USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Westford > Town of Westford annual report 1963-1967 > Part 30
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ARTICLE 9. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money to be deposited in and become a part of the Stabilization Fund created under Article 19 of the Warrant for the Annual Meeting of 1961; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 10. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate, or transfer from any available funds, the sum of Eighty-Five Hundred ($8500.00) Dollars, or some other sum, to meet the Town's share of the cost of continuing Chapter 90 Highway Construction, contingent upon the State and County contributing to the cost thereof; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 11. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the Highway Equipment Account and, in addition, to transfer a sum of money from the Highway Machinery Fund to said Highway Equipment Account; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 12. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sufficient sum of money for the purchase of two new cruisers for the Police Department, said purchase to be made under the supervision of the Board of Selectmen; and to authorize said Board to transfer by a good and sufficient Bill of Sale title to the cruisers now being used by said Department and to apply the sum received therefrom against the purchase price of the new cruisers; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 13. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Nine Hundred ($900.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purpose of providing suitable quarters for the Nabnasset American Legion Post No. 437 and the Auxiliary of said Post, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 6539 and the Auxiliary of said Post, and the Frederick S. Healy American Legion Post No. 159 and the Auxiliary of said Post; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 14. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sufficient sum of money for the purchase of a water cooler for the Town Hall; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 15. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate a sum of money for the account entitled "State Aid for Libraries", said sum to be in addition to the amount appropriated for the Library under Article 3 of this Warrant; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 16. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for painting the office of the Board of Public Welfare
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and for the installation of new lights in said office; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 17. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Trustees of the J. V. Fletcher Library to engage the services of an architect or library consultant, whose function shall be to advise the Trustees concerning the highest and best use to be made of the present library facilities and how and at what cost the need for future or additional library facilities may best be met to further the interests of the Town, and for the purpose aforesaid to raise and appropriate the sum of One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 18. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Seveny-Three Hundred Thirty-Four ($7334.00) Dollars, or some other sum, to pay the last installment due under the contract for the expert appraisal of taxable real estate voted under Article 35 of the Warrant for the Annual Meeting of 1965; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 19. To see if the Town will vote to adopt a By-Law requiring all dogs to be muzzled or restrained from running at large; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 20. £ To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Five Thousand ($5,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the Conservation Fund, to be expended by the Conservation Commission pursuant to the provisions of C. 40, sections 5 (51) and 8C; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 21. To see if the Town will vote to adopt a by-law establishing a Council on Aging for the purpose of coordinating or carrying out programs designed to meet the problems of the aging under the authority of and pursuant to the provisions of Section 8B of Chapter 40 of the General Laws; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 22. In the event of affirmative action under the pre- ceeding Article, to see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purpose of coordinating or conducting programs dealing with pro- blems of the aging as authorized by Clause 49 of Section 5 of Chapter 40 of the General Laws; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 23. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to negotiate with the Boston and Maine Railroad and private owners, if necessary, for the acquisition of a new access road to the former Town Farm property now occupied by the North Middle School; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 24. To see if the Town will vote to authorize and direct the Board of Selectmen to appoint a Committee, whose function and duty shall be to investigate the advisability of constructing a new Police Station; and to define the powers and authority of said Committee, or act in relation thereto.
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ARTICLE 25. To see if the Town will vote to amend its Abandoned Vehicle By-Law by adding the Building Inspector as one of the enforcing authorities; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 26. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, in fee simple, a certain parcel of land, containing 16.8 acres, more or less, supposed to belong, now or formerly, to James E. Farmer, situated on the northwesterly side of the New England Power Co. Right of Way in Graniteville, near the Town Highway Garage, as and for the proposed site of a new well field, and to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the acquisition of the same and for the purpose of defraying all necessary legal, engineering and other fees and expenses; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 27. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Planning Board to secure from the United States Department of Agri- culture, Soil Conservation Services, a detailed soil survey for the Town, including an interpretive report, and to raise and appropriate a sum of money for such purpose; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 28. To see if the Town will vote to transfer the care, custody, management and control of that portion of the former Town Farm property situated on the southeasterly side of Prescott Street and on the easterly and westerly sides of Town Farm Road, from the Board of Public Welfare to the Town generally, pursuant to the pro- visions of Sections 3 and 15A of Chapter 40 of the General Laws; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 29. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the repair, alteration or remodeling of the former Town Infirmary and to authorize the Board of Selectmen to invite necessary bids and to execute all contracts in connection with such project; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 30. To see if the Town will vote to pay various unpaid bills of previous years; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 31. To see if the Town will vote to accept a gift of Forty-Five Hundred ($4,500.00) Dollars from the Murray Printing Company; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 32. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, to be expended by the Town Forest Committee for the development of test areas on the shore of Hart Pond and for the purpose of thinning a portion of the Town Forest in the area of said Pond; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 33. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, to be expended by the Recreation Commission for the preservation and improve- ment of the Forge Village and Graniteville ball fields; or act in re- lation thereto.
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ARTICLE 34. To see if the Town will vote to amend its Building Code by adopting a regulation governing the discharge of surface water or sewerage onto public ways or into the Town drainage systems; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 35. To see if the Town will vote to accept Section 6H of Chapter 40 of the General Laws, which, in substance, provides for allowing a city or town to make repairs on private ways which have been open to public use for six years or more; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 36. To see if the Town will vote to accept Section 12 of Chapter 40 of the General Laws, which, in substance, authorizes a Town accepting this Section to make open bathing places, provide them with the requisite furniture, fittings and conveniences and to appoint officers therefor and make by-laws and regulations for the management thereof; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 37. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to appoint a permanent Committee to be known as the Town Beach Committee, to be appointed from year to year, whose function and duty shall be to supervise, manage and operate the Town Beach at Forge Pond; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 38. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Eighty-Eight Hundred ($8800.00) Dollars, or some other sum for the purpose of completing the development of the Forge Pond Recreation area, including the construction and equipping of necessary buildings and facilities and the purchase of all necessary fixtures, equipment and appurtenances; to authorize the Town Beach Committee to invite necessary bids and to execute all contracts in connection with such project; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 39. To see if the Town will vote to discontinue a portion of Oak Hill Road, commencing at a point approximately 365.7 feet northerly from the intersection of said Road with Groton Road and thence extending in a general northerly and easterly direction to the present dead end of Oak Hill Road; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 40. To see if the Town will vote to accept a gift of a parcel of land, containing approximately 4 acres, situated off 01d Lowell Road, on the shore of Hart Pond and adjacent to a portion of the Town Forest; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 41. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Eighteen Thousand ($18,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purchase of a new tractor shovel for the Highway Department; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 42. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Nine Hundred Ninety ($990.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purchase of a sign face applicator for the Highway Department; or act in relation thereto.
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ARTICLE 43. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Seven Hundred ($700.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purchase of a new snow plow for the Highway Department; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 44. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Seven Thousand ($7,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the construction of new sidewalks along a portion of Plain Road in Nabnasset; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 45. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the reconstruction of Cemetery Road; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 46. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Forty-Five Hundred ($4,500.00) Dollars, or some other sum, for the purchase of a backhoe for the Water Department, and to author- ize the Board of Water Commissioners to transfer by a good and suffi- cient Bill of Sale title to the 1959 backhoe now being used by said Department and to apply the sum received therefrom against the purchase price of a new backhoe; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 47. To see if the Town will vote to purchase from Anthony B. Nardone et al two parcels of land, situated in the vicinity of Nashoba Brook, said premises to be used as a public playground or future school site, and to authorize the Board of Selectmen, in con- sideration of the conveyance of said premises to the Town, and in addition thereto, the payment to the Town of a sum of not less than Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars, to convey to said Anthony B. Nardone et al a parcel of land now owned by the Town in the same vicinity, and to authorize the Selectmen to execute, acknowledge and deliver, and accept delivery of, in the name and behalf of the Town, any and all instruments of transfer necessary or incidental to accom- plish the foregoing; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 48. To see if the Town will vote to authorize and direct the Board of Selectmen to appoint an Elementary School Building Commit- tee of five members, to act in connection with the construction, equipping and furnishing of a proposed new Elementary School Building, and to define the authority and powers of said Committee; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 49. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of Fifteen Thousand ($15,000.00) Dollars, or some other sum, to pay the cost of preliminary drawings of the proposed Elementary School Building referred to in the preceeding Article, and for de- fraying all expenses of the Committee to be appointed under said Article, said sum to be expended under the supervision of said Commit- tee; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 50. To see if the Town will vote to authorize and direct the Board of Selectmen to appoint a Committee of three members, one of whom shall be the Town Clerk, whose function and duty shall be to supervise the printing and distribution of a current edition of the
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Town By-Laws; and to raise and appropriate a sum of money to defray the cost of such printing and distribution; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 51. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Selectmen to appoint a Committee to study the machine or automatic accounting needs of the Town; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 52. To see if the Town will vote to accept Kings Pine Road, Carolina Lane, Craig Circle, LaSalette Road and Bayberry Road, all as laid out by the Selectmen, as shown by their reports and plans filed with the Town Clerk; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 53. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to install various street lights; or act in relation thereto.
ARTICLE 54. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from available funds a certain sum to be deducted by the Assessors under the provisions of Section 23 of Chapter 59 of the General Laws, as most recently amended, from the amount required to be assessed by them; or act in relation thereto.
And you are directed to serve this Warrant by posting up true and attested copies thereof at the Town Hall and at each Post Office in said Westford, seven days at least before the time of holding said meeting.
HEREOF FAIL NOT, and make return of this Warrant, with your doings thereon, to the Town Clerk, at the time and place of holding the first meeting aforesaid.
Given under our hands this ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1967.
John J. Kavanagh
Horace F. Wyman
Mark W. Mulligan
Selectmen of Westford
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Annual Report
OF THE
School Committee
OF THE
TOWN OF WESTFORD
OF
WESTF
N
RD
INCORP
1729. º
PORATED
SEPT
For the Year Ending December 31 1966
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ORGANIZATION - SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Maurice Huckins, Jr., M.D., Chairman
Term expires 1967
Mary R. Lambert, Secretary
Term expires 1967
Raymond D. LaPan
Term expires 1967
Francis Courchaine
Term expires 1968
Robert M. Welch
Term expires 1968
Rita Haley
Term expires 1969
John E. Leggat
Term expires 1969
OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS WESTFORD ACADEMY
Lloyd G. Blanchard, Superintendent
Telephone 692-6561
Francis A. Drolet, Plant Manager
Vera E. Bettencourt, General Secretary
Evelyn M. Herrmann, Business Clerk
Rita M. Tousignant, Financial Secretary
SCHOOL TELEPHONES
Westford Academy 692-6771
Frost School 692-6230
North Middle School 692-6391
Nabnasset School 692-6233
Cameron School 692-6542
Sargent School 692-6553
Guidance Department 692-8825
Music & Physical Education
692-4031
SCHOOL PHYSICIAN
Medical Associates, 199 Chelmsford Street, Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Telephone - 256-6511
SCHOOL NURSES
Ruth N. Hall, R.N., Westford, Massachusetts Dorothy Healy, R.N., Westford, Massachusetts Office Tel. 692-8431 - Academy
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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
TO THE CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OF WESTFORD, your School Committee respectfully submits its report for the year ending December 31, 1966.
This report reviews the events of the past year in terms of major areas of interest: personnel, program, plant and planning, policy.
SCHOOL HOURS 1966-67
Academy Grades 9-12
Intermediate
Grades 6-8
7:45 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. 8:45 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.
Elementary Grades 1-6
8:15 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
SCHOOL VISITS
You are welcome in your Schools to talk with the School Principal and staff whether or not you have children in the Schools. However, you are urged 1) to check in with the Principal before visiting a class, and 2) to make an appointment if you wish to discuss your child's progress with the teacher. Otherwise, the class is interrup- ted and valuable learning time is lost.
SCHOOL ADMISSION
A child is eligible for enrollment in Grade 1 if he reaches his sixth birthday prior to November 1 of the school enrollment year. Birth certificate and evidence of successful vaccination are necessary for registration of any child new in Westford. Those transferring from other schools should present transfer cards.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETINGS
The School Committee meets in regular session the second Monday of each month at 7:30 P.M. in the Academy Cafeteria. On the fourth Monday of the month there is usually a Special School Committee Meeting. Meetings and agenda are published. Public is welcome.
SCHOOL CALENDAR 1966-67
Fall Term
September 7 - December 23
Winter Term
January 3 - February 17
Spring Term
February 27 - April 14
Summer Term
April 24 - June 21
Total School Days - 183
Days Omitted:
Columbus Day
October 12 October 19
County Teachers Meeting
November 11
Veterans Day Thanksgiving Recess
November 24 and 25
Good Friday
March 24
Memorial Day
May 30
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REMARKS :
It is the policy of the School Department to keep schools in session on all days during which it is safe for buses to be operated. The widely varying conditions in the several parts of Westford make it difficult to reach decisions equally fair to all.
ON DAYS WHEN THE WEATHER CONDITION IS QUESTIONABLE, PARENTS ARE URGED TO EXERCISE THEIR OWN JUDGEMENT AS TO THE WISDOM OF SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL.
1966 IN REVIEW
PERSONNEL
The 1966 School Budget was built on a teacher salary schedule unchanged in the bachelor's column from the previous year. The schedule was strengthened in the master's and master's plus thirty hours columns, but a $500 salary increase limitation was built into the policy, deferring for as long as three years the arrival of some teachers on proper salary level. Proposed WTA guidelines had first been approved, then later rejected by the School Committee in arriv- ing at the official salary schedule, a schedule which proved to be low for the North Middlesex County area, placing Westford in a poor competitive position for holding and attracting teachers, even with the removal of the $500 limitation. The WTA Personnel Committee expressed its disapproval.
The sabbatical leave request of the Academy principal to com- plete his doctoral program had been under discussion since early fall, and the School Committee continued to seek a policy decision on through the early months of 1966. At the March 21 meeting further consideration of the sabbatical leave request was deferred to later policy discussions with the Westford Teachers Association Personnel Policies Committee. At the March 28 meeting the Academy principal withdrew his request, feeling that such action might "free the School Committee to develop its own sabbatical leave policy without the complications of an individual sabbatical leave request."
Concern for pupil discipline at the Middle School resulted in program explanations by the Middle School principal, along with a statement of needs. Among the expressed needs were better home-school communication, more planning time for teachers, and at least part time administrative assistance to release the principal for greater staff and program leadership and coordination.
In the meantime school committee members had been meeting in- formally with the WTA Personnel Policy Committee, and the evident value of these meetings led to a resolve on the part of the School Committee to schedule regular joint meetings throughout the year. Unfortunately dates were not worked out with the Westford Teachers Policy Committee before resignations started coming into the office
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of the Superintendent, among the first the resignation of the North Middle School principal. This resignation, along with concern that the School Committee evidenced a reluctance about a sabbatical leave policy, and general dissatisfaction with the School Committee's salary policy, all contributed to the unusually heavy teacher turnover in 1966. By the time schools reopened in September, new appointees were filling the supervisory principalships at the Academy, the North Middle School and the Nabnasset School. The Academy also had a new vice principal filling the vacancy resulting from the promotion of the former vice principal to the Middle School principalship. There
was a new teaching-principal at Sarget School filling the vacancy created by the promotion of that teaching-principal to the supervisory position at Nabnasset. The administrative assistant to the Superin- tendent resigned and was replaced twice. Also lost to the system were the veteran art director and both art specialists, the reading director and two reading specialists, head of the math department, and head of the business department at the Academy, and both Middle School guidance counsellors. All told, there were forty-four resignations, two pro- motions, and ten additional staff appointments (including three part time elementary teachers). Two reading positions were unfilled be- cause of a lack of qualified applicants. (It was August before the State Board of Education confirmed appointment of our reading director to Worcester State College, too late to hold one reading specialist with promise of promotion, and too late to fill the vacancy.) Thus 45% of the staff, almost every second teacher, was new in Westford. Of course some of the resignations were for strictly personal reasons, such as family leaving the area, maternity, retirement, professional advancement, etc. But the experience of the past spring and summer indicated that a teaching staff is highly mobile, and a school com- mittee has a responsibility to support a competitive salary policy, as well as an enlightened personnel policy if that committee is to fulfill its educational obligation to the children of the community. And the price of this obligation comes high.
Mr. Peter Perry, veteran staff member, former Westford superin- tendent and principal, gave notice of his intended retirement at the close of the 1965-66 school year. For 42 years Mr. Perry had served the Town of Westford. It was proper and fitting that his testimonial dinner June 12 enjoyed town-wide support and enthusiasm. Many former colleagues and students returned to Westford for the occasion to extend to Mr. Perry congratulations for his service accomplishments, both in education and 4-H club work, and to wish both Mr. and Mrs. Perry many happy years of retirement.
The school staff, pupils and many friends of Mr. John Connolly were saddened by his sudden death May 4. Mr. Connolly was a life- long resident of Westford, and since November 16, 1960, the custodian of the Sargent School. His cheerful cooperative attitude was a wholesome influence on pupils and staff alike.
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PROGRAM
.In every school system there are those children for whom the regular program falls short of meeting needs. And as we learn to understand better the needs of these special pupils, the greater is our feeling of frustration in trying to provide a more meaningful program. These pupils fall at both extremes of the academic spectrum, and each presents a unique problem. There are the extremely bright for whom the regular academic program fails to provide adequate challenge; there are the pupils who are academically slow, for whom the regular program merely increases frustrations. There are the pupils with emotional problems which neutralize any academic efforts, pupils with physical and neurological problems who require special instruc- tional techniques. Guidelines have been established for the indenti- fication and the referral of these pupils, but there was evident a need for special instructional personnel, for consulting specialists, and for a coordination of total staff efforts, if each child were to receive the attention that was his due.
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