By popular demand we have this video, captured at around 6:00 AM at a den site behind the farm. Now fully edited and rendered at half resolution, should play better in slower PCs.

Message from Superintendent

Field and Country Schools Closing Until

Thursday, May 28

Based on our daily monitoring of absentee rates and student illnesses at each Weston Public School and with guidance from the Weston Board of Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, we have made the decision to close both Field and Country Schools beginning Friday, May 22^nd. The two schools will re-open on Thursday, May 28^th. The increase in students out with flu-like symptoms and fevers is following the same pattern as was seen at the Woodland School, prior to the decision to close that facility. Yesterday, I received information from the Commissioner of Education that students attending schools that are closed due to the flu do not have to make those days up at the end of the school year.

As parents, I urge you to check your children daily for any signs of illness, keep those who have a fever out of school for seven days, avoid bringing ill children to indoor public places and inform the school nurse as to the onset of such symptoms. I will continue to keep all parents notified of any changes in student illness rates throughout our district.

I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause families, but I believe this action is in the best interest of our students. Please contact me or your child’s school nurse or principal should you have any questions or concerns.

Woodland School will reopen on Wednesday, May 27 at 8 a.m. for students who are not ill. (There is no kindergarten scheduled that day.)

Dr. Cheryl R. Maloney

Superintendent

The Weston Superintendent of Schools has announced the temporary closure of the Woodland school until May 27th after 20% of the student body was absent due to flu-like symptoms.  There has only been one case of H1N1 confirmed so far. The following public notice was posted on the Town’s website:

MESSAGE FROM DR. CHERYL MALONEY, SUPERINTENDENT

Dear Parents

After carefully monitoring the absence rate at each school and consulting with the Weston Board of Health, I am writing to inform you that Woodland School will be closed until next Wednesday, May 27th.  This action is being taken due to an absentee rate that has jumped to 20%, with many – but not all – of those out sick exhibiting flu-like symptoms.  There is one confirmed case of a Woodland School student having the H1N1 flu.  We are also closely following the health of students in the other Weston schools, but currently no other building has an absentee profile that warrants closure.  We hope this temporary closing of Woodland will prevent the spread of symptoms in that facility and elsewhere in our district.  In each school, the custodians will be increasing their sanitizing of surfaces and Woodland will be thoroughly cleaned during the closure.

As parents, I urge you to check your children daily for any signs of illness, keep those who have a fever out of school or other activities for seven days, and inform the school nurse as to the onset of such symptoms.  There is helpful information about the flu on our web site as well as available at the Town Hall.  I will keep all parents notified of any changes in student illness rates throughout our district.

Woodland School will reopen on Wednesday, May 27 at 8 a.m. for students who are not ill.   (There is no kindergarten scheduled that day.)

I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause families, but I believe this action is in the best interest of our students.  Please contact me or your child’s school nurse or principal should you have any questions or concerns.

Dr. Cheryl R. Maloney

Superintendent

Weston Massachusetts

All registered Weston Voters should go to Town Hall this week 5/7, 5/8, or 5/9 to vote any weekday or this Saturday between 9-5 and cast your ballot.

Dear friends and neighbors,

I am forwarding you a copy of the letter that I sent to our Selectmen
yesterday. I think it is important that you are all aware of what is
happening in our town, because your property rights and values are going to
be directly effected by the proposed changes. Among other things, your
ability to sell your property in a timely manner, if you ever need to do it,
in many cases will be GREATLY effected. This year the Planning Board is
pushing bylaw proposals that will have a huge effect on our properties. Town
meeting is just  10 days away and it is VERY important that you know what
you will be doing to your own property rights and values if you decide to
skip that meeting. If these proposals are voted in without changes - you
WILL pay for them out of YOUR pockets one way or another.

Also, please read the following article in this week's Town Crier and
educate yourself.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/weston/archive/x342375816/Beware-of-zoning-proposals

 If you find the information in the article too technical or confusing -
please e-mail me your questions to oaginsky@comcast.net and I will be happy
to clarify it for you. In any case, please come to the Planning Board
hearing on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. We will be discussing some of these issues
there.

Please feel free to forward.

Your neighbor,

Olga

Dear Selectmen,

I have some concerns for the town over the "construction noise" warrant
article.

Please consider changing this proposal back to your original idea to allow
for construction work from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The current warrant language is too
restrictive and actually discriminatory against a specific industry. It also
places unnecessary financial and emotional stress on residents who are
looking to improve their properties as well as contractors who live and work
in this town (there are many).

1.       Discriminatory nature. Normally, towns have bylaws that regulate
noise. All noise. You can't let the dog bark, the lawn mower roar or the
contractor work before and after certain hours. Our bylaw is proposed, for
some reason, only against construction noise. How logical is that? What if
someone is blowing leaves at 6:30 in the morning, or is working on their own
house with a radio blasting at 9:00 p.m, or is mowing grass for 3 hours on a
Saturday starting at 7:00 a.m.? Why they are not regulated, but someone who
is trying to cover the roof before a rainstorm or repair a septic system on
a Saturday is being hand-cuffed? I consider this a form of discrimination.
Noise is noise. Ironically, construction noise is temporary, while grass
mowers and leaf blowers are forever.   

2.       Prolonged, more expensive construction process for homeowners and
neighbors. The other problem is that the less you allow people to do in one
week, the longer the entire process will be (the longer the neighbors will
have to live with it) and the more expensive each job will be to the
homeowner. 

3.       Hidden consequences.  The best contractors can choose where to
work. They stay successful by working hard, keeping themselves very busy,
and staying focused on getting the job done on time and on budget. If they
are having difficulties with over-regulation and restrictions, they will go
and work elsewhere leaving our residents with a less than qualified pool of
contractors to fill the holes. This is already happening in our town as
evidenced by projects on Glen house way and Beaver road.

4.       Unnecessary expense and emotional burden.  Scenario: It has been
raining for 4 days since Sunday. You are adding a room to part of your
house. Your contractor needs to open a side and part of the roof and connect
the old and the new. It should take about 3 solid days to make it weather
tight, assuming that there is no traffic and delivery issues and everyone
can be at the site on time...  It is Wednesday.  Finally there is a break
for 3 days and then another storm front is coming. Your contractor works as
fast as he can, but since he can't work after 5:00 p.m. or Saturday - your
project is still open to weather for Sunday's rain storm. 

Is this what we want? Until now, these over-restrictive work hours have only
been applied to new Planning Board construction for very large, expensive
projects. Applying this restriction to the entire town might sound
attractive to most residents at first, but it will eventually be felt as a
cost to them in the long run. Most of the complaints regarding construction
noise have been about the noise before 7:00 a.m. rather than noise at 5:30
p.m. or at 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday. That is the main problem to be
addressed by this bylaw, which is why I urge you to consider going back to
your original proposal for the town vote.

Sincerely,

Olga Shulman