The Reconfiguration
Elevator Version ~ Big Deal ~ Timeline ~ Gory Details
"Parents and taxpayers complain, but schooling officials have been well trained to ignore all criticism; all anger; all common sense. Not only do schooling officials ignore all controversy, they actively seek to shut-up, remove, even destroy truthful and honorable employees. No threat to the status quo is ever tolerated, at any level."
From Betrayals in Public Education by Linda Schrock Taylor
Most of those who lived through it can relate to the quote above, as the damage caused by the callous indifference of school officials at the time still stings like an open wound. However, in the 3 years since the reconfiguration, many new families have moved into town and/or had children entering the public schools for the first time and don't know the story behind what happened and why Loker School was closed. This page is for them.
APRIL, 2007- Voters at ATM vote to spend $750,000 for new windows at Happy Hollow, most not realizing that assurances if there was a school closure or reconfiguration in the future, HH would be the elementary school chosen to stay open (in exchange for the expenditure on windows). Though the assurances had been made at 2 prior Board of Selectmen meetings, those meetings had only been attended by a handful of people. After being confronted by these assurances AFTER the Loker school closing, the SC members said they "didn't remember" making them.
OCTOBER, 2007- School Committee Chair Barb Fletcher signs contract for windows to be replaced at HH (approximately $700,000 contract)
MID-DECEMBER, 2007- High School sports' parents go to School Committee Meeting outraged over the prospect of dropping certain teams including golf and ski teams. SC needs to find money fast to keep the teams among other things. Starts to discuss the possibility of reconfiguring to 2 1/2 schools.
JANUARY 15, 2008 - Decision made by School Committee to close Loker School and make it a kindergarten school. Not on the agenda. Just a handful of spectators.
JANUARY 16, 2008 - Note sent home in backpacks of Loker School children informing parents that the school would be closing in the fall. No advance warning to parents. Some of the children read the note themselves (before giving it to their parents) and were quite upset by it .
JANUARY 21, 2008 - Huge crowd of Loker parents go to SC meeting to ask that the decision be revisited to allow more time for analysis. Dr. Burton said that, among other things, he felt that the buildings were essentially equal and that it was his "gut" that HH would be the better choice (he says this many times throughout the process).
JANUARY 28, 2008 - Hearing held for public comment on whether to go to 2 1/2 schools. Committee votes to reconfigure the schools.
JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 25, 2008. SC meetings purportedly to compare the schools Happy Hollow and Loker to determine which to close
FEBRUARY 10, 2008-Public comment hearing held as to which school to close, Happy Hollow or Loker School. Numerous substantive submissions made by a group of Loker School parents showing data and even expert traffic report saying that Loker was the safer school to handle the larger population of students, due to its traffic patterns, and urging the SC to keep Loker School open as it is bigger, has more classrooms, safer traffic pattern, larger parking lot, larger and better playground and more than double the size cafeteria, room for expansion (in theatre and on the property generally), among other things.
FEBRUARY 25, 2008-SC votes 3 to 2 not to re-open its January vote to close Loker and keep HH open. Cite expected "declining enrollment" and "to help pass the override."
EARLY MARCH, 2008 - videotapes are obtained* which show that the SC had made assurances in or around April, 2007 that if Happy Hollow received the windows, they would make sure that HH stayed open in any reconfiguration or school closing. These assurances were never mentioned to the public by any SC member during the several weeks the SC purportedly "compared" the 2 schools to determine which was better to house the 1st through 5th grade and which was the better kindergarten school. During the purported comparison, SC member Dieffenbach utilized a chart comparing the schools upon which such dubious things as "sledding" availability was used to boost up HH school (even though children are not allowed to sled during school hours) and in which the cafeteria capacity of HH, number of classrooms etc was erroneously inflated. The chart listed HH cafeteria as able to hold 120 students (even though building code would preclude more than 82 people be in the cafeteria at any one time). At one point, Asst. Superintendent Brad Crozier suggests that the HH cafeteria can hold 150 students (link to picture), but then at a later meeting puts it back down to 120. *Several of the grades at HH after the reconfiguration (and to this day) have in excess of 90 students in them, and with staff supervisors, many lunch sessions at HH are well over the limits allowed by law. The Loker cafeteria, is almost twice the size.
MARCH 10, 2008. Large group of Loker parents (some 200 people) attend the SC meeting to urge the SC to reassess in light of the "window assurances" tapes which they confronted the SC with. The SC refused to budge, saying that they "did not remember" making the assurances in exchange for the windows. At least one SC member (Then Chair Barb Fletcher) is seen on the tape of this SC meeting only 8 months prior walking into the room just before the "assurances" are made to the Board of Selectmen that if a school is closed or a reconfiguration takes place, Happy Hollow will be the school to remain open.
APRIL, 2008: Jeff Baron runs for SC and, although just a "write-in candidate" (his name not on the ballot), he receives in excess of 1400 votes.
MAY, 2008: After a some three month wait, the Loker children were finally told which school they would be attending in the fall.
JUNE, 2008: Loker School is closed as a K-5 school.
SEPTEMBER, 2008: School opens as a 2 1/2 elementary school town and chaos ensues on the bus transportation. Administration is forced to take the unprecedented step of changing the school start and close times 2 weeks into the school year. No declining enrollment at all at elementary school level. In fact, enrollment increased slightly. HH is overcrowded and the cafeteria is over the building code capacity in several of the classes at 330 plus students (this is still the case today). The fire department makes several visits to HH for crowded hallways etc. 11 different buses converge on Loker School each morning. Children are bused from the south side of town up to Claypit, causing enormous commutes for children 6-10 years old (in some cases an hour each way). Children are bused from all over town to the Loker School kindergarten. Given the long commutes (some kindergarteners on the bus for an hour one way), many parents decide to drive. Nevertheless, the buses still run, sometimes with just 1 or 2 children getting off. Loker School's upper wing is used for storage--it is not rented and it is not closed off. The school operates without a principal in the building full time and there is no utilities savings whatsoever, as the building is open all day.
APRIL, 2009: Candidates Paul Grasso and Jeff Baron run for SC. Despite a bruising campaign in which they were maligned (with robocalls made for the other candidate), Grasso and Baron lose by just 38 and 70 votes respectively.
DECEMBER, 2009: Residents begin collecting signatures for an article on the town warrant which calls for an Independent Review of the Schools' budget.
JANUARY, 2010: Article 6, calling for an Audit or Review of schools' budget is submitted.
MARCH, 2010: School Business Administrator, Joy Buhler announces her resignation.
APRIL, 2010: Shawn Kinney wins seat on SC.
APRIL, 2010: Voters overwhelmingly approve Article Six to Review the Schools' budget.
SEPTEMBER, 2010: Enrollment at HH has skyrocketed and there are now over 342 students attending. This is more than the school has held since the 1970s (when there existed no computers, special education did not exist as it does today, traffic patterns in Wayland were quite different and there were far less cars, - taking the bus or walking was far more prevalent). The cafeteria is even more crowded and in complete violation of the building code. Loker is being used for storage space still, never having been rented and the upper wing never having been closed off. SC then appoints a Loker "principal" (at first denies he's a principal but communications coming from him use that title).
In short, a massive rearranging of the deck chairs occurred. No accounting was ever done which truly compared the costs associated with the reconfiguration against any purported savings. It is most people's opinion that the reconfiguration cost the town money in the end. Today, 13 buses converge on Loker School each morning, many of them empty or with only 2 or 3 kids on them. The school is underutilized while HH has crowded conditions not seen since the 70s. Class sizes increased and in some cases were above the SC previously stated guidelines. In 2009, the MCAS results came out showing that more than 40% of fourth graders at HH could not pass the basic proficiency level in math. The school remains overcrowded and the quality of the elementary school education has suffered greatly . Many aspects of the elementary education in Wayland were lost. A massive increase in the SPED budget has occurred as many children had difficulty with the transition and needed IEPs for the first time. Some children had to be placed in schools outside the district (at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to the district). In addition, though transportation costs obviously had to go up now that the district was bussing kindergarteners from all over to Loker, bussing all of the former Loker children up to the north as most were redistricted to Claypit Hill. The elementary schools remain woefully overcrowded and the elementary experience in Wayland in our opinion has decreased substantially since before the reconfiguration.
*The videotapes were obtained through a private source. Waycam, which holds the tapes, had a policy at the time that they destroyed the tapes after 6 months. Tellingly, it was found out after the fact that Waycam had been asked privately by a SC member ( in December of 2007, just prior to their decision to close Loker) to provide them copies of the tapes from April 2007 (allegedly so they could see what they had said publicly about the windows assurances ) and had been told by Waycam that the tapes no longer existed. Presumably thinking that the tapes would never surface, the SC then held the "hearings" (what in our opinion were sham hearings) purportedly comparing the schools. We were able to obtain a copy of the tapes from a private citizen who had recorded the March and April meetings on his VCR and captured the discussions where a Fincom committee member tells the BOS that "we have received assurances from the schools that [if you give them the money for the HH windows], HH will remain open in any school closing or reconfiguration." This assurance was repeated at at least 2 different BOS meetings. At least two SC members were in the small BOS hearing room when this assurance was repeated to the BOS in March, 2007.