Growth spurt for kindergarten classes

September 21, 2008

After a year's hiatus, kindergarten enrollment this fall spiked above 500 children again. According to Peter Rowe, deputy superintendent for administration and finance, the public schools enrolled 551 students as of Monday. Two years ago, the enrollment was 550, the highest it had been in decades, and higher than school officials had expected. There are now 27 kindergarten classes. "It's putting a huge demand on space," Rowe said, as well as on the school budget. In total, there are 2,150 children in grades K-3 in Brookline, and 1,700 in grades 4-8. Since the numbers exceed the town's birth figures, school officials surmise that families with young children are moving into town for the schools.

If there's a recession on, Brookline business areas aren't showing the strain. At least not yet. Although Marge Amster, the town's commercial areas coordinator, stated earlier this summer that this is the toughest retail climate in years, the 5.9 percent retail vacancy rate in Brookline is well below the Eastern Massachusetts average of 9.9 percent for small retail. Amster released the town figures, which she compiled, earlier this month. The attractiveness of Brookline's retail areas may in part be due to the low percentage of national chains: 21.5 percent of the businesses by Amster's figures. Anything below 50 percent is "highly atypical," according to the National Main Street Organization. The number of chain stores in Brookline has not changed since last year, Amster said.

The Brookline Health Department is $625,000 richer thanks to a federal grant recognizing its programming, in conjunction with the schools, to prevent teen substance abuse. The five-year Drug Free Communities grant recognizes the five-year-old Brookline Coalition Against Substance Abuse, which includes Brookline High School students and teachers, health professionals, community leaders, and citizens. Funding will support new and ongoing high school Peer Leadership Program projects and the Parent Network Program. For details, visit www.bcasa.org .

Got a news item for Brookline? E-mail Andreae Downs at andreaedowns@yahoo.com

School Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn's decision to leave six months before his contract expires "does not radically affect the search for Dr. Fowler-Finn's replacement," said Mayor Denise Simmons. The superintendent announced his retirement, effective Feb. 4, at the conclusion of last Tuesday's School Committee meeting. His contract expires in August. Simmons said his early departure "merely alters the pace of the search," which was already underway with the support of an outside consulting firm. During his six-year tenure, Fowler-Finn increased enrollment and diversity employment, as well as established new programs. He "had his critics, to be sure, but he brought a good deal of enthusiasm and dedication to his job," said Simmons .

The Conservation Commission will hold a hearing tomorrow to discuss redevelopment of the former Faces disco club site. Plans for the site - which is on Route 2 adjacent to the Alewife Reservation - include a 240-unit apartment complex. The developers, McKinnon Co. and Criterion Development Partners, are not asking for any zoning variances and are working within the same footprint of the vacant building. Jennifer Wright, director of the commission, said they will discuss flood storage and revegetation of the area.

Can't sleep at night because you're worried about biotech labs leaking mutated viruses into the air? The Cambridge Department of Public Health is looking for community representatives for their Institutional Biosafety Committee. These volunteer positions call for approving protocols for experiments and manufacturing processes involving nearly all forms of research utilizing recombinant DNA, according to the health department. If you haven't touched a biology book since high school, an Oct. 2 training session, "Basic Bioscience for Community Reps," will be hosted by the health department. Representatives don't have to be scientists, but can't have financial ties to the biotech sector. E-mail Sam Lipson at slipson@challiance.org for more information.

Got a news item from Cambridge? E-mail Jennifer Schwartz at jensch72@gmail.com.

The city has started looking for a developer to build a boutique hotel and parking garage in Davis Square. Dozens of developers have expressed interest in submitting ideas and visions for the project by seeking a "request for qualifications" the first two days it was available, said city spokesman Tom Champion. They can submit proposals for one or more of three specified city-owned properties. Champion called the project "a high-priority and very exciting initiative" for the city. Applicants should be prepared to attend many community meetings, he said. Submissions are due Oct. 31. A task force aims to recommend candidates to submit detailed proposals by the end of the year.

Sometimes Baby Bear beats out the big guys: One of Somerville's municipal Smart Cars nabbed Best in Show at the City of Burlington's annual Municipal Truck Day on Sept. 7, said Somerville fleet foreman Mike Browne. Hundreds of firetrucks and dump trucks, front-end loaders and street-sweepers couldn't beat out the tiny "truck." Browne thought the car won due to its popularity and innovation. (Though he noted an asphalt company also brought a Smart Car.) Somerville bought four of the diminutive vehicles, which look like they could easily fit in a dump truck, in July to replace gas-guzzlers.

Queen Noor of Jordan, rabbi-public television host Irwin Kula, and Shambhala Buddhist lama Sakyong Jamgön Miphon Rinpoche will talk about "compassionate leadership" in an interdependent world at Tufts University's Cohen Auditorium on Thursday. Tufts spokeswoman Kim Thurler wrote in an e-mail that the leaders originally met and spoke at the Aspen Institute in Colorado. An Aspen trustee will moderate the discussion, which is also making a stop in New York. The talk takes place at 15 South Campus Road at 5 p.m. Free tickets are required. You can submit a question at www.ivapeace.org.

Got a news item from Somerville? E-mail Danielle Dreilinger at djdreilinger@comcast.net.