Needham Hoping for Hillside, Mitchel and Pollard Improvement Funding

School Committee to submit statements of interest for Hillside, Mitchell and Pollard school projects.

Needham Hoping for Hillside, Mitchel and Pollard Improvement Funding

School Committee to submit statements of interest for Hillside, Mitchell and Pollard school projects.

  It may take a few years, but the conversation about expanding some Needham Schools. The Needham School Committee has completed two statements of interest (SoI), one each for the Hillside and Mitchell schools. The Committee is finishing up a third to send to the Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) for work on the Pollard School as well. They intend to submit all three and see which projects are approved. School Superintendent Dan Gutenkanst and School Committee Chair Heidi Black presented these SoI proposals to the Board of Selectmen at Tuesday's meeting. The MSBA receives SoI for assistance with renovating or building school facilities from communities around the Commonwealth. The Authority then determines which projects it will fund …

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Police Reports: Trespassing at Mitchell School

The following information was supplied by the Needham Police Department. Any charges mentioned do not indicate a conviction.

A Needham man was arrested after he allegedly broke into Mitchell School overnight on Monday, June 18. A Needham Police officer on duty in the area at around 1 a.m. noticed a man near the school. After seeing police, the man fled to the nearby woods, according to reports. He was stopped and, after an investigation, police learned that he had been inside the school. The man, a 20-year-old Woodlawn Avenue resident, allegedly resisted when officers attempted to place him in custody. He was arrested and charged with trespassing, breaking and entering and resisting arrest. Two other men, a 21-year-old Needham man and a 20-year-old Norwell resident, were also located at the scene and charged with trespassing and breaking and entering, according …

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Green Rangers Talk About Their Busy Year

An active group of fifth and fourth grade students have been working to encourage their classmates and parents to adopt healthier habits and have a lighter ecological footprint.

From reducing the number of idling cars outside their school to getting more kids to walk and eat their vegetables, to building a portable "pizza" garden, the Needham Public Schools Green Rangers have had a busy year. The student group, made up of Needham fifth and fourth graders, will talk about their work at a community open house this evening, scheduled for 4-6 p.m.at Mitchell School. The event, presented by the district-wide Eco-Explorers Leadership Team, will include a tour of the Outdoor Learning Center at Mitchell and a look at several green projects being carried out across the district, such as the work of the Green Rangers. Previously known as the "Green Kids," the Rangers expanded their efforts this year as they tackled projects…

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POLL: What Should Be Done With Hillside and Mitchell Schools?

Weigh in on the four options presented at a School Committee meeting on March 7

At a meeting Wednesday night, the Needham Public Schools School Committee heard about four possible options for how to proceed with renovating/rebuilding Hillside and Mitchell elementary schools. The pre-feasibility study conducted by Dore & Whittier is just the first step toward developing a plan for the two buildings and will help guide the school district's statement of intent that will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for consideration. The four options are based in part on a visioning workshop held recently involving school staff, parents and town representatives. Click here to read full summaries of each option. Though it's still early in the process, which of the four options do you think would be best for…

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Labs and Leaks: School Officials Consider Building Needs

Experts offered an early look at issues that should be addressed at Hillside, Mitchell and Pollard schools at the Tuesday night School Committee meeting.

Small science labs at Pollard Middle School and leaky roofs at Hillside and Mitchell elementary schools are among the problems the town will need to address in the not-so-distant future, experts said Tuesday. Representatives from Dore & Whittier Architects were before the Needham School Committee Tuesday night to share some of the issues they had found in their preliminary evaluation of the three school buildings. The study was funded by Town Meeting and is the first step toward deciding what exactly the town wants to do with those buildings both in the short and long term. All three buildings were built in the 1950s and underwent renovations and haven't undergone major renovations since the 1960s, according to Steve Popper, director of …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: May 24

Parenting talk, a public hearing and selectmen to meet today.

"Five Things You Need to Know Today" is a Patch column that provides readers with essential, daily information at a glance. 1. Heating up: While there’s a chance of more showers and thunderstorms today, mainly after 11:00 a.m., we’ll also see something new: temperatures near 80 degrees. The National Weather Service is forecasting a mostly cloudy, unseasonably warm Tuesday with a 40 percent chance of precipitation into the evening. Low temperature will be around 56 degrees. 2. Public hearing on the theater district: The Planning Board will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Broadmeadow Elementary School. On the agenda is a public hearing on an updated plan submitted by The Mackin Group LLC for a development to be located at 916-932 Great Plain …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: May 23

More rain, Mitchell students show off their talents and time to get those pool passes.

"Five Things You Need to Know Today" is a Patch column that provides readers with essential, daily information at a glance. 1. Well, this looks familiar: After a break in the wet weather and a mostly sunny weekend, the rain will return today, with showers possible before noon, slightly possible between noon and 3:00 p.m. and quite likely in the evening. We may see some thunderstorms, too, according to the National Weather Service. Expect patchy fog in between and a high temperature around 62 degrees, low near 58. 2. Mitchell masterpieces: Mitchell School’s beginning strings group and fifth grade band and chorus will perform their last concert of the school year at 7:00 p.m. at the school. At the same time, the school will open its spring …

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Letter Brings Legislator to Mitchell School

A fourth grader's persuasive piece encourages Rep. Garlick to speak to the class about the bill process.

When State Rep. Denise Garlick stopped by Mitchell School on Monday, she engaged fourth graders in an interactive lesson on how an idea becomes a bill and then a law. But perhaps the most important lesson of the morning was that Garlick was there at all.  The Needham resident and former selectman was responding to a letter written by Mitchell fourth grader Lily Mesnik, part of a grade-wide lesson on writing persuasive pieces. In her letter, which consisted of two pages of carefully handwritten argument accompanied by photos, the 10-year-old suggested that legislators do more to curb littering around the state. "Littering makes the world look bad," Mesnik wrote. "No matter how much you try to make litter not ugly, litter will always be ugly…

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