By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Superintendent Jon Sills reported to the School Committee on September 10 that this year’s opening of school went relatively smoothly, with the exception of some unspecified “glitches” on the first day that resulted in a number of Davis School students boarding the wrong homeward-bound bus. Generally, Sills said that the “buildings sparkled”— thanks to the efforts of the custodial staff— and that the educational staff had “terrific energy” with “everyone aligned” and “walking in the same direction.”
However, Sills also reported that the numbers of kindergarten students and homeless students had unexpectedly mushroomed over the summer, and that these developments lead to budgetary concerns.
Because they recognized last spring that enrollment trends were on the upswing, the School Committee—in anticipation of higher kindergarten numbers—approved a ninth kindergarten classroom. Over the summer, kindergarten enrollment increased even more than expected to 199 students, causing some classes this fall to have 22 or 23 student— several students more than optimal at that grade level.
Additionally, Sills reported that 108 homeless students now reside at the Bedford Plaza Hotel—contracted by the state to shelter homeless families—up from a peak of 66 students last year. About half of those 108 students are now registered at one of Bedford’s four schools; the other half of the population must be transported—at Bedford’s expense, at least temporarily—to their towns of origin as mandated by the 1987 federal McKinney-Vento Act.
Full reimbursement for these transportation mandates is not guaranteed and reimbursement percentages are subject to perennial state budget discussions. According to Finance and School Committee deliberations last year before Town Meeting, payments from the state—at whatever level of reimbursement— are not received by affected towns until the following fiscal year, well after receipts for transportation services are due.
Sills said that an increase of staff for the English Language Learners program (ELL) was included in this year’s budget but, even with additional personnel, staff have been outmatched by the influx of students needing services. Additionally, Sills said that one particular administrative assistant has done nothing but coordinate homeless student transportation for the last two weeks.
The Superintendent took a moment to recognized community volunteers from Bedford churches and other organizations who have helped provide school materials and items like backpacks to students in need.
The School Department is scheduled to present further details to the Finance Committee about the budgetary implications of these issues this Thursday, September 12 at 7:30 at the Town Hall in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room.
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Can’t wait till Bedford Day!
There is a difference between helping those in need with ties to our community. The families/people, living in the hotel have no ties to this area at all. I do not think any of us would turn on a neighbor. This hotel arrangement is out of control and I wonder how it was ever OKed in the first place. Prior to this article, not enough people realized that the hotel was being used as a homeless shelter. Thankfully the community is aware and hopefully able to be part of the future decisions regarding it. Multiple code violations, drinking, drugs inside and out, abuse, physical fighting, prositution, gang activity… This is in addition the extensive cost to the town in fire, police and transportation. This is not a homeless shelter that is being taken care of by volunteers inside making sure people are getting help. It is a building in complete crisis that is spilling into our community. A community that people have work there rear ends off to live in, so that they can bring there children up away from the brutality of other less than desirable communties. Reality people!
“Multiple code violations, drinking, drugs inside and out, abuse, physical fighting, prositution, gang activity… ”
Do you have evidence to support your assertions or are you just having fun picking on homeless people?
Too many people in Bedford are concerned that our community may begin to look like a diverse place. What’s wrong with diversity? We should be inviting families and individuals in to our town who would add to the cultural foundation of our citizenship. Let’s face it: It’s Bedford not Stepford.
This is a sad perspective. Homelessness does not equal prostitution, gang activity, abuse and drugs. The middle class is getting squeezed and a fair number of Bedford residents are one medical emergency from being in a similar place.
I am saddened by the thought that Bedford should only help Bedford residents and not help others in needed. If you had paid attention, you would have known about this situation last year. This is nothing new.
The volunteers in town are doing their best to help those living at the Plaza Hotel. They have gotten state resources to step in.
My reality does not match your selfish one.
It’s cool this is getting talked about. Reading the article carefully, it sounds as if there are some 55 or so homeless students in the Bedford schools this year, so if they were spread somewhat evenly across K-12, that would be 55/13 or 4-5 “homeless” students per grade level — some of whom were here last year. The kindergarten classes have more kids than expected because more families with 5 and 6 year olds have recently moved into town, some intentionally and some because this is where they have been given a place to live. In the years I have lived in Bedford, some grades have had 150 kids and some have had 200 kids and it varies from year to year — and of course high school classes get even bigger, because kids from Hanscom are added to the mix. All that said, I think it is super important to examine the questions everyone is raising — it is a great discussion, and I trust Bedford will do this right!
(PS: For anyone interested in class size by grade, it’s listed at https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/enrollmentbygrade.aspx?mode=school
)
I just bought a house in Bedford last month for my kids to enter the good schools (rated 9 on greatschools.org) . However, when I read this news today, I felt so angry and upset. How do they guarantee the education quality with so many students in every class? Will my kids been affected by that? How good are those homeless kids education, do they require more effort from the teachers? Will the teacher be too overwhelmed? Will the town increase tax and we do not benefit from it at all? I don’t think it is fair. I do not want to see Bedford to become a poor school district. By the way, the school rank will definitely affect the house value.
Losing a job and a home isn’t fair. I don’t think anyone living in the hotel wants to be here.
Well, maybe someone should tell them that hanging out in the street smoking and doing drugs with their children next to them isn’t going to get them out of this situation. I live extremely close to the hotel and these people are disgusting! And YES there is drugs and violence going on there. Anyone who says there isn’t has there head buried in the sand! Wake up people, this town in turning into a ghetto! You can hate me all you want but I make tremendous sacrifices to be able to raise my kids in the town I grew up in. I have lived in this neighborhood my entire life and never seen anything like this! Get them out!!
I have no problem with Bedford doing its share to help the homeless. It’s got to be especially hard for these kids to be raised in a hotel. Like some of the other commentators have mentioned, it seems that Bedford is taking on much more than other towns. Nearly every town has a motel, yet are they taking in the homeless as well? Every community should do its fair share and I’d love to better understand how these decisions are getting made. The idea that Bedford at our expense would need to transport kids to other towns all of the state seems ludicrous.
Quick math shows we have 16 times more families here in Bedford than the average town in MA (on a per capita basis.)
Here is my math. Boston Herald Aug 30th says 1,710 families being put up in motels across the state. MA 2012 population 6.646m. Bedford 2012 population 14,501 therefore Bedford represents 2/10ths of 1% of the state. 108 kids in Bedford schools. If we guess 54 families (average of 2 kids per family), that’s 54/1710 = 3.2% of all families. 3.2% / .2% = 16, which means Bedford has 16 times the number of families as the average town. Perhaps my math is somehow flawed, but if the actual number of families is higher, then it’s more than 16x. We’re a caring community that wants to help those in need, but our primary responsibility is to our own families first, and if classes are overflowing and budgets are getting depleted, then it’s fair to ask what other towns are doing to assist, especially in light of an undeniable jump in instances of Bedford Police being called to the hotel.
Or think of it this way.. If we had 8 families instead of 54, we’d be providing town services for more than twice as many families as the average town. If I was accused of helping out twice as many families as the average person, I’d be proud of that fact, and certainly not be willing to be shamed by anyone trying to accuse me of not being a caring individual. (that last comment was not directed at any of the folks commenting here.) In the end, it’s about proportionality, and as the math shows, the proportions are simply not anywhere close to being reasonable.
It is sad that so many families with children have become homeless in general. I am offended that this situation would cause anyone to call us a “dumping ground” because nothing is being “dumped” and homeless families are not trash.
Bedford has built a wonderful community over the years and has taken a purposeful approach to have a strong base of commercial properties. The residents enjoy the conveniences of having a wonderful shopping area and large employers nearby as well as lower propery taxes than our neighbors. This comes with trade-offs such as increased traffic in the commercial district. It apparently also comes with the ability to welcome and house two types of more transient families – those in crisis and those in the military.
In order to know if Bedford has been “overburdened” it needs to compare our situation with other communities that have similar capacity to house homeless families, not with neighbors that are purely residential. It is not accurate to do otherwise.
When you are sad for homeless students, will you feel sad for those Bedford residents who pay a lot for the school tax but their school age children cannot benefit from a good education? Did you see the crazy situation for this year school registration?
It would be nice to get the homeless people out of town, but where are they to go? Combine lack of truly affordable housing and unemployment the cost of food and people are either in shelters like the hotel or sleeping on the streets. You can wind up in these shelters even if you are working, especially if at minimum wage. How about we think of these people in terms of compassion and trying to help them rather than trying get rid of them? Some of the comments sound like they would love to drive the homeless out of town with whips and clubs.
There is no “win” in this situation. First, you have the kids who deserve a good education and a supportive environment. Second, when the town educational system is already being stretched with the “general” population is it fair to ask it to support this extra “burden”. These are questions that I am not sure there are answers to. A hotel is not a place to raise a child and if it were me, I would knock it down and put some thing else there, its an eyesore regardless of who is staying there. The state should be doing more to provide these families with a permanent living space. These kids deserve that.
I had heard that the state was going to stop using hotels for the homeless in 2014. I am anxious to see if that really happens. I have major doubts that it will. I also had heard hotels are suppose to be temporary placements ~ no longer than 3 months. I am aware that there are kids living in that hotel that have been in my children’s classes for 2 years now.
Who is going to hold the state to these guidelines? When is it enough? And how can we find out what is really going to happen there?
In addition to our school resources, it is also taxing our police and fire departments.
Why has our town become a dumping ground for such a large population homeless and burdened with their upkeep? Also the small town beauty of our main street is tarnished by their loitering and smoking in the vicinity of the dumpy hotel. When was the last time that building was inspected for code violations?
Are surrounding towns sharing the same burden?
I, for one, will be attending the Bedford Selectmen’s Meeting taking place this coming Monday, September 16, 2013 at 7:30 PM in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room, Bedford Town Hall. Importantly our State Representative Ken Gordon will also have office hours on Monday. I believe this should provide a platform for concerned Bedford Citizens like myself to make our concerns heard.
How is it that such a dramatic increase in demand on town resources can be relegated to Bedford taxpayers with no obligation from the source of these students (the state and the owner of the hotel)? And what is the position of our Selectmen, Planning Board, Town Manager, etc.. ? Commercial developers need permission to cut in a curb, yet 42 new students can be added to the rolls at the expense of Bedford taxpayers with no questions asked ? AND we’re paying for half of them to be transported back and forth daily to a preferred school in another town ?? Who is speaking up for us ?
Jim, I attended the Finance Committee meeting tonight and The Citizen will post the article about it early next week. The same questions you raise were asked by the FinCom members.
According to Superintendent Sills, the School administration and the Town Manager recently met with our state representatives and state staff to find out why Bedford is taking on so much of the state’s homeless student burden and how reimbursement might be maximized–perhaps received earlier. There’s also a question about whether the population at the Plaza is too large for such close quarters.
Stay tuned. We’re keeping our eye on the situation.