To The Editor:

Hawley School is over 100 years old, and even if the $8 million air conditioning upgrade is not approved during the referendum, it will not be closed because of this referendum.

There are countless schools up and down the East Coast with hotter summers than Newtown that are not air conditioned and still graduate students that become doctors, lawyers, and scientists.

Yes, global warming is upon us, but how much of an average temperature chance will that cause in the next 20 years? Does that mean that every school south of Newtown requires air conditioning?

Closing the school is not being voted on.

The $3 million of COVID money will not go away, but it will be used for other Newtown projects yet to be determined.

Four of our children graduated from Sandy Hook Elementary School that did not have air conditioning and all four are living happy, successful lives. We are very proud of the education they received in Newtown schools and have voted to support the school budget yearly. However, we are not inclined to vote for $8 million to keep the students and staff air conditioned for a few weeks of the school year. I would hope that the school board could find other qualifying science, arts, and humanitarian projects to spend $5 million on.

If Hawley needs to be shut down for a school year to make it air conditioned and there is room in the other elementary schools so that students can be bused to them, does that not preempt the need for Hawley — leave them in those schools. If we do have a heat wave during the last few days of classes — because of COVID, the school system has learned how to teach online.

Ed Miklaszewski

Sandy Hook