Brian Yates
Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA
Schools, Newton North, & The Newton South Play Fields
Schools
- As a graduate of the Newton Public Schools (Emerson,
Meadowbrook Junior High, and Newton South High School), I am grateful for
the opportunity that the Newton schools gave me to seek a higher education
(Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Boston College, and Master of Urban Affairs,
Boston University). I have supported improvements to the Newton Public
Schools to make sure that current and future students enjoy the same
benefits that my friends and I have had.
- I have supported the current renovations to
Newton South and Newton North High Schools to bring them into
compliance with health and safety codes, provide current
and future technology, and meet other specific needs that
have developed since construction decades ago. I urged the inclusion of
alternative energy in the schools' redesign. When it became clear that the
original assumptions for the renovation of Newton North High School were
mistaken, I supported the mayor's appointment of a Task Force to find a
fiscally and educationally sound way of meeting the needs of North High
students.
-
I
support the use of the Oak Hill School as a badly needed
middle school though with great regret that the Warren
and Weeks Junior Highs had been mistakenly been sold off long
since by the City. I also supported the improvements to
the remaining elementary schools after the terribly
mistaken closings of the Village Center schools in the
late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The schools that
were improved included Angier, Bowen, Countryside,
Memorial-Spaulding and Williams.
Newton North
- The past several years have seen the design and
start of construction of the Newton North High School. I have brought to bear on
this task my 20 years of service on the Public Facilities Committee where an
item I co-sponsored helped to bring in the Main Library Building on time and
under budget. I made sure that the Design Review committee was fully
involved in this project. The current Newton North was built without their
input; its prison-like
appearance and multitude of dysfunctions show the results of failing to involve
them. You all know that this is the largest and most expensive Public Building
project ever undertaken by the city, and I will make sure the administration
holds the "Construction Manager at Risk" (a misnomer as we've learned) to the Guaranteed
Maximum Price. I don't think the Mayor will ask for more, but if he does, I and
my colleagues will deny his request.
-
The price is higher than we would have wanted but probably what it costs
to build a school with the required level of programming. The athletic and
theatrical wings should be great assets to the whole city, not just the
school. Different Contractors and different processes might have yielded
different results, but we can be pleased that the completed School will
earn a Silver
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Certification for Energy Efficiency and Conservation, provides natural lighting
for all classrooms. and is set as far back as possible from the surrounding
streets and homes.
- The issues of traffic to the site remain to be completely resolved. I oppose
left turns from Walnut Street into the "ceremonial drive" and favor right turns
into and out of the site whenever possible. I hope that students will show their
environmental consciousness by walking to the site or riding to it on MBTA (it's
on Route 59) or school buses. No students should drive themselves or have their
parents drive them except in the direst of circumstances. (Environmentally
conscious students should also attempt to keep the sections of Laundry Brook
that are open before it goes under the school site clean or even work with the
Friends of Bullough's Pond.)
Newton South Play Fields
-
The Newton South High School Playing
Fields have been unplayable after even small rain storms for years because of
drainage problems. I supported a drainage study which showed that the
problem was on the site itself, not downstream in Meadowbrook. The soil on
the site had been compacted by decades of use that water could not drain into
the ground and thus into the brook and the Charles River. I supported the
drainage work on site to correct this problem.
-
To make sure that some South
fields are playable, I supported the compromise solution that two fields
(football and multi-use) would be made of artificial turf and that two
fields (baseball and softball) would be made of natural turf.
-
I supported
the resolution to the Mayor that the artificial turf be made of new European
components that are organic rather than rubber crumbs or similar materials.
This page last updated on
Thursday September 24, 2009
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