Natick Report

Little Lola’s owners “extremely excited to announce that we have closed”: But…

March 3, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Little Lola’s has announced that its shop in South Natick on Eliot Street has closed, but that the owners are looking to find another full-size location later this year. The takeout spot with outdoor eating, and clutch slushies on hot days, issued the following post on Facebook:

“We have good news & great newsWe are extremely excited to announce that we have closed Little LolasThis may seem slightly odd but let us explain…

The good news – Our insurance agency could no longer insure the establishment as a restaurant due to the small size. In order to stay open we would have had to downgrade our menu and items which would have made it very difficult to keep open. Luckily with the help of our very gracious landlords – we were able to get out of the space.

The great news – we are opening another full size location in 2021Let us know where you want to see us.”

Lola’s Italian Groceria is still going strong in Natick Center.

Meanwhile, let’s hope something interesting takes the spot in South Natick that sits next to a realty office.

Meet Natick candidate for School Committee—Catherine Brunell

March 3, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Town of Natick depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Natick voters will on or before March 30, 2021 cast their ballots for candidates running for School Committee, a contested race.

The Natick School Committee is an elected town-wide board. Among other things, it approves Natick’s school budget, appoints the Superintendent, and establishes educational goals and policies for Natick’s schools as a whole.

There are three candidates running for two open 3-year seats on the School Committee—Matt Brand, Shai Fuxman, and Catherine Brunell.

Natick Report invited the candidates to answer a few questions about their qualifications and priorities for the Town of Natick. Below is Catherine Brunell’s Q & A. Here is a link to Matt Brand’s and to Shai Fuxman’s.

Catherine Brunell, candidate for School Committee

Natick Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?

Catherine Brunell: I am a former teacher, a coach and a mom to 5 kids. I co-founded Protect Natick’s Future last spring and
demonstrated my abilities as a community organizer and as a leader who will respond to difficult topics with information for our residents. Running a household with clear procedures and negotiating who needs what and when is my daily life. Practical life skills like listening, relating, asking for more information, advocating, and prioritizing, are where I excel.

Our family has been in the school system for over a decade, we have gone through every level with different learners and different experiences for each of our kids. I know this community, both how to listen to it and how to strengthen it. In a time of COVID recovery, having a close ear to the community is essential. I will serve with a practical, relational emphasis.

NR: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish on the School Committee during the upcoming 3-year term?

Brunell: 1) I will advocate to help students and families, within the policy and the budget objectives of the School Committee, to grapple with, persist through, and ultimately show progress in COVID.

2) With the other committee members, I would like to prioritize setting specific, known to the public, yearly goals for our own School Committee to support the district wide goals. This is a national best practice for effective boards who are focused on student achievement. (see www.nsba.org – Eight Characteristics of Effective Boards.)

3) Increase the amount of clear, two-way communication for our constituents. For example, I will host regular “Coffee and conversation” events and will communicate before and after the meetings about items on our agenda. I will do this carefully so as not to overstep the open-meeting law or committee policy, and I will stay grounded in our mission to engage and represent the public.

4) Establish or reestablish best practices for working with and across our Town Government administration and committees. With a structural deficit in town and a new Town Administrator, how our School Committee sees these relationships with new eyes will be critical.

NR: Going forward, what are the top challenges you see facing Natick Public Schools from the pandemic?

Brunell: Rejuvenating our kids, teachers, administration and families from the impacts of COVID in lots of different ways. As we continue forward, a bit weary and hopefully more aware of our resilience than ever, we need to evaluate carefully HOW all of our populations and individuals have been impacted and what we have learned as a district. Then, the School Committee needs to empower our school leaders through policy and budget to come up with a plan that incorporates the lessons learned and influences the places of need with the most impact. Social Emotional, yes! Academic recovery, for sure! Special education adjustments! And more understanding of equity as a benefit for all.

NR: Other area schools have hired a Directory of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Given that promoting equity and inclusion for all students is a top priority in Natick schools, would Natick benefit from such a hire? Why or why not?

Brunell: As a parent and as a community member my response is that this position is necessary, but not alone sufficient for the long, hard and good road that our district needs to travel with diversity, equity and inclusion. As a School Committee Member, my job will be to ask our leadership about what their plan is around equity and inclusion, to vet that plan through community feedback and research and then to figure out how we can prioritize the final decision in the budget. This is an example of a School Committee goal we could have in the 2021-2022 school year (see answer above.) As for this specific position, I cannot wade into a specific hire but I can and will give the administration feedback from our constituents and drill down on if we are achieving equity and inclusion best practices in our schools with the plan we have put in place. Policy, budget, follow through, those are levers I will have to impact our schools and this initiative.

NR: Is there anything else you would like to say that the above questions did not cover?

Brunell: When I am sitting in a public seat, a seat to which I have been elected, I do not see my name on the table. I see the word “community.” That is, I sit in that seat representing a diverse group of Natick residents—in age, experience, race, ethnicity and gender, from those with children in school to those without. I am sitting there to ask my questions and more importantly, your questions. My job is to build the community’s confidence that every decision we make is the best of all of the data-informed options that we have considered for our students, within the competing priorities that we have to navigate. At times, reasonable people will disagree with the votes I cast, but I will always be transparent and back up the decisions I come to with best practices, data and with our students at the center. Additionally, I have a personal goal to communicate to you how we use the funds that the town and the state provide, through your taxes, to ensure a maximized student experience.

NR: How should voters reach you if they want more information?

Brunell: catherinebrunell@gmail.com & www.catherine2021.com

Meet Natick candidate for School Committee—Shai Fuxman

March 2, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

There are three candidates running for two open 3-year seats on the School Committee—Matt Brand, Shai Fuxman, and Catherine Brunell.

Natick Report invited the candidates to answer a few questions about their qualifications and priorities for the Town of Natick. Below is Shai Fuxman’s Q & A. Here is a link to Matt Brand’s and to Catherine Brunell’s.

Shai Fuxman, candidate for School Committee

Natick Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?

Shai Fuxman: My professional background in education, my passion for service, and my personal experiences as a parent qualify me for School Committee re-election. Professionally, I have a Doctorate in Education and over 20 years of experience applying research to improve educational practice and policy. I provide training and consultation to states’ departments of education—including the MA Department of Education (DESE)—and school districts across the country. I also bring years of commitment to serving my community. Since I first arrived in Natick over 11 years ago, I got involved in various volunteer roles including the Natick Education Foundation, Natick Soccer, as a board member of my faith community, and as chair of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC). Finally, I bring a unique set of personal experiences as a relatively new and proud American, and as a parent of a child with special needs. Through these various experiences—both personal and professional—I bring a set of perspectives and expertise that uniquely qualify me to continue my role on the committee overseeing our children’s education.

NR: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish on the School Committee during the upcoming 3-year term?

Fuxman: I have three main goals for the School Committee over the next three years: supporting students academic and social-emotional growth in the aftermath of the pandemic (see next question), promoting inclusion and equity in our schools, and collaborating with town partners to find solutions to our difficult budget challenges.

As a parent of a child with special needs, promoting equity and inclusion is a very personal cause for me. My heart was broken too many times when she, and I, were made to feel excluded because she was different. As a current School Committee member, I have advocated—and will continue to advocate—so no student in our schools feels excluded or forced to hide who they are due to race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability or political ideology. To do so, we need a K-12 approach to teaching the value of inclusion through academic instruction—we can promote these values through literacy, social studies, civic education, health, and world language classes. We also need to teach students to be active bystanders in the face of microaggressions, bullying and other forms of exclusionary behaviors. Lastly, we need to make sure that we have the staff and resources to support students’ various needs, including students with special needs, English language learners, and those requiring mental health supports.

Lastly, during my time on School Committee I have learned that those of us in local government often find ourselves, particularly during budget season, working against each other to defend our piece of the pie rather than working together to solve common challenges. Ever since I joined the School Committee, I have been reaching out to colleagues in town government including members of the Select Board, Finance Committee, and Town Meeting. This has allowed me to both better understand other people’s perspectives, as well as to explain mine to them. If re-elected, I will continue to build bridges between my Committee and the other entities of town government so we can work on finding common solutions to our common challenges.

NR: Going forward, what are the top challenges you see facing Natick Public Schools from the pandemic?

Fuxman: The top challenge facing our schools is finding the balance between three critical areas of need for students’ wellbeing: COVID-19 health concerns, academic recovery, and social-emotional well-being/mental health. Realistically speaking, it is likely that next fall we will need to continue to put in place health-related precautions such as mask wearing and physical distancing in buildings. The process for easing these precautions over time will be determined by the school district, based on federal and state guidelines, and in close collaboration with our local department of health.

At the same time students are going to need, to varying degrees, supports for academic recovery associated with the learning time lost in the past 1.5 years of restricted education (for example, according to some national studies students are showing regression particularly in math). On top of the health and academic challenges, there are mental health concerns associated with students struggling with the sense of isolation, lack of proper structure and routine, and a general sense of fear and disorientation related to the pandemic (various studies are showing an increase in mental health struggles for children and youth). Over-emphasizing the need for academic recovery can also exacerbate students’ social-emotional wellbeing. In short, the challenge over the coming year is to find the right balance between keeping our children healthy—physically and mental health-wise—while helping them get back on track academically. Addressing this issue begins with the recognition that different students will need different types of supports. We will need to tackle this trifecta of challenges through a personalized learning approach. This includes assessing students both for academic and social-emotional needs, and providing necessary supports through a well-implemented tiered approach (i.e., Response to Intervention or RTI).

Fuxman: I have personally worked with Directors of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in other districts and value the contribution that such a role can bring to helping us achieve our stated commitment to equity and inclusion here in Natick. Therefore, my answer to the question is yes, we should consider creating a role of Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Creating this role will need some consideration given the town’s current budget crunch. In my view, the solution is to re-define current district-level roles, for example director of human resources and/or director of communications to create this new role, rather than adding a new position in central office beyond those that already exist. It is important to note that while this is a recommendation the School Committee can and should put forth, the decision for hiring and managing central office roles lies with the Superintendent. Lastly, it is also important to note that one person alone cannot address the critical issues of equity and inclusion facing our schools and our community. Even with a Director of Equity & Inclusion, everyone will need to do their part to ensure we are meeting our equity and inclusion goals.

NR: Is there anything else you would like to say that the above questions did not cover?

Fuxman: My commitment to improving education began over 22 years ago when I chose to pursue a career in this field. Throughout this two-decade journey I have expanded my horizons and deepened my expertise by obtaining both my Masters and Doctorate in Education; working with state agencies, school districts, and community-based organizations throughout the country (and internationally too); and volunteering in various capacities, both within and outside of Natick. This is my calling! Serving my community through my passion and expertise has been an honor and a privilege. I look forward to continuing to serve my community over the next three years and beyond.

NR: How should voters reach you if they want more information?

Fuxman: I welcome voters to reach out to me via email: shai4schoolcommittee@gmail.com or by following me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaiforschoolcommittee. They can also read more about my background on my website: www.shaiforschoolcommittee.org.

Meet Natick candidate for School Committee—Matt Brand

March 1, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

There are three candidates running for two open 3-year seats on the School Committee—Matt Brand, Shai Fuxman, and Catherine Brunell.

Natick Report invited the candidates to answer a few questions about their qualifications and priorities for the Town of Natick. Below is Matt Brand’s Q & A. Here is a link to Shai Fuxman’s and to Catherine Brunell’s.

Matt Brand, candidate for School Committee

Natick Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?

Matt Brand: I first got involved with Natick town government through the planning and advocacy process associated with the Natick Dog Park project, now opened and named Eddie’s Park. When I would attend the associated town meetings for the park, I started to notice that there didn’t seem to be many volunteers who had younger families in town and I began to wonder if there was some way for me to get more involved. As a professional software engineer and long time startup entrepreneur, I tried to see if there was a place where my technology background could be helpful. I volunteered to be appointed by the members of the Select Board to the Information Systems Advisory Board. This board works closely with the school system and other town departments to make technology infrastructure recommendations to other boards and committees.

From there, as I started to have a better understanding of how the town worked, I became interested in getting more involved. That is when I got appointed to join the Finance Committee, and as part of that, a member of the Education and Learning Subcommittee. This is where I got my first real taste of the Natick Public Schools budget process and loved learning about how the schools worked. In January of 2018, I was craving more involvement and attended a learning session about various open town government positions and that’s when it hit me: the School Committee would be a great way for me to be involved, use my professional skills, and give back to the community where my wife, 2 daughters, and I lived.

I was elected in March of 2018 for my first term on the committee. In addition to being a long-time technologist, I am also a former overnight summer camp director. I have always loved working with and for children and believe that it has always been a wonderful place to practice empathy and listening. I have applied those skills to my technology leadership roles. The combination of engineering and math skills along with critical thinking, empathy, objective reasoning, and creativity have served me well as a member of the Natick School Committee. I was elected by my peers on the committee to serve as the Vice-Chair and also serve as the Chair of the Policy Review subcommittee.

I apply my thoughtful and objective leadership, that I practice in my professional job, to my role on the Natick School Committee and I hope to continue to serve our community for the next 3 years.

NR: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish on the School Committee during the upcoming 3-year term?

Brand: As a committee, it is our responsibility to provide the best possible opportunity for all of our students to achieve at their highest levels. That is always the goal and what I would continue to hope to accomplish in the upcoming 3 years.

We need to ensure that all students get the support they need to not only keep up with grade-level expectations, but to thrive. In Natick, we have literacy specialists and it has proven to be a necessity and highly valuable. Data shows that in district assessments, even during COVID-19, our students’ literacy skills have continued to improve. With math, the same cannot be said. We need to hire math specialists to provide that same type of support and make sure our students have all the help they need to successfully progress in math competencies.

In addition, while we’ve done great work on developing and updating policies in the district over the past 3 years, I look forward to building more. We have recently started work on a new microaggression policy that I look forward to continuing to develop with input and feedback from our community. Making sure that ALL students feel safe and welcome in our community is essential. The policies we put in place will provide our educators and students with a framework for how to handle problems that arise and make people feel heard. It is important for us to acknowledge where we have room to improve, listen to each other, and work together to make our community a better place.

NR: Going forward, what are the top challenges you see facing Natick Public Schools from the pandemic?

Brand: The answer to this is a continuation of the previous question about what I hope to accomplish during the upcoming 3-year term. I think we face a tremendous challenge when it comes to COVID Recovery. Even in a district as relatively successful as Natick has been, a district that is used as a model across Massachusetts for how to run hybrid and remote learning models, our students will certainly have a lot of work to do in order to adapt to coming back to school full-time, both academically as well as socially and emotionally.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a group of students, ranging in age from 5 through 17, about their experience schooling during the COVID pandemic and also about what they most looked forward to when they could go back to “normal” school. We, as adults, often look at this kind of problem through a more tactical and operational lens. I think this is important and necessary. The students’ lens is quite different, and we should acknowledge their perspective as well. They want to eat lunch in the cafeteria. They want to be able to use the lab spaces in school. They want to see their teachers without having to look through plexiglass. They want to see and be with all their friends. The social and emotional wellbeing of our learners will need to be a focus for us and will manifest, for us as a School Committee, through our budget process. This is where we need to make sure we get funding in place for the right staff and proper student services.

The schools, however, do not operate in a vacuum. We have other services and departments in Natick that also have needs and wants. Everyone has had to make sacrifices during COVID and every department has had to put off innovation and improvement in some form or another. Heading into the end of this school year, and preparing for the next year, we need to be a high functioning and efficient School Committee working collaboratively with the district to ensure a full return to school. We will need to collaborate with all of our town partners to figure out the best path forward for all members of our community and make sure that each and every member of our town can transition back to the excellence we know they deserve.

Brand: The simple answer is yes, of course Natick would benefit from hiring a Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. We, as a district, have taken big steps to improve our diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Natick Public Schools but having someone in that role, who is entirely focused on continuing and expanding the efforts in place would be of great value and importance for our community. There are a few different facets of DEI that I think are important and our district has already made nice improvements in this area:

It is important to make sure that students see diversity in their teachers. They need to be able to see people who look like them. In addition, there has been an effort to diversify the curriculum in a variety of ways. It starts with training. Part of the training that each teacher and staff member receives is to design a unit for their respective subject using diverse text. Making sure that our curriculum includes and teaches viewpoints from a variety of experiences covering Black, White, Jewish, Asian, LGBTQ+, and many others is critical. Having a Director of DEI would be a wonderful way to ensure that this effort is all-encompassing and consistent across the district.

NR: Is there anything else you would like to say that the above questions did not cover?

Brand: The past year has been a historically challenging time for public schooling. Massachusetts ranks as #1 for Pre-K-12 public schooling in the country. The Natick Public Schools has been a model district for others across Massachusetts for how to run hybrid and remote learning models. I am proud to be part of the School Committee that has supported and helped guide our leaders through this difficult time. As we end this year and plan for next year, we must stay focused and efficient as a School Committee and as a community to ensure that all students can safely get back to full-time school. We will always have big challenges in front of us and I believe my objectivity and thoughtful leadership will continue to be a great asset for our town.

NR: How should voters reach you if they want more information?

For more information on my campaign, please visit my website at mattfornatick.com or email me at mattbrandnatick@gmail.com

Natick Business Buzz: Return of the Golden Triangle; Small businesses score more COVID relief grants; Java’s space could be filled; Marijuana second chances; Check out Economic Development website

February 27, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Natick, Mass., business news:

Return of the Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle, a 940-acre area in Natick and Framingham known for its shopping malls bordered by major highways and roadways, has suffered from a number of issues over the years, not the least of which have been traffic congestion and a bricks-and-mortar retail industry savaged by online alternatives.

The communities of Natick and Framingham, flanked by a bunch of outside consultants, issued a lengthy report in late 2018 about the golden—or whatever color you’d describe it as these days—triangle. Zoning, transportation, and other development recommendations were made, but then like so many studies it just started collecting digital dust on the communities’ websites.

While the study was conducted before Natick hired James Freas as director of community & economic development, and back when the likes of Toys “R” Us and JCPenney were bailing from the area, Freas isn’t about to let that effort go to waste.

“What that study really concluded is that there is a range of trends in retail and office space that is changing the face of retail and needed a response in order to maintain the strength and vibrancy of the Golden Triangle area going forward,” Freas said. “What we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic is those trends identified during that study have all been accelerated.”

He has asked the Select Board to get behind a revitalization of the Golden Triangle, and is coordinating with Deputy Town Administrator Jamie Errickson to move things forward, hopefully with support from Framingham counterparts. The focus would be on new zoning, and near-term achievable transportation and infrastructure improvements.

The Golden Triangle has traditionally contributed big time to Natick’s commercial tax revenue, so it’s in the town’s interest to get more from the area.

vision for Rte 9 golden triangle — Minds would be blown if safe cycling along Rte. 9 would be part of the Golden Triangle revamp, as envisioned in the study

Freas shared his update on the Golden Triangle plan as part of a broader review at the Feb. 24 Select Board meeting (starting at about the 35-minute mark) on efforts that the town—including many departments and boards and committees—has made to support businesses during the pandemic, and programs in the works to further support economic recovery. We’ve embedded his memo on the subject below.

Highlights include:

20 different restaurants offered some form of outdoor dining last year, and their permits are being renewed. Freas would like to see even more restaurants join in this year once weather allows.
“Zoning amendments approved by the town to support development of the former St Patrick’s school site, give flexibility on front setbacks, reduce or eliminate parking requirements, facilitate expansion of outdoor dining, and support continuous commercial frontage on the downtown’s retail streets.”
The implementation of online permitting software to stream all sorts of permits, including those for businesses.

Small business score more COVID relief

$3.7M in grants, largely via the state, has flowed into about 70 Natick businesses over the past year. The Commonwealth announced a new batch of COVID-19 relief grants totaling $49M this week, and 8 Natick small businesses were among recipients. Jewelry, fitness, and design firms were among those getting relief in the form of grants ranging from $15K to $75K.

Java’s space ready to refill

The word from downtowners in the know is that the space at 22 N. Main St., formerly occupied by eatery Java’s, is close to getting refilled. Director of Community & Economic Development Freas says this is the only significant vacancy downtown. More when we know more…(please fill us in: natickreport@gmail.com)

Marijuana second chances

In the wake of Natick moving ahead with one recreational marijuana shop, the town’s is now readying for the runners-up to take a second shot at wooing the public and town officials. We saw a notice pop up on the town website for an outreach meeting with ReLeaf Alternative for March 25, so it appears as though the action will seen start up again on this topic.

Economic Development Committee website

Be sure to poke around the newish Economic Development Committee website, where you can research available commercial real estate, and examine data on competition, customers, and more.