparison to the options laid out in the town hall meetings in August. FRK will also develop ideas to resolve the traffic flow issues.

The school board will hold the work session on Sept. 11.

Robyn Friedman, president of the Newton school board, stressed the work session is not just about the west side options, but it will encompass a portion of the meeting, which she described as more of a “debriefing” of the town halls. The west side options, she added, was a significant talking point at both events.

Which is somewhat the opposite when it came to discussions at the board table. Apart from some residents expressing their concerns about having no school buildings on the west side of town, board members had not discussed the topic in-depth or compared costs. Friedman said the work session will fix that.

“There was some awareness from the board leadership side that we had only spoken in generalities about the costs at TJ, and that was restrictive to us to being able to utilize that site, but we don’t have any specifics around it,” she said. “So we’re just trying to get an idea of what the specifics would be.”

Friedman noted the work session also reinforces past statements that the board has not reached a final decision regarding the proposed reconfiguration. Officials want to look at every possible option available. Friedman said if the board wants to look at the issue from every angle, they need as much information as possible.

Time is a factor in the school board’s decision making, but Friedman disagrees the board is wasting time by holding another work session. Particularly because this is an important decision, Friedman said, and an important decision requires more time and thoughtful thinking, and “not moving in a rash manner.”

Friedman said, “We are not slowing down by taking another couple of weeks to pause and look at a few more things. So we can still move forward with any of those timelines that have been presented by taking a little bit more time and looking at it. We want to make sure everyone has their questions answered.”