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Committee outlines project charter priorities: inclusion, sustainability, campus connectivity and fiscal transparency
Summary
The committee reviewed draft project-charter pillars derived from community visioning: 'Built for all learners', 'Built green / built to last', 'Safe and accessible outdoor spaces', and 'Reflecting Westford' with emphasis on special education spaces, flexible classrooms, energy and maintenance considerations, and reuse of vacated buildings for community benefit.
During the April 14 meeting, consultants summarized priorities gathered from committee and community workshops and proposed four draft pillars to guide design and decision-making: built for all learners; built green and built to last; safe and accessible outdoor spaces; and reflecting Westford.
Under "built for all learners," participants emphasized retaining a small-school feel, creating grade-level communities for safety and familiarity, dedicating accessible spaces for special education and related services, and providing quiet rooms for de-escalation and sensory needs. Jenny said special education “got a huge number of stickers” in the community exercise, signaling strong interest in inclusive facilities.
On sustainability, the group discussed maximizing daylight, operable windows, on-site solar readiness, EV charging infrastructure and designing for long-term durability and maintainability. Several members suggested wording such as “smart sustainability” to avoid misperceptions that green features automatically translate to unaffordable costs. The committee also asked consultants to weigh durability decisions against verifiable return on investment.
The committee stressed treating a Robinson-site option as a campus problem if chosen, coordinating interior and exterior programming among Robinson, adjacent Chrisully facilities and Westford Academy, rethinking traffic circulation, and preserving separate vehicle and bus flows to keep drop-off areas distinct from play spaces.
Members discussed using vacated buildings as community assets, but Kristen noted that Westford CAT is a separate 501(c)(3) that currently leases non-municipal space and that placing a studio in a vacated municipal building would create lease and operational considerations. The consultants said they would track that as a flagged item while refining the charter.
Consultants asked members to review and refine the draft pillars; the team said it will circulate a revised charter for committee markup and then share it with the community as part of ongoing engagement. The next public-facing sessions were set for mid-April, and the committee will revisit the charter alongside educational visioning and sustainability goals at upcoming meetings.
