HUDSON – Superintendent Brian Reagan said on March 26 that Hudson Public Schools is closing in on a solution for its bus storage problem.
At the School Committee meeting, Reagan said they have been in talks with National Development — the current owner of the former Intel property at 75 Reed Road — to potentially store the buses on the site.
“It’s not finalized yet, but Len Belli, director of facilities, has been working really closely with National Development. And, we hopefully in the next couple of weeks will have a contract secured with them,” said Reagan.
If secured, a contract would allow the Hudson Public Schools to store its buses in an empty parking lot. And, while it is not “a longterm solution,” said Reagan, it could buy the district some time to find a permanent one.
He said activities would still be going on at the former Intel property, but the entire acreage of the property would not be needed to conduct these operations.
At the Feb. 21 meeting of the Economic Development Commission, Katie Snyder, who is the senior vice president of the development team at National Development, noted that Intel is leasing the property from National Development and could be there for up to 18 months.
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“We’ve identified a portion of the site,” said Reagan.
The school district would work with Hudson Light and Power to bring power to that area of the property. Reagan did not have anything official in regards to the price of the storage use, but he believed it was “extremely favorable” for the schools.
Once the district has a firm deal with National Development, he said, it would look at what insurance certificates would be needed.
Reagan said, “They’ve been really responsive and really kind to our needs and that partnership.”
The best part of the potential short-term solution is that it would likely give the district 18 months to two years to decide what a long-term solution “might look like,” according to Reagan.
He said, “We wouldn’t feel rushed.”
School Committee member Steven Sharek said, “It’s very, very good news.”
Sharek said it was “the Sharek said it was “the single most important piece of good news we’ve received in the last two months.”
Other news
Also, March 26, Reagan said that they will have a budget book by April 9 for the 2025 fiscal year budget and vote on the overall details of the budget.
He outlined the changes in the budget and the fact that $400,000 was cut by a reduction in staffing. Whenever these adjustments are made, he said, it requires a lot of work as each position comes with a salary number and must “line up right.”
As there will be an April 10 meeting with the Finance Committee, he said, “The goal is to have the book in folks’ hands the week of April 1, which will be in advance of your vote on the 9th.”
Reagan noted the idea was to reduce and shift staffing according to the trend of declining general enrollment and an increasing high needs student population. He said that just because there are fewer students enrolled overall did not mean that staff was not needed for English language learners and special education students.
“This is going to be our work annually for the next several years and watch where we have the ability to make deductions,” said Reagan.
At the high school, two full-time positions of one Spanish teacher and one science teacher were reduced based on the enrollment numbers. In addition, there was a 0.4 reduction for a performing arts teacher.
The science teacher position would be filled by a longterm substitute. The positive news was that no program or course would be not run because of the reductions, he said.
Reagan said, “That’s why we need to approach this with a scalpel to make sure that we’re being very careful.”
