This Week's Winchendon News
Winchendon School Committee Approves Three-Year Contract with Supt. Charlotte King
It's official! Winchendon Public Schools Superintendent Charlotte King
Photo by Inanna Arthen
At their meeting on Thursday, January 8, the three members of the Winchendon School Committee in attendance (Greg Vine, Tara Teixeira and Chair Mike Barbaro) voted to approve the negotiated contract with Superintendent Charlotte King to serve as Superintendent from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. The committee members agreed to skip Executive Session on the agenda, saying that no further deliberation was needed.
Mr. Barbaro read into the record a statement from absent Committee member David Iannacone, which said, "As one of the School Committee members participating in the contract negotiations with the Superintendent, I want to share my thoughts on the deliberation. I believe the district needs the stability in leadership Mrs. King has brought as part of the district for over three years. I believe she has the support of the leadership team, and this is an important factor. Mrs. King was extremely cordial during the negotiation. She wanted the terms of the contract to be transparent. I believe the terms of the contract are fair. I believe the contract gives Mrs. King and the Committee the opportunity to grow and move forward, and move the district forward. I urge an affirmative vote on the contract."
The contract was executed on the spot with the signatures of the three Committee members and Mrs. King. The superintendent's contract is a public document and will be posted on the town website "tomorrow," Mr. Barbaro said.
Mrs. King said, "I just want to say thank you for your support and your trust in me. And I'm honored to be in this district. We have an amazing team, amazing students, amazing families, and I am happy to come to work every day, no matter how difficult those days can be, but I thank you all, and I appreciate your support going forward."
Mr. Vine said, "I really, really hope that this is going to provide, as David said in his letter, the stability that this district has been lacking for so long. Having been on and off the Committee for 13 years now, I've seen more superintendents in and out of this place than we ever should have seen in and out of this place. It's been ridiculous, and I hope that the community as a whole will give Mrs. King the support that she needs to do the job that's ahead of her, and I hope this Committee as a whole will give her the support she needs for the job. We're going to make an occasional mistake, but we can't let nitpicking and personalities, and we can't base decisions on whatever group of people is [criticising]. We have to keep moving forward and do what's best for the district and support her as much as we possibly can."
Ms. Teixeira said, "I'm also really excited that I feel like Mrs. King, Charlotte, you're so open to new things and to being innovative about stuff, which is something you really need, eagerness to work with the community and to try to fill in some of the voids with community resources. And that's very admirable. And I don't think that we've seen a collaboration with the town so strong. So maybe that is something that you're going to bring to the table that's really changed stuff for the kids too. So I'm very excited. Congratulations."
Mr. Barbaro said, "Having watched for the last few years all the roles you've taken on and just plowed through them, 'Yep, I'll do it. 'Yep, I'll do it,' and just went about your business. And the whole time, you were working for the kids. Not for me, not for them, but for the children. And that proved to me that you were the right person for the job, knowing what we know about this district, having been around in different positions, you got that lens that my friend used to tell me about, the lens that you see through in that position, and it's given you the ability to see our strengths, our weaknesses, and you have attacked them.
"With our Special Ed, when you went into that department, you attacked it, and you helped bring it into a turnaround that is continuing. You were Dean of Students. You got to see the kids and see the ground floor. You got to be Assistant Superintendent, and got the role from behind the scenes, and got the knowledge and the support to work with the staff and understand and to meet with us and talk with us about what's going on. And you met stakeholders. You met the state. You work with the state regularly during our meetings. All these things rolled into me to say that I believe that we had the right person for the job, and so I'm extremely pleased that we're able to fulfill this for this district, because we will continue to move forward, as always, to the hard work and dedication of our staff and our administrative staff and our leadership team. And so with that, I say thank you for staying with us. I'm pleased that you have your contract finally, and I think we are in a good place and continue to move forward."
Six Years of Januarys in Toy Town
It's been a very quiet news week as 2026 starts off...and the publisher has had the flu. January is usually quiet, but each of the past five years has been very different, and Winchendon has started each year with quite different concerns, debates and goals. It may interest Courier readers to see a reminder of what the top January news stories were (along with the weather) over that time. Since the online Courier launched in September of 2019, Winchendon has had four different Town Managers (or interim Town Managers), five Superintendents of Schools (or Interim Superintendents), three Directors of Public Works, a brand new Community Park and amphitheater, a brand new Central Street reconstruction, a new annual town holiday (Founders Day), a new Community Center and bowling alley (The HUB), and survived the COVID shutdown. I think most of us would agree that it's been quite a ride!
January, 2020
Winchendon Food Project Meeting Establishes Working Groups
Nearly twenty people braved fresh snow and slippery roads to attend the second community meeting for the Winchendon Food Project, organized by Growing Places of Leominster, at the Town Hall Auditorium at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 16, 2020. Attendees included representatives from the Town of Winchendon, local farms, local churches, the Westminster Agricultural Commission and restaurants, along with interested residents.
The meeting began with a review of the project and its history. Daniel Forkner of Growing Places showed some slides with results from the current community survey, which about 150 people have returned so far.
All attendees contributed to a list of valued places or institutions in Winchendon. Mentioned were local farms, including Murdock, Sunset View and Meadcroft Farms, the Winchendon School, the CAC, Old Murdock Senior Center, the Clark Memorial YMCA, Not Just Produced, the American Legion, Broadview, the Winchendon Historical and Cultural Center, Old Centre, Beals Memorial Library, the Winchendon Health Center, the Winchendon Public Schools, local churches including UU Church of Winchendon, United Parish, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Cornerstone and Bethany Bible Chapel, and local community housing including Pearl Drive, Hyde Park and Ipswich.
Asked what made these places valuable and what they gave to Winchendon, attendees listed services, social gathering opportunities, resources, information, referrals, services and education for families, and a central source of communication. Also mentioned were the potential for kitchens, storage areas and prep areas for food, and sites for gardens and growing food.
Attendees separated into four breakout groups for in-depth discussions of topics that will be focused on by four Community CIRCL Groups. Groups will meet to work on Community Engagement and Communication, Cooking and Nutrition, Local Supply resources, and Local Food Access strategies.
The break-out groups had many suggestions and ideas for further action, with goals of getting the word out to Winchendon residents, providing education in nutrition, cooking and healthy eating, inspiring volunteers, and supporting local food producers.
January, 2021
Community Paradigm Associates Recommends Two Finalists for Interim Town Manager Position
At the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Monday, December 28, 2020, Bernard Lynch of Community Paradigm Associates, an organization that assists municipalities in hiring and various business strategies, presented two recommendations from a field of candidates who responded to the job posting for Interim Town Manager. The person hired will take over from Town Manager Keith Hickey who is leaving at the end of January to become Town Administrator in Kingston, Massachusetts. Mr. Lynch stated that they had five finalists and these were the top two candidates in CPA's opinion.
Mr. Lynch did not offer Winchendon voters any details about the candidates, Steve Delaney and Nina Nazarian. However, the Courier discovered some information about each candidate in the public record.
Steven Delaney (LinkedIn profile) is currently the Human Resources Director for the town of Danvers, Massachusetts. He grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts and most of his career has consisted of serving municipalities in the North Shore/Cape Ann area. He began as assistant to the DPW Director for Danvers from 1977 to 1979 and moved up to Acting Town Manager until 1981. He returned to Danvers as the DPW Director of Operations from 1985 to 1988.
From 2003 to 2009 Mr. Delaney served as Town Administrator for Georgetown, Massachusetts. He served as the Town Manager for Wenham, Massachusetts for seven years. He also served as Acting Town Manager in Southbridge, Massachusetts, as well as School Business Manager in Gloucester and Interim School Business Manager in Beverly.
Nina Nazarian (LinkedIn profile) most recently served as the Town Manager for Littleton, Massachusetts, having resigned from that position as of July 31, 2020. She had been there since February, 2019. Ms. Nazarian holds a BA from University of Lowell and a Masters in Public Administration from Suffolk University, and lives in Fitchburg. She is currently doing Project Management for the city of Medford, Massachusetts.
Ms. Nazarian began her career in 2007 as assistant civil engineer in Melrose, Massachusetts. From 2008 to 2012 she served as Project Manager for the Tewksbury, Massachusetts DPW, becoming Acting Town Engineer in 2012. She was the Town Administrator for Tyngsboro, Massachusetts until 2015.
In August of 2015, Ms. Nazarian was one of three finalists for Town Administrator in Princeton, Massachusetts. She was offered the position after another candidate, Michael Splaine, accepted the town's first offer and resigned after three days. In February, 2019, Ms. Nazarian was a finalist for Town Administrator in Littleton, Massachusetts, and was offered the position after another candidate, Steven Sadwick, was offered the job first and declined the town's offer.
In November, 2020, both Mr. Delaney and Ms. Nazarian were finalists for the same position, Interim Town Manager in Wenham, Massachusetts. Ms. Nazarian withdrew herself from consideration before the final interviews.
The Winchendon Board of Selectmen was scheduled to interview Mr. Delaney and Ms. Nazarian via Zoom on Wednesday, December 30. At the December 28 meeting, the Board discussed interview questions for the two candidates with Mr. Lynch.
January, 2022
BOH Closes Winchendon Family Dollar Due to Health and Safety Concerns
At their meeting on Monday, January 3, 2022, the Winchendon Board of Health voted to close the Winchendon Family Dollar store, located in the plaza at 49 Central Street, due to concerns about the lack of cleaning, water leakage and safety hazards inside the building.
BOH Chair Keith Kent opened the discussion with the history of the issues, saying that there had been concerns about cleanliness in the store going back for several years. Mr. Kent noted that "a couple months ago," Family Dollar was granted a temporary food permit on the condition that the leaky roof be repaired within six months, when the food permit would be reconsidered. Family Dollar rents the store space from the owner, but "is in control of meeting all health code requirements in their business as they do sell food product."
Mr. Kent described visiting the store on four consecutive days between Friday, December 31 and Monday, January 3. "I found everything on the floors from used, germy popsicle sticks that children threw on the floor where they'd had a lollypop, straws, food crumbs, plastic food wrappers," Mr. Kent said, as well as rotting ceiling tiles, pails of water on wet floors to catch leaks, and water dripping from the ceilings around electrical wiring and light fixtures in the store's back aisle.
"I spoke with the manager [on Friday] and I said, 'the floors are really bad. Could you please at least get the floors swept, because several months ago the Board also made it clear that they needed to clean their floors,'" Mr. Kent said. "I asked him if he could help with getting the floors at least swept, and then cleaned eventually, and he said, 'Okay.'" Mr. Kent went on to describe return visits to the store on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and finding no changes, the same debris on the floors, and more trash as well. "The floors were still not even swept, let alone washed," after four days, Mr. Kent stated.
BOH members expressed their own strong concerns. Member Tina Santos brought up the potential for mold with the constantly wet ceiling tiles. "Years ago they used to have a rat and mice problem. We had food permits and they were not shut down. They were shut down for a day to put down certain products and such, and then I went in and saw mothballs, which in my opinion are not healthy, those should not be put down, especially around public and young children. Then they had the air problem, where it was, that smell was terrible. They were closed for some time. I don't see why they couldn't be closed at this time, for this problem." She suggested that the building inspector and fire department inspect the ceiling for electrical hazards, with water leaking around the lights.
BOH member Lionel Cloutier said, "I've been on the Board for sixteen years and I'm telling you that store is just about getting as bad as the IGA was. And we had to close the IGA down because the people would not listen, the managers would not listen, they would not take care of the place like it should have been taken care of. My suggestion to the Board is, you can ask them to meet, but I'm gonna put it this way, if they don't meet quickly, I want it closed."
Mr. Kent said, "If we were to go that road, we want the public to know, after this discussion, after stacks and stacks of photos, of filth everywhere, on the floors, dripping down from the ceiling, all the other issues, we want the public to know that we don't do this short-sightedly, we don't do this without thought, we sure as heck don't do this without pages of documentation, without multiple attempts over months. We want the public to know we take what [we're doing] right now extremely seriously. During a pandemic, in a building that has filth everywhere along the floors and aisles."
After much discussion, the Board voted on a motion "to close Family Dollar due to multiple serious health concerns regarding cleaning, regarding water, regarding the leaks, regarding potential mildew, regarding the water around the electrical, regarding the shelves...being cleaned, the floor being thoroughly cleaned as defined in MA, swept, washed, and then inspected by the health agent, the building agent and the fire department." The motion was approved unanimously, 4-0, by members in attendance.
"I consider this a dark moment. I'm not proud of it," Mr. Kent said after the vote. Ms. Santos added, "It's a shame it had to come to this, unfortunately."
The closure was to take effect immediately with the adjournment of the meeting.
January, 2023
Proposal to Reorganize Schools Evokes Concerns and Questions
At the December 20, 2022 meeting of the Winchendon School Committee, Superintendent Thad King presented a proposal to reorganize the Winchendon Schools in order to create a dedicated Early Childhood Literacy Center at Toy Town Elementary. Currently, Toy Town Elementary is occupied by Grades 3 through 5; Memorial Elementary is occupied by Pre-Kindergarten though Grade 2; the Middle School includes Grades 6 through 8, and the High School includes Grades 9 through 12. The Middle and High School are housed in the same building.
Under the proposed reorganization, Toy Town Elementary would be dedicated to Pre-K and Kindergarten as an Early Childhood Literacy Center. Memorial Elementary School would include Grades 1 through 4. 5th Graders would move to the Middle School, which would include Grades 5 through 8. The High School would remain as it is.
"I want to be really clear that with this...what's driving this is 100 percent of focus on our students," Mr. King said. "This is focused on our most basic learners, those pre-K and K learners and their particular needs. This is not about space constraints, or that we need more room in one place or another. It's not about finances, or that we need to reduce costs or any of those types of things that are variables that often drive this type of work, that we're looking at finances or space. And tonight this is not about finances or space. This is what we believe as a team is best for our students and Winchendon."
Mr. King stated that last year teachers and specialists had been added at the elementary school level. The next step, he said, "is purely a focus on our most critical age group where actual learning begins...the proposal here is to focus and create really a premier early childhood learning center at the Toy Town school and focus on that most critical age group."
Mr. King also spoke at length about addressing the relationship between poverty and academic achievement, in the short and the long term. The poverty rate among Winchendon students has increased from 40.9 percent pre-pandemic to 55.5 percent today. "What's really clear is that the single best predictor of academic achievement is poverty rates," Mr. King said.
School Committee member Karen Kast stated that she felt the notification to families about the proposed change "was handled very poorly." She went on, "we had a parent, a community member that if they had not posted it to Facebook, parents would not have been aware of it and could not have come and spoken tonight." (Most of the parents who reacted strongly in comments to one such Facebook post did not appear at the meeting to comment.) She was in favor of the Early Childhood Literacy Center, she said, but felt that the community as a whole and the school community should have had more chances to participate in the process. She argued that more solid data about the effects of the move should be made available. "As much as we want to make a premier facility that may draw people to us for a pre-K through K Early Learning Center, there's no guarantee that once we get them here for that, that we keep them through 12th Grade, unless we make sure that we're also enhancing our first through 12th grade," Ms. Kast said.
A motion was made "to direct the Superintendent to do research and take a fact-based approach to the proposal by soliciting feedback from stakeholders and provide information to the school committee, so the school committee may take a vote." The motion was approved unanimously.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, before Mr. King had made his presentation, two residents rose to comment on the proposal. Lisa Barbaro, who teaches in the Winchendon school district, rose to argue that the buildings were not suited to the grade levels slated to move there. Toy Town was originally built as a high school, she said, and Memorial was built for the youngest students. Murdock Middle School is "less than suitable for our 5th graders." She raised a concern also expressed on social media, that 5th Graders should not be sharing school buses with high school students. "I feel this change would create many challenges and stress for students and staff, wasted space at Toy Town and many additional costs for necessary building changes. Perhaps instead, we could use that money to help close the gaps created by the pandemic. At the very least more time should be taken to consider the drastic change and possibly get input from stakeholders before voting on it," she concluded.
Resident Kayla Maine rose to express similar concerns, especially about playgrounds, student pickups, and busing. "Do you want 10 year olds with 17 or 18 year olds? It's not appropriate. It's not okay," she said.
January, 2024
North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation's Regional Business Investment Fund Establishes Community Center
Funding of $216,000 to benefit Winchendon non-profit focused on expanding food and housing equity in the North Central region
North Central Mass. (January 4, 2024) The North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation, the economic development arm of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, recently announced that its Regional Business Investment Fund (RBIF) would support the Winchendon Community Action Committee, Inc. (WCAC) toward the purchase and renovation of a new location at 5 Summer Drive in Winchendon.
The WCAC received a loan of $216,000 from NCMDC's RBIF, in partnership with Athol Savings Bank, to renovate the space formerly known as Playaway Bowling Alley. The non-profit organization serves more than 450 households by providing healthy food, emergency heating services, housing assistance, economic mobility, and more.
The new, larger space will allow the WCAC to grow the services it offers and expand its reach into the community. The new facility will be known as "Winchendon Works Community Hub," and has plans to include youth empowerment programs, services for those struggling with chronic health issues, and even a grocery store to promote food security.
"As the need for equitable access to healthy food, housing, and economic mobility grows, the WCAC is expanding to answer the call," said Miranda Jennings, executive director, WCAC, "Thank you to the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation for offering this type of funding to support our expansion and helping us offer more services to those who need it the most."
The Regional Business Investment Fund (RBIF) is an initiative recommended by the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce's One North Central regional economic development plan to encourage more real estate development in the region. The funding can be used by developers for engineering, soft costs, site work, infrastructure and hard costs for specific developments in the 26 communities that make up the North Central region.
January, 2025
The Courier didn't publish in January, but 2025 was The Year of The Overrides. When we resumed publication in February, 2025, it was the beginning of a four-month series of articles about the town and school district finances and the two override questions placed before voters in May.
Treasurer Goldberg Unveils Faster, Easier Way for Eligible Veterans to Claim Cash Bonuses
New online portal streamlines access to state benefits
BOSTON--(January 6, 2026) Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg, along with her office's Veterans' Bonus Division, continues to lead the way in delivering state benefits with the launch of a new portal. The website allows eligible veterans and their family members to apply for bonuses online while providing increased transparency for applicants.
"Our veterans deserve a system that works for them," said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg. "This new portal reflects an ongoing commitment to improving how benefits are delivered, recognizing that access, clarity and speed matter, especially for those who have already given so much."
The new system provides greater visibility and transparency by allowing applicants to view their status and previous bonus payment history at any time. It also allows direct communication with program coordinators to answer questions efficiently and effectively. Additionally, the portal securely stores documents for future bonus eligibility, eliminating the need to submit documentation more than once.
Veterans have made significant sacrifices in service to our country, and ensuring they can easily access the benefits they have earned is a small but meaningful way to honor that service. By removing unnecessary barriers and modernizing how benefits are delivered, the Treasurer's office is helping ensure the state meets veterans with the efficiency and care they deserve.
Sign up for the new portal at https://matreasury.my.site.com/mavbd/SelfRegister. Veterans and their families are also encouraged to submit an inquiry to determine eligibility for a bonus at https://matreasury.my.site.com/mavbd/inquiry.
