Category: Letters to Local Papers

The proposal to replace our two grammar schools with a combined school at the current Doyon site is contrary to the goals and guidelines established in the 2003 Community Development Plan (CDP).

The CDP is an important guide to our town’s sustainability and quality of life.  Exceptions to these goals and guiding principles should not be made lightly.

On July 24, 2003, the planning board adopted the CDP as the planning strategy for the town after an extensive three-year public process that began in early 2000.

The CDP reflects the input of the town’s residents and business people, the guidance of a 24-member growth management steering committee, and the Ipswich Department of Planning.

The board of selectman accepted the plan on Sept. 15, 2003, and on Oct. 20, 2003, the Ipswich special town meeting accepted both the plan and an implementation process for it.

The CDP is an important document, and it was a significant factor in our deciding to move to Ipswich and in the choice we made in purchasing our home on Central Street.

Recently married in 2004, we were looking for a place to set our roots, a walkable community that wasn’t the city.

Ipswich was on our list but it entailed a daunting daily commute.  It was the CDP that sealed the deal for us.

The goals, the values, and the long-term objectives that were laid out and codified in an official document were exactly the progressive ideals of which we were looking to be a part.

The house we purchased on Central Street met our two most important criteria: sidewalks, and walking distance to all three schools that our children would attend.

It is a busy street and the commute is every bit as bad as we thought it would be. But our kids walk to school.

And they walk or ride their bikes to their friends’ house after school and on weekends.  Because they can.  Because there are sidewalks, and they are not that far away.

And hardly a weekend goes by that we don’t walk or ride our bikes downtown to Tedfords, Zumi’s, the Library, or Bialek Park.

Our best nights out are the ones we can walk to: The Hart House, The Sports Bar, The Choate Bridge Pub. This is the lifestyle we bought into 14 years ago.

Yes, the condition of the grammar schools need to be addressed.

But moving the Winthrop School out of the center of town flies in the face of the CDP that we put so much stock in when we committed to moving here, and committed to being active participants in that progressive community vision.

And while the condition of the building is less than ideal, our kids thrived there.

And we don’t believe their education suffered in any direct way from the facilities. We will be voting no on the one mega-school option at town meeting on May 8.

We can do better. We need to do better. And in the additional time it takes to get this project right our kids will continue to thrive because it is the community, not the building, that really matters.

For information on the Community Development Plan see these links on the town website:

• https://www.ipswichma.gov/documentcenter/view/1011
• https://www.ipswichma.gov/326/Ipswich-Community-Development-Plan

Dear Fellow Residents,

Since 2016 the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has granted the Winthrop Elementary School its highest honor and ranked it as a “Level 1 school.”

This means that Winthrop School is among “the highest performing” elementary schools in Massachusetts, and, that it “meets targets for reducing proficiency gaps both for all students and for the highest needs.” That’s quite an achievement.

We, the citizens of Ipswich, must be honest with ourselves and understand that the proposed combined elementary school at Doyon would necessarily dissolve one of the town’s highest performing educational communities at Winthrop and disperse its high achieving, living community of excellent leadership, staff, parents and children into an unknown and untested reconfiguration that will require years to reorganize and then achieve the educational excellence our town now possesses at Winthrop Elementary School, if that is possible at all.

It has taken years of dedication and leadership to grow the school community and programming at Winthrop Elementary School and it should be preserved and used as an educational model that can and should be adopted across the district so that all our schools can achieve Level 1 status.

A brand new “state of the art” building does not solve educational challenges and create “state of the art” learning and opportunities.

In fact, study after study show that academic achievement is consistently linked to small schools. Let’s not destroy what is working.

I urge Ipswich residents: Vote to preserve our small community schools. Support a plan that addresses both elementary schools’ infrastructure and preserves community schools.

All our children deserve that. We as a community need to support that.

Ipswich, we still have a choice regarding the much debated elementary school project.

You can vote “no” for one combined elementary school at Doyon on May 8 at town meeting. We can do much better than the one choice currently on the table.

Seraphima McLean
Woods Lane,
Ipswich

How can our town come together and embrace a popular option for rejuvenating our elementary schools? As a general principle, whatever the solution might be, we should try to take away as little as possible from our townspeople. That includes our schools, our parks, and our pocket books. It seems obvious that when a government decides to commandeer and dismantle cherished entities, or exact an extra tax, or take anything away from its citizens, it should have a solid rationale and overwhelming public support.

The school committee and school building committee don’t have anything close to full public support. On the contrary, they have pursued a path which has led to greater and greater division.

If we review the history of town meetings on this school subject, the only unambiguous position the town has ever assumed was on Oct. 21, 2014, when a required (two-thirds) majority favored the funding of the original Winthrop rebuild.

We had consensus. We had a well-defined grant backed by the solid support of the town, parents, and the teachers. Since then, that voice has been ignored, then divided through a series of contentious reinventions. From that high point of unity, our school leadership has obstinately mapped out a path toward the current state of discord

An effective leadership would have tempered big building interests with more affordable and creative alternatives such as the renovation of both schools. An effective leadership would sought directions which avoid splintering our community into Winthrop, Doyon, and Bialek camps.

Now there is even talk of ignoring the results of our recent special town meeting. If the school committee were to continue on an undeflected path toward a single school at Doyon, it would be a flagrant insult to our system of government. Town meetings are meant to count, not to be circumvented.

Our leadership should be asking how, why and by whom our original consensus was so sadly fractured. They should be questioning the vision and the composition of their boards, not its citizens. We need to embrace a solution which honors everyone in our community, and respects all of our neighborhood cultures.

There are a great deal of faulty assumptions and misinformation regarding the proposed combined new elementary school at the Doyon site.

Here’s the truth: Absolutely nothing has been decided, and we the taxpayers will have our say in the spring.

There remains a steep road ahead for proponents of the new school. A two-thirds’ vote is needed at the next town meeting to even make it to the ballot box.

I remain convinced that the decision to use significant town resources and taxpayer money towards building a giant brand new combined elementary school outside of the centrally located town center is a massive mistake, both for the children of the community and the town of Ipswich itself.

Don’t forget, at the last spring town meeting the voters rejected further funding this project.

But the school committee went ahead and ignored that vote. They took funds from the technology fund — money that was supposed to be used for children’s education — to pay for the study that the voters had rejected.

This roundabout way to fund the feasibility study is a travesty of democracy.

Going forward, please know that we have a choice. Considering the rather grim budget forecasts for our schools, it is my belief that we should rather be thinking about how to retain our teachers, dynamic curriculum, and two beloved neighborhood schools.

Tearing down a long-treasured downtown school and changing how we educate all elementary children, just so we can have a shiny new building, is not the only choice.

A vote against this new school is actually a vote for community and for a better education for all our children.

By Neal Zagarella

Several facts seem to have been forgotten as the town struggles to find a path forward for our elementary schools. Chief among these is that both schools applied for state funding and only one school, Winthrop, qualified for the grant. This decision by the state inherently means the building at Winthrop is in greater need of repair than that at Doyon.

Continue reading “A Winthrop argument for Ipswich”

By Elizabeth Harkness

I have been enchanted by Ipswich since my first visit to town years ago. I feel very fortunate to be a resident here now. I think most can agree that this is a phenomenal place to live and a fantastic place to raise a family.

Despite what currently transpires at the national and global level, again, I have felt fortunate to be in a place as compassionate and caring as Ipswich.

Continue reading “What If Winthrop Families Were Asked to Wait While Doyon Was Rebuilt? I’d Say Yes”

By Kimberly Mavroides

After nearly three years of studies, discussions and campaigns, it feels like we are no closer to successfully completing a school project than we were before this whole building process began. With critical meetings and deadlines fast approaching, the School Committee has stated publicly that their preferred project is still one combined school at the Doyon site, even though a recent town vote fell well short of the required 2/3 majority needed for it to pass. We were told to think of the vote as a referendum on a large school at Doyon, so the level of support would be a litmus test of the overall feeling on the project itself.

Continue reading “Ipswich can come up with school plan”

By Michele Hunton

Thanks to the School Committee (SC), School Building Committee (SBC), and other town officials for their time and dedication to the school building project.

I want to present the background and concerns that led to my and others’ positions on the school project. The recent statement by the SC that “One community school for all students, at the Doyon site, is still the active project supported by the School Committee” has led me to believe that the SC plans to move forward with a combined school at the Doyon site despite the failure to obtain two-thirds support to fund a feasibility study for a combined school at Doyon by 101 votes.

Continue reading “It Is Clear There Was Never a Consensus to Build a Single School at Doyon”

By Randy Hackett

As someone who’s always pushed for two small schools, I feel the need to defend the two schooler’s position from those who say, “Where have you have been?” The answer is that many advocates of two schools have been here all along from the beginning of the process.

I’ve been to numerous school committee meetings and Tri-Board meetings throughout this lengthy process. The two school signs that appeared on lawns in the run up to town meeting are two years old.

The fact that SOI’s to rebuild Doyon were never submitted, neither in January of 2015, or in January of 2016 would lead many to conclude the two-school model was never really considered by the SC.

Continue reading “Two Equal Schools — The Way To Unite Us All”

By Neal Zagarella

As an Ipswich taxpayer and parent of two successful graduates of its schools, I have been disheartened by the tenor of the school building debate and disappointed by the lack of cogent leadership from our town boards. Many of the most passionate citizens on all sides of this debate are the same people that have fought hard for school funding at the ballot box and given of their time and money to support education in Ipswich. Civic engagement must be more than choosing one side and attacking the other. That breeds apathy and cynicism. Respectful open debate should be our goal.

Continue reading “Preserve small school communities”