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Fox Hill Elementary is going up on schedule. The playground that will go with it, though, isn't locked in. After nearly a year of quiet, the discussion over which company will build it has spilled back into public view.

In early 2025, the Fox Hill School Building Committee (FHSBC) was working to complete construction documents according to the state's timeline when the question of playground vendors came up. Architect DiNisco Design and owner's project manager Dore & Whittier came into the process with Landscape Structures as their preferred vendor, said FHSBC chair and School Committee member Melissa Massardo. Burlington has experience with this vendor: TRW, Veterans, and Simonds Parks all have Landscape Structures branded playgrounds.

In March 2025, Christine Monaco, who also serves on both committees, asked the committee to also consider another company, Childscapes. "I was familiar with their work," Monaco told Burlington Buzz on September 28, 2026, "because they're run out of Marshfield, where I have a summer place...and they had done a lot of really nice playgrounds in neighboring communities." Monaco said she is neighbors and friends with the parents of the Childscapes owner, though her personal attorney advised her at the time that there was no appearance of a conflict of interest and no need to disclose the relationship publicly.

DiNisco sent Landscape Structures' proposed design to Childscapes for a comparison, and quotes from both businesses were presented at the September 16, 2025, meeting. At that meeting, Massardo said she'd taken the summer to visit playgrounds from each vendor and presented a side-by-side comparison where she favored Landscape Structures. She said Landscape Structures playgrounds she had visited felt higher quality. Fox Hill principal and FHSBC member David Rosenblatt said he and the school's occupational therapist also thought the Landscape Structures playgrounds seemed more durable.

Meghan Nawoichik, who also serves on both committees, said she also visited structures from both vendors and disagreed that there was a meaningful difference in quality. She also cited research that rope climbing structures, which Childscapes playgrounds feature, are preferable to metal ones like the ones used in Landscape Structures designs.

The two playgrounds carried substantially different price tags, with Landscape Structures coming in at $611,259 and Childscapes at $423,369, a difference of $187,369. Nawoichik, as well as FHSBC vice chair and School Committee member Katherine Bond, who chairs the High School Building Committee, cited this as a reason for supporting Childscapes.

Jeremy Brooks, who also serves on both the School Committee and FHSBC, wasn't convinced the comparison was one-to-one and he wasn't prepared to support one vendor over the other. Ultimately, the committee chose to go with Landscape Structures in a 7-3 vote, moved by Rosenblatt. Brooks, Nawoichik, and Bond cast the dissenting votes.

Monaco, who was not present at this meeting, asked at the committee's October 21, 2025, meeting why the vote had been taken; she told Burlington Buzz this week that the September 16 agenda item had only indicated a playground "update." At that October 21 meeting, Steve Brown of Dore & Whittier said the decision was advisory so the design team could plan for footings in the construction documents, which were to be submitted in December 2025. Despite the affirmative vote, the playground itself was not included in the official bid documents. "Because it is a separate budget line item and it doesn't have [direct impact] to the construction [cost], it might provide additional clarity and better context after we receive bids to have that discussion," said Brown.

At its February 24, 2026, meeting, the Building Committee chose CTA Construction as the builder for the project, with a price tag that came in more than $10 million under budget. The committee also chose to move forward with a temporary playground, designed and installed by Childscapes, to meet the school's needs during construction; that playground was installed in April 2026.

The discussion of the permanent playground remained dormant until August 18, 2026, when Nawoichik asked when the final decision needed to be made. Bond, who was chairing the meeting in Massardo's absence, agreed that the conversation should be revisited, particularly in light of the cost difference for the two playgrounds.

However, the playground did not make the September 22, 2026, agenda. Massardo read a statement at the end of the meeting summarizing the process to date and saying the playground vendor process was considered complete after the September 2025 vote. She went on to say that in September 2026 Monaco had filed a Disclosure of Appearance of Conflict of Interest as Required by G. L. c. 268A, § 23(b)(3) form with the Town Clerk's office.

Massardo maintained that, in light of this disclosure, revisiting the conversation after the 2025 committee vote would be a bad look for the School Committee and Building Committee and set a bad precedent within the town. She added that a change at this point would be costly and require a change order to the project.

Dore & Whittier's Andrea O'Toole confirmed in an email to Burlington Buzz that Landscape Structures was notified of the committee's decision to move forward with its design, though a formal contract has not been awarded. No footings have yet been dug, but the cost to update the construction documents for a new vendor would be about $10,000-$15,000, assuming a comparable structure was chosen.

The project is significantly under budget and nothing else had materially changed other than Monaco's disclosure, Massardo told Burlington Buzz in a September 28, 2026, interview. "It became clear to me that a reasonable person could conclude that factors other than cost were influencing the continued advocacy for Childscapes," she said in a follow-up email.

Monaco responded to Massardo at the meeting, denying a conflict of interest and saying her personal attorney and the School Committee's counsel had both advised her that disclosure of the relationship was not necessary. She reiterated Brown's statement that the September 2025 decision was advisory and said the committee owes it to the town and its taxpayers to choose the lower-cost among two comparable options. Bond and Nawoichik echoed that sentiment, while Brooks argued that changing course would reflect poorly on the committee and the town.

The point could be moot, however, as only 3 of the School Building Committee's 11 voting members – Nawoichik, Bond, and Monaco – voted to add the topic to a future meeting agenda. O'Toole said the playground costs might go up if the decision is delayed, and the final decision must be made by April 2027 in order to keep the project on track for the projected February 2028 move-in date.

Massardo said she has no plans to add the playground to a future agenda, saying, "The majority of the committee would like to move on." Meanwhile, it's clear some members would still like to see the discussion revisited. "I'm not comfortable with the process that was followed," Monaco said, "and it's a lot of taxpayer money, especially when you add in 30 years of interest."

The Fox Hill Elementary School is currently expected to cost approximately $90 million, of which the town will pay about $60 million after state reimbursement.

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