Time To Move Ahead With 5/6 School

To The Editor:

As a parent of a fourth grader at Hawley Elementary School, I would like to comment on the proposed 5/6 school, and why I feel that the time has come to approve the funding for the architectural design and construction of a new 5/6 school in Newtown.

In the December 17 issue of The Newtown Bee, Legislative Council chairperson Pierre Rochman states that the town should wait until the decision is made on Fairfield Hills before any final decision is made on the 5/6 school. Mr Rochman also states that the Newtown school board would have to present a strong case as to why the Legislative Council should not wait. I attended a Legislative Council meeting early this year where Newtown school board Superintendent Dr Reed explained to the council why the school board felt that new construction on an existing site was preferable over refurbishing an existing building on a site that the town did now own. Dr Reed requested that the school board would like to hire an architect to begin the work needed for this proposal. The Legislative Council decided at this meeting  that it would be better to wait the couple months needed for a Fairfield Hills decision to be made before any approval. It is now close to a year later, and as we all know, because of several issues there has not yet been made a decision on Fairfield Hills. New Legislative Council member Ruby Johnson has stated that she feels that the school board should come before next month’s Legislative Council meeting with its total funding request for the 5/6 school. Without the approval for the architect to complete the design for a new school so the bid process can begin, a figure on the final cost would hardly be accurate. The fact of the matter is that a strong case for building a new 5/6 school was made to the Legislative Council by the school board and it is my opinion that some members of the Legislative Council, for some unknown reason, are choosing to ignore this fact.

As I see it, Newtown has a history of postponing projects in a misguided attempt to save money. An example wold be the postponement of the sewer project. The delaying of this project has ended up being a costly one for the town, as well as the taxpayers. I would hope that the current council would see that a lack of vision ends up being costly to all. So far the Legislative Council’s unwillingness to move ahead on the school board’s recommendations has already increased the final cost of the 5/6 school by approximately a million dollars. The inaction has also already moved a completion date for the 5/6 school back a year, and is in danger of being pushed back another year if the Legislative Council continues to delay its decision.

The ones who are bearing the brunt of this non-decision are the students of Newtown. No one can deny that the student population in Newtown continues to increase at a faster rate than anyone predicted. I feel that at the present time the 5/6 school proposal offers the best solution to ease the burden being felt in all the elementary schools, as well as the increased enrollment at Newtown Middle School. I think that a continual postponement of a decision to build the new 5/6 school by the Legislative Council is truly a disservice to the one group of people in Newtown who least deserve it, our children.

Sincerely,

Richard D. Huggins

5 Frontage Road, Newtown                                        December 20, 1999