Sunday, November 2, 2008 Dear Parents and Guardians: Please allow me to share three brief updates as we begin a new week: • Three Needham High School graduates were honored at last week's annual Distinguished Career Awards: Anne Collins (NHS Class of '79), most recently the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles; Thomas Lambert ('73), former Needham police officer and current Chief of Police in Holliston; and Carol Hasenfus Stento ('77), championship NHS coach and mentor. Congratulations to our honorees who also spent the morning at NHS meeting with the entire junior class discussing their careers and accomplishments. • This is a reminder that there will be no school for students on Tuesday, November 4th, Election Day. Teachers, however, will be engaged in a professional development program all day at the high school. The reason we chose Election Day as a professional development day for teachers and a no school day for students is because the principals have expressed serious concern for student safety during elections when students are in classes and schools are used as polling places. Strangers in the building, traffic congestion in and out of school venues, and hazardous parking lot scenes (compete with many cars inappropriately parked in tight spaces, bus traffic, and small children darting around) have been a concern. For those reasons, and when it is possible, we would prefer not to have school in session during a major election. • Finally, my office has received several inquiries about the status of a possible Newman heating and ventilation construction project as it relates to the opening of High Rock as a 6th grade center next year. For the 2009-2010 school year, we anticipate that High Rock will be a 6th grade center and Newman will continue as an elementary school. The Permanent Public Building Committee (PPBC) has not yet received a final report from the architects and engineers studying the options for Newman. The report is due in mid November. However, the School Committee, the PPBC, and the Selectmen have determined that it is prudent to await the architect's recommendation for a project and then develop specific plans for design, construction, funding, and the full or partial relocation of students during a construction period. These groups plan to bring a specific proposal to the May 2009 Town Meeting for their support and funding for a project design. If Town Meeting approves a project, there will need to be a debt exclusion (override) to support such a renovation. The proposed timeline calls for construction to begin at Newman at the conclusion of the 2009-10 school year. Thus, the Newman school community would remain at Newman next year. There is no plan to relocate Newman students to High Rock or any other school next year. If the Newman School has an emergency requiring the student population to be relocated, we would, of course, consider all available options, including High Rock and the town's other schools and facilities, to temporarily place students. The school administration continues to develop contingency plans in the event any of our schools requires an emergency relocation at any time. We will share general information about those contingency plans at the November 18th School Committee meeting. I hope you and your family have a very good week! As always, I am happy to hear your questions, comments and concerns. Please contact my office at 781.455.0400, x 203 or [ mailto:dan_gutekanst@needham.k12.ma.us ]dan_gutekanst@needham.k12.ma.us . Enjoy the week! incerely, Daniel Gutekanst, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools