Our Westwood

Westwood has no shortage of grocery shopping options, but for many of us, convenience is not just about proximity; it's about hours. According to one resident who contacted me, until recently, the Stop and Shop locations in Dedham and Norwood were open until midnight, but have now cut their hours back to close at 11pm. It's only an hour, but if you work a 3-11 shift at Caritas or work out late at night, it makes a difference as to whether you can manage a trip to the grocery into your schedule. If you have comments or opinions and would like to contact someone at Stop and Shop, the District Manager, Tom Marshall, can be reached at (781) 320-5632 or through email via an assistant terry.defillippo@stopandshop.com.

GreatSchools, a national nonprofit that collects and publishes education data to inspire and guide parents towards improving their schools and strengthening their communities has featured Westwood as one of the top public school systems in small U.S. cities.

Year after year, Westwood students score in the top percentiles on national reading and math tests, and an overwhelming majority of high school graduates continue to college. But it’s not all work, no play: There’s an abundance of recreational areas, nature preserves, playgrounds, and ball fields.

GreatSchools is much more than just another U.S. News annual ranking. I worked with founder Bill Jackson in 1996 when we developed SmartVoter.org. He went on to create GreatSchools based on the idea that shared information would empower parents, teachers, and communities to look for ways to measure, analyze, and chart the improvements in their schools. Long before "No Child Left Behind" or, more recently the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" program came along, Great Schools was laying the foundation for local efforts to improve education. Being featured as a top school nationally is much more than simply having the highest MCAS/income-correlated pass rates--it reflects the comprehensive commitment to education in the town of Westwood and is a recognition everyone should be proud of.

A preliminary report by the Government Study Task Force (available on Town website), recommends the town charter be changed through a home rule petition but without changes to the number of selectmen, timing of town meeting, or limitations on terms of office. I blogged about the public hearing on related petition articles in February. Wicked Local ran a story last month on the reappointment of the task force and Patch reported on the preliminary report last week.

Sunday's Boston.com Your Town Westwood goes into greater depth, but I wanted to highlight a couple of key points from the report and see if anyone has any feedback here.

• A home rule petition will continue the inclusive process of discussion, leading up to a proposed warrant article for consideration by the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting. A charter commission would require electing representatives which I think would insulate the discussion, overly formalize input, and delay everything to an eventual up-or-down vote.
• Regarding increasing the number of selectmen from 3 to 5, I'm disappointed the task force "did not find any persuasive rationale to support an increase in the Board’s size." Mike Walsh presented an argument back at a FinCom meeting in February 2009 in favor of some means to achieve greater representation and participation. It seems we agree that precinct representation would be a bad idea, but having more selectmen could be beneficial in many ways that deserve more discussion.

The Task Force has made a great effort to seek out and include opinions and suggestions. The report is preliminary. It does not report the pros and cons of any issues but simply lays out the next steps along with the initial recommendations--which establish a valid need to move forward and consider changes.

The Friends of the Westwood Performing Arts is a group of dedicated adult and student volunteers who do various and sundry jobs to help promote the music and theater programs in Westwood schools. Money raised by this organization ultimately goes back to the students in the form of scholarships and event fees for special trips (like bus fee for the New York trip last year). To help sustain the organizations ultimate goals we need volunteers to help at each event (band, string, chorus concerts and at the Middle School and High School theater productions). There is a need for membership donations and ad book submissions. Highly sought after items such as Red Sox tickets, theatre tickets and gift certificates for goods and services are also of great value for the FWPA raffle. Raffle tickets are sold at each performance and enable the FWPA to give scholarships to the graduating senior performing arts students at Westwood High School. All new volunteers are welcome to help in the coming year! This is a great group to work with and we always have fun! If you are interested in helping out at a show or with membership/ ad book / raffle item donation~ please contact Ann Thomas 781/696-1513 or email atsews@gmail.com

Westwood will soon begin installing bike racks obtained through the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission Regional Bike Parking program. Last Fall, the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Committee identified several locations in town that meet the program requirements and applied for the funding allocated to Westwood. The racks were delivered just before the first snowstorm. Now the town has marked the locations of the racks (white dots in the photo) and will install them in the coming months.

Michael Walsh and Michael Rush are the Democratic candidates running for the Senate seat, that covers West Roxbury, Roslindale, Hyde Park, Westwood, Norwood and Dedham, and which is being vacated this year with the departure of Senator Marian Walsh after eighteen (18) years in office.

"Voters deserve the opportunity to hear from the candidates, and what we have to offer them, as their next Senator before they go to the polls in September." Walsh said, "This seat is too important to the future of our communities, and should not be limited to individual speeches and literature."

Rush has not responded to Walsh's direct request to Rush's campaign for debates.

An article in Westwood Patch yesterday reports an amazing 93.8% of Westwood High School seniors plan to attend a 4-year college. That's based on a survey from 2008 conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (full data available here). I was curious to see what other districts were reporting, so I compiled this table of nearby school districts:

It's great to be at the top of a list like that, but many people are concerned about the crushing debt burden colleges can impose on young people (student loan payments like renting an extra apartment) and counsel students and parents to consider other options. The discussion in the link to the Chronicle of Higher Education article above is worth considering at least for many students who might choose a less traditional path to a happy and successful future.

Nearly three years ago, I created WestwoodBlog to develop a greater sense of connection with this community. I saw what Brian Keaney had started in Dedham with MyDedham, but I didn't call this site "My Westwood" because, as a recent resident, I thought that would be presumptuous, and I wanted to learn more about the town. I hoped I could stir up conversations and contributions from people in town--to hear what they had to say and share that--not become a reporter for the town. But I did write a lot. I did some reporting, but mostly I related what I knew about and what other people started to tell me. I limited my opinion, but I was not unbiased.

Now, I think the term "blog" has always had a negative connotation. When most people think of blogs, they first think of some individual's website where they announce the details of their life and have half-informed opinions on things. Or maybe they have a political agenda to promote. Perhaps the name is not that big a deal, but I'm going to strike the word blog from the title of this site now and renew my call to residents for the type of participation I think will complement what news sites like Patch, Wicked Local, and now the Boston.com's Your Town Westwood provide.

This is Our Westwood. It is a site you can use to tell your stories, announce your events, and relate context to the news. It's not a place to vent your random opinions about things not Westwood, but you can certainly say what news of local impact means to you. I will use the Community Guidelines I announced earlier this year as a basis for promoting respect and civility. What I would really like is for people to contact me for assistance in becoming regular contributors. Not as freelance reporters or columnists but as first-hand participants. Share what you are doing to make the town a better place--your work  on a board or commission, the community project you started, or whatever you would like to share with the community and get feedback. This site is here to help you do that.

I noticed a comment recently on the Canton Facebook page where a resident reported suspicious "students" going door to door selling magazine subscriptions. I'm not sure whether or not a "scam" was involved, but I have seen similar activity in the past in Westwood, including a company that sold frozen meat from a truck. When in doubt, call the non-emergency police number (781-320-1000) and verify the organization is registered with the Town.