The future of town government
By Kaylin Carreiro, Austin Henry, Jordan Kirkland, and Myllena Magalhaes, Staff Writers
April 5, 2022
On March 22, 2023, a select number of interested NHS students were given the opportunity to participate in a once-a-year event held by the town of Norwood-Town Government Day.
The first half of the day involved students shadowing members of the town who help keep it running every day. Students were given tours of workspaces as well as descriptions of what certain people did to help the town. These tours allowed students to have a look into projects currently in the making, a look into the bell tower, as well as see the plaque housing the legacies of all the past members of the Norwood Board of Selectman.
The day culminated with a mock town meeting in which the students, in their government roles, debated and decided how to spend $2,000 of real money for town needs.
During the debate, the students participating had complete control and power over the money. Starting the debate off slowly, Jake Deshiro with the fire chief voiced his concern for children whose houses have burnt down. He proposed that the council spend $200 on stuffed animals for those children.
After the proposal of the stuffed animals, and the additional idea of getting new volleyball jerseys for the boy's high school team, the debate began.
Next, the idea of giving $300 to Impact Norwood was proposed. This idea was proposed to help teenagers in Norwood who have substance abuse problems. This issue had little to no discussion with almost everyone in agreement.
Before the debate was over, Selectman, Abby Lee proposed that there should be a new historical plaque for future generations to remember them by. This started much debate with many students arguing that the $500 dollars she asked for was excessive. After a long debate, the students voted to allot $100 instead of $500.
They also debated by coming up with the idea of a healthy option for seniors during lunch. The Senior Centre Cafe got $200 and there was no debate to continue and that was a permanent idea.
The debate was rolling slowly once again until Jayda Gomes who was the head of Animal Control stood up and advertised to put $200 towards the animals but argued that that would not be enough for all animals. So the price was brought up to $500 and that was the final decision.
Shortly after that, the handicap signs idea was brought up and very shortly after was knocked off the board.
In the end, $2,000 was allocated by the students involved in Town Government Day to go towards causes including Impact Norwood, Animal Control, a new plaque for the Board of Selectmen, the Senior Center cafe, the Gift of Warmth, and mental health training at NHS.
Some students were not entirely pleased with this outcome. Sophomore Lily Swederskas, who represented the town Library Director, was hoping for some of the money to go toward the Morrill Library.
"Library didn’t get anything, so [I'm] kind of disappointed. But overall, I think all the money went to the most pressing matters,” Swerderskas said.
Not everyone was dissatisfied, though.
“Personally I was very happy with how the budget turned out,” said freshman Poonam Loomba.
Even with some upsets, students really loved Town Government Day and found it very interesting.
“I like the environment. It’s students coming together and making decisions about the town we live in. It’s a chance for us to impact the community that we participate in every day. It felt nice having a voice and it was nice meeting the adults around town and learning about things that I didn’t know about around town I didn’t know about,” said junior Sarina Reynaud.