It’s disappointing to learn that on at least one occasion the town’s architect and project manager for the new elementary school submitted a flawed report to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), one that was criticized by the agency for its lack of clarity and completeness. But it’s more disconcerting that the School Building Committee failed to acknowledge the report’s shortcomings in a public meeting until questioned by the Press.
When deficiencies in the report were called out by the MSBA, committee leaders were publicly silent, like the dog that didn’t bark in the night, preferring to work quietly behind the scenes with NV5, the project manager, and Arrowstreet, the architect, to ascertain what had gone wrong. Had the committee openly discussed the MSBA critique and given its paid professionals a chance to respond in an open meeting, the matter might have been put to rest without prompting further scrutiny. It took questions from the Press during public commentary at a recent SBC meeting for the chair to acknowledge there had been problems with the report, the reasons for those problems, and what would be done to avoid them in the future.
Last May, Town Meeting put its trust in the schools and their building committee and approved the largest school building project in town history. We urge the committee to return that trust by dealing publicly with the inevitable errors of omission and commission that are sure to be made in a project as massive as this one. While the Press has a watchdog role, so does the committee. The public has a right to expect a full airing of problems when they arise, followed by public assurances they have been properly dealt with. In other words, a dog that barks.
