Newton Corner Neighborhood Association
Meeting Notes:
October 5, 2023
Greetings to all members of the Newton Corner Neighborhood Association!
A message of vital importance to all who are interested in improving the traffic flow around the Newton Corner rotary:
Please pre-register for the Department of Transportation Meeting on Tuesday, 10/24, at 6:30 PM using the link below. You will not be able to attend the meeting unless you pre-register!
Our meeting on October 5, 2023, focused on three topics of importance to the neighborhood:
— Teacher Contract Negotiations
— Mass Department of Transportation Study:
— Zoning Reforms: Newton Village Centers and the MBTA Communities Law
We were joined at this meeting by our Ward 1 City Councilors: Alison Leary, Maria Scibelli-Greenberg, John Oliver, and Ward 7 Councilor Marc Laredo. In addition, Ward 1 School Committee representatives Rajeev Parlikar and Michael Burtch, a teacher at Bigelow Middle School and a member of the Newton Teachers Association negotiating team, provided additional insight into the teacher contract negotiating process.
Teacher Contract Negotiations
Rajeev Parlikar introduced himself by sharing a brief history of his involvement with the Newton schools, beginning with the Newton Childhood Educational Program and the Special Ed Parent Advisory Council. He has been the Ward 1 Representative to the School Committee for 2 years and is running for re-election. Rajeev acknowledged the challenges facing the school committee in the aftermath of the pandemic as well as those facing the students, staff, and the city. Finalizing the last two budgets, including laying off teachers (when he felt Newton should have been adding them), was among the worst of these challenges.
Rajeev stressed that the city continues to be in a difficult financial position. Whereas he wishes we could add support staff and councilors, the city does not have the necessary resources. Instead, they must work within the funding provided by the Mayor.
Today, the school committee is negotiating three contracts concurrently. The first contract is with the Newton Teachers Association (NTA). The second is with the Newton Educational Secretary’s Association; it is acknowledged that the secretaries keep the schools running. The third is with the Newton Custodian Association. He said it is not unusual for schools to have a contract run out before a new one is signed and that the NTA leadership is doing what unions should do, i.e., represent teachers in the best possible way.
While Rajeev acknowledges that ongoing annual layoffs are not what anyone wants and is not good for students, he remains optimistic about reaching a sustainable future settlement.
Michael Burtch is a health and wellness teacher at Bigelow Middle School and on the NTA negotiating team. He said that the atmosphere inside of Bigelow has changed over the 12 years he’s been there from a concern with “What is best for education?” to “What can we do to cut costs?” Enrollment has dipped, and the budget has been cut. This is reflected in the composition of teaching teams (of which there are two per grade). A typical four-person team has a specialist in each of the following areas: English, History/Social Studies, Science, and Math. Due to budget cuts, the 6th and the 8th grades now have one four-person team and one two-person team. In a two-person team, one person teaches both English and History/Social Studies, and the other teaches Science and Math.
In some cases, these teachers are not licensed in both subjects, and the district must get a waiver. Despite doubling their curriculum load (which translates into more than one full-time job), these teachers do not get additional planning time. Lastly, the 8th-grade curriculum is quite specialized. It is unlikely that the teachers in the two-person teams have the expertise in both subject matters to match what is being offered by the four-person team. Such cuts, he noted, are not happening in premier school districts.
Michael is not optimistic about the negotiations. At the beginning of the process, the school committee and the NTA were able to separately negotiate items of concern such as salary, health insurance, parental leave, and sick bank access. Then, without reaching agreements, the school committee packaged all proposals into a “take it or leave it” document. While this type of bundling is not unusual at the conclusion of a negotiation, it is unusual this early in the process when many proposals are still undecided.
The involvement of a non-binding mediator from the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) has slowed the process considerably. This benefits the city because the longer the negotiations last, the longer the city can keep and earn interest on money that would have been paid to teachers as increased wages. Once the contract is settled, the wage increase will be paid retroactively, but the earned interest remains with the city. There is also an imbalance in the amount of time the DLR takes to respond to charges made by each side. Charges made by the teachers against the city will take months or even a year to get a hearing and a ruling. Charges made by the city (such as accusing teachers of participating in a work stoppage) were heard in a matter of days, and the ruling was completed within a week.
Michael concluded his comments by saying that he feels the schools, not the city, are strapped for money. In the past, when there were problems, he felt the NTA and the School Committee worked as partners. He wishes they could do that again and convince the Mayor of the time-sensitive need for more money.
Andy Gluck has spent 27 years involved with Underwood: 10 years as a parent, 12 years as a special education aide, and 5 years as a building aide and permanent substitute. He’s seen it all. He shared two anecdotal comments that say volumes about where we are now.
1. “In my 27 years in the building, I’ve never seen staff morale so low. This is not a good feeling.”
2. “The other day, I had 23 five-year-olds in the gym by myself. I realized, once again, that cutting kindergarten aides was a terrible mistake.”
The upcoming meeting with the Mass Department of Transportation team on improving safety at the Newton Corner rotary has a long history. For more information and a review of what has happened at previous meetings, please see the following links at
https://www.newtoncornerneighborhood.com/traffic
https://www.newtoncornerneighborhood.com/road
As stated at the beginning of this email, pre-registration is required to attend the DOT Tuesday, 10/24, 6:30 PM meeting. Please use this link to pre-register (same as the link above.
Councilor Maria Scibelli-Greenberg has repeatedly contacted the DOT project manager asking to see their preliminary work but was told that, “Sharing information without context would only confuse people.” However, she recently received an email from the manager with the following agenda.
Proposed DOT Agenda:
Traffic Signal and Safety Improvements at Newton Corner
This public meeting will share several potential changes to this interchange based on the work of the project team since the last public meeting in March, with feedback from city staff in Planning and Public Works. The public will be asked to provide feedback on the concepts. These changes will begin to address the longstanding concerns of Newton Corner residents, businesses, and visitors.
Meeting Agenda:
History & Project Purpose
Outcome of the past workshops
Goals of project
Presentation of concepts followed by polls (presented one quadrant at a time)
Next steps
ZONING: Village Center Overlay Districts and MBTA Communities Law
There are two ways to approach the proposed changes in zoning regulations. One centers on the concept of building more mixed-use developments (such as Austin Street or Trio in Newtonville) in all village centers. The other focuses on responding to the MBTA Communities Law—a state mandate requiring the city of Newton to submit a plan to build 8300 new housing units according to specified criteria by the end of the year.
A summary of these approaches is available at: https://www.newtoncornerneighborhood.com/zoning
The reality is that the city must, by law, comply with the MBTA Communities Act. The question is, “How best to do this?” “Should the MBTA Communities Act be combined with the Village Center Overlay District Proposal, or should each be considered separately?”
Working within the framework of combining these initiatives, Councilors Leary, Greenberg, and Oliver focused on refining the proposals currently under consideration by the Zoning and Planning Committee.
Councilor Marc Laredo, however, noted that he would start at a different place than his colleagues by questioning why the Village Center zoning effort was being combined with the MBTA Communities Law since not all village centers would be impacted by the MBTA requirements. He stated, “We have drawn up rules and maps for areas of the city that would comply with the MBTA Communities Act to create capacity for approximately 9000 units. Village Zoning goes beyond that and adds capacity for 6,000 more units—We as a city have not done any planning for what we want. No one in planning has attempted to provide any estimates for what we expect to be built over the coming 5 to 10 years—nor have they specified their goals.” Marc added that he has been asking the Planning Department what they think the city’s population should be since May. They replied, “We don’t know, and it doesn’t matter”. He feels this response is completely unsatisfactory.
Richard Rasala, our in-house NCNA expert and all-city resource on rezoning, spoke of the direct connection between the MBTA Communities Law and the architect Daniel Parolic’s concept of “Missing Middle Housing.” He noted that the 1500 sq ft footprint specified by the Zoning and Planning committee is incompatible with both the intent of the MBTA Communities Law regarding building “missing middle” housing (it is much too small) and the desire to integrate multi-residential housing into neighborhoods. He outlines his argument here:
Rasala web document posted 2023-10-05
MBTA Communities Law and Missing Middle Housing
Rasala web document posted 2023-08-17
Thoughts on Newton Village Center Zoning Version 2 and MBTA Communities Zoning
Rasala web document posted 2023-08-17
The Reality of Transit in Newton
The Most Dangerous Intersection in Newton Corner
Finally, Richard Belkin raised the issue of how difficult it is to cross from one side of the Mass Pike to the other and, in particular, the dangers posed by the pedestrian light at the end of Park Street. This, he argues, is the most critical intersection to improve. Several studies have cited it as the most dangerous crossing in the Newton Corner area.
Nate Gibson also spoke about his experiences dealing with the DOT. For a sense of the kind of frustration he’s experienced, look at https://www.newtoncornerneighborhood.com/road
Concerning the intersection discussed above, Nate said he has photographed 6 cars going through the traffic light at one time. Obviously, this poses a significant risk to pedestrian safety.
Thanks to all who came to the October meeting! As you can see from the meeting notes, we discussed a great many items of importance to Newton Corner and only ran over our one-hour goal by 5 minutes!
Please mark your calendars for our next NCNA on Thursday, November 2.
Looking forward to seeing you then.
Warm regards,
Robin Boger, President
Newton Corner Neighborhood Association