Tell Me It Isn't True
Tell Me It Isnât True
To the Editor:
Option E of the high school expansion project requires the demolition of the tennis courts and reconstruction at another location on an existing playing field. Please, not again!
Newtown High on Berkshire Road opened in 1971 with three tennis courts built on a terraced area on the hill behind the school near Route 34. After several years, the underground water seeping out of the hill undermined the courts and they became unsafe and were abandoned. Tennis players were bused to Treadwell Park. Former Superintendent of Schools John Reed eventually secured funding to construct the present tennis courts. Option E, whether for 2,100, 2,200, or 2,300 students budgets $140,000 for new courts. Option E asks citizens to pay for high school tennis courts for a third time. Is that the best long range planning we can do?
I have been told that along with the tennis courts the greenhouse and a practice field will also be gobbled up and another playing field will be taken to reconstruct a new set of tennis courts. Didnât we just spend almost $1 million renovating and reconfiguring these same fields? As part of the Fairfield Hills bond issue, $600,000 was approved for high school playing fields with the remaining costs covered by transfer from other accounts. How much more are we going to be asked to spend for these same high school playing fields? Why?
Some parents oppose sending students to another site, and some town officials simply do not want the school system to have any place at Fairfield Hills. Oh, remember the Master Plan that the voters turned down? It only suggested the land under Kent House could be used for a school. Thatâs not enough land. Long range planning would set aside more land for future expansion. Bite the bullet; erect a 500-pupil facility at Fairfield Hills and fight for the necessary land for future expansion.
If Newtown leaders canât take the long view and parents canât understand the need to place some students on another campus until we pay off some of our debt and can bond more debt, forget the schools and education. Just put the high school on double sessions, jeopardize our accreditation, and settle for being last in the race for excellence and success in the global economy
Just donât ask the citizens to build the same tennis courts three times!
Ruby Johnson
16 Chestnut Hill, Sandy Hook                                 March 15, 2006
