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Southborough eighth‑grader demos community reporting app to municipal technology committee
Summary
Eighth‑grader Rashil Kotker presented a prototype community reporting app to the Town of Southborough Municipal Technology Committee, and members praised the civic project while pressing for operational, security and accessibility plans before town adoption.
Rashil Kotker, an eighth‑grader at Troderier Middle School, demonstrated a prototype community‑reporting app to the Town of Southborough Municipal Technology Committee, saying the tool would let residents "report issues in the town and receive announcements in the town as well." The presentation showed three main panels: a dashboard of issues and announcements, a map of reported problem locations and a form for submitting a report with category, description, photo and optional anonymous submission.
Committee members welcomed the student project and asked practical questions about how the app would be operationalized. Members sought clarification on whether the demo included a working back end (the students said the front end runs on Expo Go and that back‑end and data storage work remains to be built), who would monitor incoming reports (students suggested town DPW or a town admin account), and what security and privacy protections would be implemented. "We would give admin panel access to them and then they could like report and fix the issues," the presenter said when asked about operations.
The committee recommended the students consult available prototyping and accessibility tools and stakeholder resources. Members pointed to Code.org AppLab for prototyping and to design tools such as Figma for accessibility work, and emphasized contacting DPW staff directly; the students said they had emailed the DPW director and had invited him to the meeting. Library director Ryan noted separate systems (for example, consortium library systems) can limit integration opportunities for certain use cases.
The committee did not take formal action on the proposal. Members encouraged the students to refine the demo, address security and data‑storage questions, consult with DPW and other stakeholders, and return with further information or a demo suitable for town staff review. "It's great to see civic engagement at all levels," the Chair said, applauding the students' initiative.
Next steps: students will continue development, investigate security and data storage options, and engage town staff for operational feedback; no town commitment or procurement decision was made during the meeting.
