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The Norwood School Committee last night cleared the way for the South Norfolk County Association for Retarded Citizens (SNCARC) to make the Willett School building its new home. The organization will operate a school and habilitation center there for residents of twelve area towns. The facility is located in a single-residence zone on Westover Parkway, and the other portion of the building continues to house the school department administration offices.
There was no community opposition to the move. The approximately twenty people who showed up at the informal hearing came to learn about the organization and ask questions rather than to oppose the use of the Willett School for retarded adults. It appears that the light is green, school committee Chairman Joseph M. Pentowski told SNCARC representatives following the session held to garner neighborhood reaction. Acting on Town Counsel Justin C. Barton‘s advice, the committee encouraged SNCARC to submit a detailed proposal to Building Inspector John E. Grover and obtain zoning clearance and an occupancy permit before a lease for part of the building can be signed.
Robert Stearns, SNCARC associate executive director, stated that the proposed habilitation center will offer between forty and fifty moderately retarded adults a variety of daytime programs. Basic daily living and vocational skills will be taught, alongside services including psychological evaluations, physical, speech, recreational, and occupational therapy. A nurse will assist clients with diet and hygiene practices, and basic instruction in reading, writing, and math will be provided. Robert Stearns noted that the school will operate in the daytime only with a staff-to-student ratio of one-to-three or one-to-four, backed by a projected first-year budget of $300,000. SNCARC is a private, nonprofit corporation funded primarily through state and local grants to serve about 400 individuals from twelve area towns. SNCARC board members Margaret Crawford of Norwood and Mary Collins of Westwood supported the request before the school committee, and Robert Stearns assured neighbors that their clientele are neither criminally nor otherwise dangerous.
Discussion also turned to financial arrangements regarding rental fees. Schools’ Superintendent Louis J. Taris estimated receipts of about $36,000 at the rental rate SNCARC is willing to pay, against a minimum town building maintenance cost of $22,000. SNCARC had initially proposed a smaller payment because it did not factor in corridors and storage areas in the eight-classroom section it wishes to rent. Thomas DiFrancia, finance commission member and a former school committeeman, urged the board to show charity and help these people out rather than focus on profit. Louis J. Taris noted that the school department makes a profit from other renters like Northeastern University and Newbury Junior College, but school committeeman Charles C. Saraca emphasized that helping human lives become more productive is what education is all about.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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