The Donovans believe they made the right decision: Hannah, now a 17-year-old senior, recently won the superintendent’s award as the Randolph school district’s top female student and is thriving academically, athletically, and socially. And the Donovans say they are not considering private or parochial school for their younger children, Charlotte, 15, and Luke, 12, and are putting their faith in their hometown.
Randolph is on the rebound, the Donovans, other residents, and local officials say, and not just in the schools, where grades and conditions have improved significantly since the days when the town was labeled “broken’’ in a front-page headline in a local newspaper.
That was in 2007 — a “particularly difficult’’ year, Town Manager David Murphy said in an interview recently.
Chronically low scores on the MCAS test prompted the state to designate Randolph’s schools as “under-performing’’ and threaten a takeover that year. The high school’s accreditation was in jeopardy. Political infighting at Town Hall was a source of embarrassment, and a series of homicides put a negative spotlight on the town.
But from that low point, residents were galvanized to action. In April 2008, local voters approved a $6.1 million override of Proposition 2 ½, the state law that limits the amount of additional property tax revenue a community can raise each year to 2.5 percent plus money coming from new real estate development. It was a dramatic victory for proponents: Aside from a $14.1 million debt exclusion in 1997 to renovate the junior high school, Randolph had never passed a tax-limit override. The override added almost $500 to the average tax bill, from $3,148 in 2008 to $3,618 in 2009. (The average bill this year is $3,912.)
“The residents who supported the override did so to make an investment in this town with public education and public safety,’’ said Town Clerk Brian Howard.
