A Few Suggestions for Upgrading the Robert Frost

Enough of the daily griping, seemed to be the motivation.

Supt. Patti Jaffe summoned parents and friends of the school community to a late afternoon meeting yesterday to bat around their suggested improvements for the declining Robert Frost Auditorium, the hottest schools topic in town this season.

The School Board has been talking about the massive four-pronged, extremely lengthy and expensive undertaking since summer, which is how long people have been mad about the process.

The half-century-old Frost is one of four capital improvement projects on the School District’s calendar. Stentorian activists have been complaining for several months that their pet project is not getting as much fiscal or emotional attention as somebody else’s.

This time the subject was the Frost, and future town halls will concern the athletic facilities and solar paneling. The fourth prong, elevators at the Middle School and high school is the most straight-forward part of the proposal. It has escaped controversy.

When 40 strong-minded persons spilled into the School District quarters, the planned 90-minute meeting threatened to devolve into a careful-what-you-wish-for moment.

However, Ms. Jaffe and Ali Delawalla, Asst. Supt. of Business Services, were firmly effective in maintaining order, she as the mistress of ceremonies, he in explaining the status of the capital improvements.

Time to Split

After clearly outlining the purpose of the meeting — “soliciting your opinions” —Ms. Jaffe divided and directed the crowd into five no-nonsense breakout groups charged with listing two categories, “improvements” and “your concerns.”

It was a pregnant moment, almost like asking an oldtimer to critique his mother-in-law — no wall was large enough to hold all views, even when writing in peanut-sized letters.

Board President Scott Zeidman was in the room, and he was asked how weighted the communal recommendation list would be in the final accounting. “You always want community involvement,” he said. “But note, 40 people are here and there are 40,000 people in our community.”

How heavily should community viewpoints influence decision-making?

“The community has to be heard, has to be listened to. When the community is right, certainly it can influence. But it can be dead wrong — if it decides we should put black lights throughout a facility for Halloween — it may be great for one day a year but not so good for the other 364.

“So it depends on what they have to say. Certainly, though, we want the input. They have a vast knowledge of things I don’t have.

“I am here today to watch them, to listen to them and to learn from them.”

For the next half-hour, the breakout groups jotted down improvements, and there was no doubt the champion idea people were in the group led by Tracy Pumilia, Principal of El Marino Language Immersion School. They seemed more prolific than the rest of the groups cumulatively. Ms. Pumilia probably developed writer’s cramp and may have had to finish with her non-writing hand.

The main suggestions from all groups for the Robert Frost:

Asbestos inspection/abatement

Computer networking

Finally:

“Current budget will not cover current needs.”

The community list will be melded with the District groundwork to date and discussed at future School Board meetings, starting tonight at 7 in Council