Hub fans bid kid a do. And then in 1967, after years when there were games at which, the joke goes, the players on the field would outnumber the fans in the stands, rookie manager Dick Williams led the team to their first pennant in 20 years behind the pitching of gentleman Jim Lawnborg and the defense and hitting of Ka Stressky in what was one of, if not the greatest single season by any player. And the Socks went on to play as they did in 1946. the St. Louis Cardinals, but they ran up against Bob Gibson, one of the greatest pitchers of his generation, who was the top of his game. Three of them, in fact. Bob Gibson won three of the Cardinals four World Series victories that year. But hope was renewed at Fenway and suddenly the Socks were the hottest ticket in town. In 1972, the Socks, seeking a little speed on the base paths, acquired this gentleman, Luis Aparicio, the American League's most effective base stealer, one of the great base steelers in all of baseball history.
So, as we conclude our trip south, we have this annotated view by uh produced by the DPW, which shows the narrow winding old route 128. See that way over on the right side and the new uh old the new Route 128 and the new interchange with the future Route 24. Remember, there's that old 128. That's Blue Hill Blue Hill uh River Road. And you can see it kind of very close to the alignment of the new highway. Well, this new highway was a huge success. That first day that the northern portion opened in 1951, 50,000 cars jammed the highway. three times the estimates of that uh so-called transportation expert back in the 1930. And the traffic just kept building. So much so that before the southern portion of 128 was even completed, stretches of the northern portion were already being widened from two to three lanes.
Uh, it was pro after the slideshow and the presentation to meet and confer before one of the other groups that we got excited about was teacher compression because what we figured out pretty quickly was that the ones that have their own schedules are a little easier to figure out and fix. um we came up with some solutions for that and um assigned a priority of compression issues. So one was years of service in Kraton. We know that at some point there were years that were um uh frozen and so I may be like I apologize there's a lot of dogs here. I may be a seven-year teacher and I'm still getting paid like if as if I was a two-year teacher. And so um that was one of the priorities was to kind of like address that frozen moment, those frozen moments. So um in that sorry one moment trying to put away a bunch of dogs so sorry.
It was good. You're doing good. We'll get you one for Desert Ridge Jr. You can walk around with it. All right. Moving on. 5.02. Appointment of Kristen Fleming as principal of Augusta Ranch Elementary for the 2025 2026 school year. Is there a motion? I move that we appoint um Kristen Fleming as principal of Augusta Ranch Elementary for the 2025 2026 school year. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. All those in favor of approving the appointment of Kristen Fleming as principal of Augusta Ranch Elementary for the 2025 2026 school year, say I. I.
Now, proponents of the old curse of the bambino say his story is a classic example. For it was Aparicio who fell down rounding third base in a critical late season game, costing the Red Sox the pennant. But there's always next year, right? And for the Red Sox, that was the problem. Black cats always seem to be lurking around. I love this picture. In 1974, the year this one crossed in front of the Red Sox dugout, the Red Sox once again appeared poised to take the division, and they were leading the Orioles by seven games in July. But here comes August and September. And Baltimore took the division by seven games, a 14game swing in fortunes. It was the 1974 season when many socks fans have said they started to wonder if there wasn't something in the air over Fenway because those late season folds were starting to become a habit.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is really what the Route 128 story is all about. You see, nobody, not the most ardent developer, a highway proponent or transportation expert, nobody predicted the incredible growth that was to occur around the new highway. Yet, in retrospect, sitting here nice and comfortable in our Monday morning quarterback chair, the amazing confluence of factors that combined to create a breeding ground for growth now seem very clear. First, of course, the highway had to get built. Now, Commissioner Callahan decided to bypass town centers. It was a way to lower resistance to his plan, but it also meant that land near the then remote highway was selling for as low as 5 cents a square foot. So, there's lots of room to build and do so inexpensively. Meanwhile, here at MIT, which had played a major role in the development of radar and the atomic bomb during the Second World War, continued its role in the 1950s as a heavily funded research arm of the government at places like the famous building 20 shown here, which by the way, where Yanni's father, my collaborator, his father was a physicist who worked here at building 20.
Okay so with the teacher compression it was the years of service. Obviously, some teachers have uh been given a placement um for their years of service that they came into Kraton. Um so that was addressed um in that it just was recognized. There's not anything we can do about that. Um and that is what the placement schedule is for in order to attract teachers with experience. So that wasn't a problem that we saw in the schedule. Um the biggest problem was not getting credit for the years of service that you've had in Kraton. So we addressed that. Um the other piece was getting everybody on one schedule. We addressed that and um kind of the way of looking at it was do no harm. So even um if if at some point in the history of Kraton that teacher got a bump during some time period like this where we were looking at compression in the past, that bump wasn't taken away from them.
Any opposed? None. It's also unanimous. Congratulations. Congratulations, Kristen. Come on up. Which way do I turn this? That's it's it seems like it's up to you. I don't know. I guess so. I'll kind of try to work with it. Mr. President, governing board, Dr. McChord, Superintendency, I am incredibly grateful. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Um, I am completely overwhelmed and so I'm trying really hard not to cry because I am incredibly humbled and honored and grateful. The experiences that I have had throughout my educational journey have been such a ride. And there have been so many people that have poured into me, that have spoken into me, that believed in me before I believed in myself that led me to this spot. And I know that um I take all of that learning with me into this new endeavor. And I want to thank all of those educators that have done that.
But miracle of miracles in 1975 the Red Sox beat the odds and not only won the division but they swept the Oakland Athletics who had won the previous three World Series. How about that? And they took the pennant and they faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. But at a critical juncture in game three, batter Ed Armister of the Reds appeared to interfere with catcher Carlton Fisk on this play, but umpire Larry Barnett ruled otherwise, and the Reds scored from this opportunity, won the game, and eventually the series. 1978. In 1978, the Red Sox held a 14game lead over their closest rival in mid July, only to fold up like a cheap ironing board. And by the time the Yankees came to town for a four-ame series in September, their lead was down to four games. And you all know what happened. The Yankees swept them all in what some called the Boston Massacre.
Some of the school's students, encouraged by copious amounts of research dollars, which, no pun intended, would skyrocket with the launch of Sputnik, which initiated our space race with the Russians, started their own companies and hired many of their professors as consultants, which seems to me a great way to get an A. Well, it also happened at the same time that New England's textile industry was collapsing and Waltham's watch companies were closing, which left a pool of workers who had the very skills needed for electronics, assembly, and other precision work. But save for pockets of land in Kendall Square near MIT, there was not a lot of room in Cambridge for old businesses to expand or new ones to build. and prospect to cross the Charles River here in Boston were no better. Thanks to a combination of neglect, incompetence, and malfeasants, Massachusetts capital was not a very good place to think about citing a business.
We just included and got them on the schedule where they needed to be in order to to make that pay work for them. So, the cost to address that those forms of teacher compression um and to get people spread away based on their experience as a teacher is $171,000. So, I wanted to make sure that I got that on the table today. Now, obviously those dollars um we had $200,000 for compression. Um, so if there are any additional dollars left on the table today after you guys talk about your options, I know we've been hearing and I don't know where people are going to settle, but I've been hearing this 2%. Um, if we were to pick the 2% that leaves us about 93 $94,000 additional to the two what does this cost? Equals let's see 46 1 2 3 plus the 2420 [Music] um plus the 171 is that what I said 1 2 241 plus the 20 and then um we're still good.
I want to thank the people specifically that poured into me in leadership. Um I was under um Tia Hansen was my mentor and Chris Bergen continued that. And then these last two years I've gotten the great opportunity to be at Meridian Elementary under Chris Straoud and KMOS currently um Canyon Rim under Jolo Pat and uh the things I have learned are invaluable and I will take them with me and I'm grateful to my my family and to my Augusta Ranch new family that's here. I'm just so honored to represent you, to lead you, to walk aside you, beside you, and I got the opportunity to be with you today in our sit planning and it affirmed everything for me. I just you welcomed me in. You were um engaging and ex experts and just so well-versed in everything. you have such great plans that you have put into place already that I'm really looking forward to continuing all the traditions and and practices that have made you the A+ school you are and then coming alongside you and helping you to grow and succeed even more.
So when the season ended, the Red Sox, who were 14 games ahead with just two months earlier, were now tied. And a one-game playoff was scheduled for October 2nd, 1978. Now, I have a good friend about my age who grew up here in the Boston area and was a huge Red Sox fan. And even with the four wins this century, he still uses a certain old English word to describe what this light-hitting New York Yankee did in the seventh inning of the oneame playoff. Bucky Bleep and Dent had only five home runs throughout the regular season. After fouling a Mike Torres pitch off his foot, he took a few minutes to walk off the paint and eventually settle back in the batters box. Torres waited without throwing any warm-up pitches. He sent uh Bucky Dent would send Torres his first pitch into the net over the left field wall and the Yankees went on to win the playoffs and the World Series, which of course they won.
In fact, things were so bad that a US News and World Report would later describe the city as quote dying on the vine. So now all the pieces are in place around the highway for something remarkable to happen. A desperate need for places to site new businesses, the engineering talent to design the products, the skilled workers to build them, lots of money from both public and private sources, and cheap land and plenty of it around 128 like that shown here in the Wakefield and Lynfield area. All of these could be considered fuel for growth. But someone someone still needed to light the match for that growth to happen. And that someone was a man named Gerald Blakeley. In 1948, Gerald Blakeley was several months into a new job with the development firm of Kat and Forbes. Now, Blakeley had been studying the state's master highway plan, which I've reproduced here.
Okay. I didn't want to put it in just yet, but I I'm adding it there. Okay, there you go. So, I think there's like 94 left over if you with the I just want to put that out there numbers wise. You guys can do the math. Um, but I was pretty excited what the compression committee was able to do with teacher compression and um I think it's a great first run through for that and not as costly as I think we were anticipating. um that would be just for um the group that is considered teacher. They have a teacher status and it's not all certified. It would just be those identified teacher positions. Okay, so that was about it.
So, I'm so grateful for you and this is where it gets tough because my family, there's some watching online and there's some here today and my mom and my stepdad. I know my dad and Sandy and my sisters and nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles are all watching online. Um, and I'm so grateful because they've been along this ride with me. I mean, since I was in second grade and got a chalkboard for Christmas. It was the best. I'm sorry to my sister and cousin for having to be my students. Um, to my boys. Um, they're all products of Gilbert Public Schools, Nathan and Bryce and Jace. Um, Jacece is still in high school, but um, Bryce and Nate both graduated from Highland, and Jace will follow suit. I am so grateful for you because you have been there for all of it, right? You've seen the tears, you've seen the successes, and I'm just so grateful that you loved your mom even on the craziest days.
More bad luck or ineptitude followed. In 1980, the Socks failed to send catcher Carlton Fisk. He of the greatest moment in baseball history. And I'll say no more. You either agree or you don't. Well, they failed to send Carlton his contract on time. And he went off to the White Socks. But by 1986, this here to four mediocre Red Sox team had rebuilt and won the division. Then they played in again my opinion one of the best playoff series ever against the California Angels which they won and then went on to the World Series against the New York Mets. And in game six in the bottom of the 10th inning ahead by two runs. The Socks just one strike away from claiming their first World Series championship since 1918 when everything unraveled. The Mets tied the game with a man on third and two outs.
It included six spokes of a wheel. That wheel being Route 128, and the spokes being six highways that were supposed to feed into the hub, which was going to be an eight lane elevated highway known as the inner belt. Now, that urban renewal disaster, which would have displaced 20,000 people, was never built. Neither was I 95 northwest, excuse me, northeast of the city. The route to um extension was never completed. And I 95 southwest of the city, as we've seen, was never built either. But we didn't know that in 1948. We still thought all of these pieces were going to be built. So, as Blakeley tells the story, he woke one night with a start and after slipping into the bathroom so he wouldn't wake his wife. He began scribbling scribbling furiously on several pages of notes on a legal pad. When he was done, Blakeley had conceived of a master plan for development near Route 128.
Um any questions? Can you wait? So Vanessa and the group my question is and if you could do this it would help us relating till number 10 on our handout um with facilities and the description Vanessa is compensation in compression committee recommendations requesting 20,000 to apply compression as work is completed on salary schedule during the 2526 school year. And then we had a figure of 97,460. I guess I'm confused now. So I don't know where that what handout you have and I'm not sure where the number came from. It could have been that total of the all the compression work we did. I think that might have been a total of multiple items. So, we were given that last time as a figure relevant to how much I guess that would cost for facilities. I don't think that that's facilities. I'm I'm pretty sure that that is a a total of um all of the compression that we were looking at, the 46, the 24.
And you've been my cheerleaders, and I appreciate you. to my loudest voice who told me I could before I knew I could. My husband Ben, thank you for being my biggest cheerleader and for carrying me when I needed carrying, for pushing me when I needed pushing, and for loving me and celebrating all of the successes. I hope that I make my former family, my current family, my new family. I hope I make you all proud. I'm proud to be a Gil Gilbert public school employee and now a Gilbert public school leader. So, go [Applause] Rattlers. Congratulations. We're going to go ahead and take a two or three minute break to say congratulations to our new principles and then we'll reconvene. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. X superintendence report. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Good evening to everyone for joining us here in person and online.