What Was New is Old; Sub Committee Continues Facilities Conversation

The Space Needs & Facilities Assessment Sub Committee of the Franklin School Committee met Thursday afternoon in the third-floor training room at the municipal building.

The first part of the meeting focused on discussing a planned request for proposal (RFP) process intended to engage consultants who can take on the Sub Committee’s task of recommending which facilities should be used for specific purposes and, more to the point, which can be surplused.

[Speculation amongst some town employees has suggested that the Parmenter School will likely end up in the crosshairs, eventually.]

In terms of the RFP process –  alternate approaches to acquiring a consultant’s services – each with pros and cons in terms of controlling cost or getting the exact expertise needed were weighed by the group. The discussion led to a plan to solicit by early or mid-September and report to the full School Committee by the end of that month.

Most of the rest of the discussion dealt with considering approaches to engaging the public in the process. One straw proposal was for setting up some kind of advisory panel, potentially engaging people who had kids in the schools, currently have kids in the school, or don’t have kids in the school, with representation across the different school communities or even across age groups. There was enthusiasm for that kind of broad engagement but concern was expressed about the “logistics” of such a potentially large group as well as being able to keep a critical number of individuals engaged throughout the process. That, it was speculated, could be a period of between three and fourteen months.

Additionally, there was consensus about getting the word out about the process through Franklin TV, Franklin Matters, and the town website.