Outgoing committee member sees progress, problems
By Doug Grindle Community Reporter

Marlborough - School Committee member Cosmo Valente will end 16 years of service when the new committee members are sworn in Monday Jan. 7. The committee will have two new members coming on as two leave. Departing are Valente and Joseph Delano, who will join the City Council.

Valente said that in his time on the committee, he would most liked to have seen changes to the music program and an extra school building constructed.

And like other committee members, he said the district does not get the recognition it deserves for the quality of its education.

"We've been shortchanged," Valente said. "We have one of the finest Special Needs departments in the state."

Valente taught in the district for over 38 years. The 79-year-old's retirement from active politics marks the end of decades of official association with the school district. Valente's name was on the November 2007 ballot, but other candidates received more votes.

According to Valente, it was a mistake for the City Council to have turned down a proposal to build a new school at the end of the 1990s. While the school system can cope with the lack of space, the omission required some ad-hoc arrangements, including mobile classrooms built at the Richer and Kane Elementary schools, Valente said.

"They chose not to build the building and now we are feeling the crunch a little bit," he said.

He also noted that the eighth grade is being housed in the High School because of a space constraint that works its way up and down the system.

"I don't like them being in the building. I've been an advocate of getting them out of the building," Valente said. "It was kind of a temporary thing. But things that are temporary have a way of staying."

Valente also said he had proposed re-introducing music lessons into the school day, instead of pushing most of the practice time to hours before or after the regular school day. He noted there is one period a week devoted to general music studies, but he criticized the approach, which sees most organized practice done in the student's own time.

"This is important. It isn't something that should be delegated to after school," said Valente, who added that practices often run at 3 p.m. or 8 a.m. "To me this is just as important as phys ed, just as important as history, just as important as science. Because it is a science," he added.

According to Valente, it puts an additional burden on the students, and staying late and missing the regular bus could cause hardship.

Valente is a longtime music teacher and is the bandmaster in charge of a regional band that played at every mayor's inaugural ball in the city from 1956 to 1988. He owns a music store located on Main Street.

Overall, however, Valente said, the school district is on the right track. The expansion of technology in the classroom is proceeding and is a good thing, and he said the continuing immigration into the district is also good for the city, which is a haven of employment and aff ordable housing in the middle of other towns that offer neither.

"We do have a lot of immigrants dealing with English as a second language," Valente said. "It creates a bit of a problem [on MCAS scores]. I think this a problem is with the test and not the immigrants. I am not blaming the immigrants."

Valente said he will continue his work at the Main Street store, even as the band took a rest last summer after years of performing.

"I should be retired at this age but I love it," Valente said. "I have former students coming in with their children to rent instruments and take lessons. It's nice to know that you're needed."