To the editor:

I’m deeply grateful to the Wellesley community for the opportunity to serve on the Select Board since 2019, and I will not be running for re-election in March. It has been a great pleasure to work with our exceptional Town staff and so many colleagues throughout town government whose dedication has been an inspiration to me. I feel very fortunate to have served as the Select Board representative on the Climate Action Committee and as chair and vice chair of the Board, while also supporting the work of many boards and committees as Select Board liaison. Serving in these roles has allowed me to get to know many people throughout our community and has given me even more reasons to be thankful to call Wellesley my home.

I look forward to continuing to serve for the next several months, and I hope to be re-elected to Town Meeting in March.

With gratitude,
Lise Olney
Select Board
Town Meeting Member for Precinct E

To the editor:

I write in response to Laurel Meyer’s letter to the editor dated October 29, 2024, regarding the new replacement American flag on the Wellesley Square flagpole.

Ms. Meyers—as a veteran of the Vietnam War era and a lifelong Wellesley resident, I am pleased that you noticed the presence of the new properly sized American flag in Wellesley Square. It is one of among many new American flags that have been mounted throughout the Town of Wellesley to replace older flags that suffered from weather deterioration. Notably, the replacement flags are of the correct size. These flags have been mounted in advance of Veterans Day, a national holiday that honors all the men and women who have served in the United States military.

There is perhaps no greater symbol of patriotism in the United States than the American flag. We pledge our allegiance to it at school, government meetings, and citizenship ceremonies. We wave the symbol of freedom and liberty at parades and sporting events. We even planted it on the moon.

The American flag represents the people, values, and ideals that servicemen and women are defending in America and throughout the world.

To suggest that flying the American flag in the Town of Wellesley is associated with a subset of voters is misguided and condescending. It disrespects those in Wellesley and across America who have served our nation honorably as well as the tens of thousands who have paid the ultimate price and sacrificed their lives.

I hope that you will consider mounting an American flag at your home to show your love and appreciation for all those who believe in the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy today as Americans.

God bless America!

Sincerely,

S. Peter W. Jones
Sergeant, United States Marine Corps
Wellesley, MA

To the editor:

I was driving through Wellesley Square today on Route 16, and I was struck by a new sight—a huge American flag on the square’s flagpole. HUGE. At first I wondered if the scale of it might be a covert message from a  town-employed Trump supporter (given that the flag outside one s door seems to be a signal of that alliance.)

But then I thought…Why should that huge flag, up two weeks before the election, have to take on an association with ONE subset of voters, a movement which coopted our  flag from its real meaning? Such a conspicuous and prominent American flag, I thought, could very well be an homage to the free election coming up.

For me, the flag signifies Democracy and the pillars and structures which define it: the Constitution, the Rule of Law, separation of Church and State, the Bill of Rights, the three branches of government, and the ongoing good-faith effort and process of trying to achieve the ideal standards of our Constitution for all of our citizens.

In school we learned about the Boston Tea party’s motto “No taxation without representation,” that citizens have the right to protest peacefully, and of many other constituents of our  government. And we learned about free speech, which did not include relentless lying about basic facts so as to mislead and destabilize half of our population. The principle of free speech, it seemed to me way back then, would  always prevent books  from ever being banned in our country.

It deeply saddens me—and frightens me even more—that this election  may bring us to the point where peaceful protesters may be hurt by the National Guard and even the active military; that we may lose the Department of Justice, the Department  of Education, FEMA, and all civil service positions to make way for appointees by one and only one person; that we may even lose the right to a free and fair election, and a free press. I worry about a lack of cooperation with our allies, France and England, for whom my uncle died (without ever meeting his son) in WWII, and  the now-democracy of Germany; I worry that our dear country will be aligned with Putin instead. I worry about having just lost the rule of law regarding presidents, so that we are pulled back to legal standards  of the 12th Century, before the Magna Carta.

So much to worry about. Whether our Constitution and democracy will survive.

I will choose to see that huge flag as a symbol of our country’s rule of law, its high ideals, its historic role—in many (not all) international events—as being people of decency, courage, honesty, and forthrightness.

Laurel Meyer
Wellesley resident

To the editor:

Wellesley Middle School is one of the only districts in the Boston area to offer accelerated math placement in the 6th grade.  For this they should be commended, as there is over a hundred years of research showing that high ability students benefit from an accelerated mathematics curriculum.

In English classes we encourage students to choose books at their reading level, even if it is for an older age group.  In the world of sports, a 12 year old who is gifted at hockey or softball might move up to a u14 team to find more challenging competition.  Similarly, some students need to be accelerated to a higher grade level in math to be adequately challenged and engaged.

For this reason, school districts across the U.S. have accelerated math programs in their middle schools. How do these districts place students into a higher level of math?  At Sidener Academy in Indiana where our daughters attended before moving to Wellesley, students scoring 240 or above on NWEA MAP were recommended for pre-algebra (7th grade math). The 240 MAP cutoff, which in 2020 corresponded to the 94th percentile nationally among fall 6th graders, is also used in Washington state. In New Jersey, a similar cutoff of 242 is used to place 6th graders into 7th grade math.  In Illinois, a student in the 80th percentile of MAP testing is accelerated one grade level and a student in the 93rd percentile is accelerated two grade levels. The highest cutoff I was able to find (outside of Wellesley) is in the Carmel school district, where students scoring in the 98th percentile nationally on the NWEA MAP test are accelerated one grade level.

And then there is Wellesley, which just might have the most exclusive accelerated math policy in the country. For example, a 6th grade student who scored 252 on her NWEA MAP exam this fall is in the 99th percentile nationally. She also is in the 96th percentile of 7th graders and the 91st percentile of 8th graders—so she is likely ready for 8th grade math (to achieve a score of 252 you would need to demonstrate proficiency in pre-algebra concepts). However, the current Wellesley cutoff for accelerated math placement into pre-algebra is 257.  So that student, who is ready for 8th grade math and would be accelerated in any other school district in the country (that offers acceleration), is denied placement at WMS into even pre-algebra (a class in which they are already demonstrating proficiency).

The new accelerated math policy, written by principal Mark Ito and the head of the math department, Elizabeth Gentes, accelerates students who test in the top 10% among students at Wellesley Middle School (not nationally) on three separate standardized tests. The policy appears logical at first glance, until one considers that over 10% of the school is testing in the 99th percentile nationally on these standardized tests.  Students then have to pass another exam written by WMS staff to be placed in the program, so ultimately fewer than 10% of students make it through this process. In a district like Wellesley where 20-30% of students may be high achieving in mathematics (e.g. a fall 6th grade MAP score above 240), students who would benefit from accelerated mathematics are left out. Not only that, but the handful of students who are placed in the program are not fully benefiting either, as a 6th grade student with a MAP score above 257 is likely ready for Algebra 1.

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The recent proposals for well over 100 units of multifamily housing in Lower Falls have landed like a thud, and the neighborhood reaction has been loud, clear and quick to point out that our Town is being gaslit. The proposals represent an effort to sell our Town a series of fantasies.

These Residential Incentive Overlays (RIOs) are not based on planning. They are developer-driven, just like 40B projects. This means that instead of careful planning, a developer simply finds a relatively inexpensive site, seeks to cram down over 100 units of luxe housing and brings forth an RIO. This results in locating condo developments in areas where a developer can maximize profit, as opposed to where such developments might be better suited. In Lower Falls, the bylaw is specific. Any RIO must comply with the design standards and guidelines that the Town paid a nationally recognized architectural firm to develop. That effort actually showed where a RIO should go at Lower Falls. The developer-driven RIOs now proposed are not in that location.

The next fantasy is that the RIOs are supposed to be transit-friendly. The proposed Walnut Street RIO is anything but. It is located on essentially an island in the Charles River, filled in long ago, and isolated from the transportation network. It is ridiculous to pretend that anyone living there will walk, drive or ride a bike to the distant (well over a mile) commuter rail station. You are prohibited from turning left onto Washington Street from the site. You cannot turn left off of River Street onto Washington Street during morning or evening rush hours. You literally cannot “get there from here” via car. Similarly, to walk or bike the distance, one has to go up multiple steep grades. One need look no further than the fact that the Planning Board and Planning Department claim that the new “Uber-like” Catch Connect system represents transit for the site. Catch Connect is a paid service that is available to any location in Wellesley. According to our planners, every house in Wellesley is a transit hub. And if anyone thinks that the Green Line at Woodland is a convenient, walkable and viable commuter option, they are indeed living in a fantasy world. Gaslighting.

Fantasy No. 3 is that hundreds of RIO units will add to our tax base. What will happen when Schofield is jam-packed with students from these 3-bedroom condos? Schofield already “features” so-called mobile classrooms. How much will RIOs cost us in terms of new school construction? And what about extra infrastructure?

Fantasy No. 4 is that Wellesley needs to fill up every available square foot in Town with multi-family housing in order to do our bit to solve the Commonwealth’s housing crisis. First, multi-million-dollar condos in “Swellesley” are not going to address that crisis. They will make developers wealthy, but they will not house the poor, homeless or those attempting to climb up the housing ladder. Second, this argument needs to be carefully evaluated. Of course, there should be a place for different types of housing in Wellesley. But many, if not most, of those who live in Town could have chosen to live in Brookline or Cambridge. They chose Wellesley because of what it is—a tranquil suburban village as opposed to a bustling urban scene. Dumping 100+ condo units in mid-rise structures into a small, quiet residential neighborhood does not fit that description.

The final fantasy is that those of us in Lower Falls who oppose the RIOs are just NIMBYs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lower Falls is home to Wellesley’s first 40B project, a multi-story apartment (not condos) building. We have many units of public and private elderly housing. We include public housing. There are townhouse condos and two-family homes. We have a mix of housing and commercial development. In short, we have done our part. Let those who call us NIMBYs do theirs. The Town has appropriately rejected plans for expanded housing options on Cliff Road and Pond Road. Why do those very wealthy neighborhoods get a pass, while Lower Falls gets saturated? Is this housing equity? Is it really housing diversity?

This is gaslighting on an industrial scale. It needs to stop.

Neal Glick
Wellesley resident