Vote delayed on school enrollment cap, giving public another chance to comment

By Steve Plunkett

Town commissioners postponed for a second time their vote on Gulf Stream School’s request to boost its enrollment, but they hope to turn the delay into a teaching moment on civic involvement.

Dr. Gray Smith, head of the school, won permission on Jan. 13 to raise the limit from 250 students to 300 for this school year. But Gulf Stream commissioners held off on making the higher student cap permanent without more input from residents and promised to alert them via newsletter.

The six-page newsletter dated Feb. 2 was signed by Mayor Scott Morgan and was packed with information on the town’s accomplishments, but made no mention of the school’s request. That prompted one resident to contact Assistant Town Manager Trey Nazzaro, asking to be part of the discussion.

“This individual said I know that a few residents have concerns and would like to be included in the conversation. So, it wasn’t ‘I oppose it, I think it’s a bad idea,’” Nazzaro told commissioners at their Feb. 10 meeting.

He also noted that Smith’s request to raise the enrollment cap was reported in The Coastal Star

Commissioner Paul Lyons, whose grandchildren attend the school, said townspeople should keep themselves better informed.

“If a resident wants to know what’s going on they should be looking at the agenda,” he said. “We’re not going to send them a letter every time that something’s going to come up.”

Morgan agreed. “Every time there’s a contentious issue, we can’t be tabling it,” he said.

Morgan had attended a gathering the night before where he said “everybody was talking about it. So informally at least the word has gotten out.”

But Commissioner Thom Smith, who as a school trustee in 1994 helped negotiate the 250-student cap, said he too had heard from people, “and it wasn’t all positive.”

“I’m not saying they’re outraged,” he said. “I think that maybe they would like the chance to come speak.”

Commissioners agreed to table the vote until March 10 and to send each household a postcard after Lyons suggested that the mailing teach residents how to keep up with the town’s decision-making.

“If we could just educate people on, procedurally, if you want to know what’s going on, A-B-C, so they don’t say I didn’t know; i.e., look at the agenda, if you missed the meeting you can see the videos, et cetera, et cetera. So people understand how they can stay in touch with the town.”

Commission agendas are posted outside Town Hall and online at www.gulf-stream. org; the commission generally meets at 9 a.m. on the second

Friday of the month; videos of the meetings are available on YouTube.

The school has 293 children enrolled this year. Gray Smith said it needs 300 to make a “modest” budget surplus. He also wants to erect a food storage building to be able to offer on-campus lunches.

“Gulf Stream School is committed to being a uniquely small community school and to being the best neighbor that we can possibly be to everyone in this neighborhood,” Gray Smith said.

In other action, commissioners heard a presentation on placing license plate recognition cameras in the town and will consider a formal proposal at their March meeting. Ú