Somerset School Committee changes meeting location amid accessibility and security concerns

The Somerset K – 8 School Committee has changed their long-standing meeting location from North Elementary to the Somerset Berkley Regional High School.

A member of the public, Patrick Higgins, spoke during public input at the November 16th meeting and stated that he could not find where in the elementary school the meeting was being held. Higgins shared that handicap parking was not available near the entrance that was being used and he had to walk too far of a distance to the door. There were no signs outside stating where the meeting was taking place.

“I spent 40 minutes trying to find this meeting.” Higgins declared. “It is almost like a secret meeting. You need a secret handshake to get in here.”

Higgins went on to say that getting to the meeting required climbing stairs and that it was not handicap accessible.

“This is not a transparent location.”

Traditionally, K8 meetings were held on the first floor of the building, directly inside the entrance door, but that room is now being used as a classroom. Meetings were then moved upstairs to the open area that has vast seating for the public as opposed to the smaller room downstairs. Other town committees such as the Zoning Board of Appeals have used this location, most recently for the largely attended meeting regarding the Prysmian vote.

The K8 meeting took place yesterday in the library at the regional high school. Higgins told Fall River Reporter that he received a phone call from K8 committee chair Robert Gaw who told him the committee took his public comments under serious consideration and changed the location of the next meeting.

Higgins elaborated that the previous meeting location was a serious security concern and that someone could “walk around the school unnoticed and plant anything anywhere.”

Higgins, who lives out of state, said:

“It’s sad that someone from ‘outside the fishbowl’ had to bring up the major security issues of having the meetings in the mini auditorium at North school. Spent all of that money on security and a simple school committee meeting invalidated it. I think it makes more sense to have one central location where all the school committee meetings are held. It allows everyone to know exactly where the meetings are taking place.”

Chairman Gaw did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Higgins comments can be heard in the last 7 minutes of the meeting below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAr0jdBtHSU&t=2242s