An independent school needs survey conducted by the Cambridge consulting firm Arthur D. Little, Inc. and presented to town officials and School Committee members last night warns that Norwood schools are “critically overcrowded” across all three educational levels.
The $21.8 Million Master Plan and Overcrowding Crisis
Commissioned by the Finance Commission at a cost of $42,000, the master plan outlines a sweeping $21.8 million building program to be implemented over a five-year period. However, study representatives cautioned that even if town meeting immediately approves the full recommendations, Norwood may already be lagging behind an extremely tight construction schedule.
While taking no immediate action on the report—which will undergo thorough review by the school committee and other town boards ahead of a public open hearing planned for the first week of October by Chairman Robert A. Bulger—school committee members questioned several financial and growth projections in the study.
School committee member Eugene F. Thayer challenged the report’s underlying assumptions regarding tax base increases, noting that the preceding ten-year period used for projections represented the town’s greatest historical growth era. Thayer pointed out that the Endean Farm site proposed for the new senior high school is one of the last large remaining parcels in Norwood that could otherwise be developed to boost the town’s assessed valuation.
Financial Projections and Tax Forecasts
The master plan projects that Norwood’s assessed valuation will climb from $82.7 million to $109.5 million by 1980, reflecting what consultants termed the “inflection of the town’s reaching physical capacity,” which would likely necessitate a community renewal plan within five years. Alongside rising valuations, the study forecasts substantial tax rate increases, peaking at $26.25 in 1974. When questioned by committee members about these projections, Arthur D. Little representatives acknowledged they had not factored specific land-use limitations into their financial models.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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