To the editor:
Thinking of the three monkeys with hands over their eyes, ears, and mouth. See nothing, hear nothing, do nothing, When it comes to creative thinking, that’s what the School Committee machinations seem like to this local observer. Whether regarding the disposition of the long-vacant Coffin School to unburden the school budget of its carrying costs or thinking creatively regarding the school budget to minimally affect students, parents, or teachers.
A thoughtful letter to the editor of one of the two very good local papers of a few days ago decimated the committee’s argument that it might need extra school building capacity “someday,” using the bogus argument that the MBTA Zoning bylaw proposal would miraculously generate 900-plus family housing units in Marblehead in the blink of an eye or even in the foreseeable future.
We moved to Marblehead in 1979. There have been any number of housing developments over that 40-plus years where residents thought that the sky would fall in if they were built. Our town officials, particularly the Planning Committee and the Zoning Board of Appeals, while not perfect, have managed to permit such development to take place and those developments have enhanced our town. They will do the same with regard to the MBTA Zoning requirements.
Come on School Committee. Take your hands away from your eyes and look for creative options. Take your hands away from your ears and listen to feedback from multiple sources. Take your hands away from your mouths and speak thoughtfully, not with closed minds. Holding on to the Coffin School property at substantial unnecessary expense to our school system might inhibit development of much needed more affordable housing in town resulting in fewer homes being made affordable to the very teachers and local employees you claim to protect. Let’s get your A game on.
Dirk Isbrandtsen
Marblehead