History Repeats Itself

To the Editor:

Hawley School, a new high school, was a gift from Mary Hawley in 1922.

1950:  (Town population 4,317 and school enrollment 742) Needed – 10-room addition to Hawley, kindergarten and first grade moved to St Rose Hall.

1951: Larger high school constructed — the middle school A-wing.

1958: Enrollment 1,713; 10 more rooms added, creating a junior high with 33 classrooms on the same site. Sixth grades moved to middle school.

1960: Search begins for a new high school site. Too late!

1966-67: Enrollment 2,933; high school placed on double sessions (ninth–twelfth mornings; seventh–eighth afternoons) Good news — the referendum for a new high school on Berkshire Road passed 1,082-821. Four hundred-pupil addition added to middle school. Middle Gate opened. Overcrowded Hawley sent fifth graders to Sandy Hook and Middle Gate.

1967-68: Enrollment 3,262; triple sessions at the Queen Street facility (ninth–twelfth mornings; seventh–eighth afternoons; sixth grade all day).

1970: Enrollment 3,938; long-range projections suggested two new elementary schools and a site for a larger middle school.

1971: Berkshire Road high school opened. Land for Head O’ Meadow seized by eminent domain; delayed until State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the town in 1975. Head O’ Meadow building cost $2,740,500!

1974: Enrollment 4,562; 15 portable buildings housed 28 classrooms at elementary schools and middle school. Citizens were disgusted! The 1975 Charter Revision Commission proposed and a referendum approved elimination of the Board of Finance. That board and the selectmen had failed repeatedly to address the needs of a growing community. In its place, the charter established the Legislative Council to better represent all the citizens and improve long-range planning. The school enrollment peaked at 4,574 in 1975.

1976–1990: School enrollment steadily declined to 3,429 in 1990. Unfortunately, during this lull in enrollment, neither the new council nor the selectmen developed long-range plans to prepare for the inevitable growth.  

New Congressional laws required unanticipated classroom space and costs: OSHA in 1972, Special Education, The Aid to All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, and Title IX — equity for women and girls — in 1978. In 1984 emerging technology required classrooms for computer classes.

1991: Additions to Sandy Hook, Middle Gate, Hawley and Newtown High. School site searches were unsuccessful. Conservation land rezoned for fifth-sixth school.

2002: Reed School opened.

2005: School enrollment 5,669.

The current high school population is known as the Echo Baby Boomers. School enrollment is expected to decline gradually, but balloon again when these Echo Boomers complete their education; marry; start families, and their children arrive at Newtown High.

The Friends of Fairfield Hills were swimming against the tide when they proposed the town buy Fairfield Hills in 1999. The selectman’s appointed committee had recommended against the purchase (The Bee, November 11, 1999). Eventually, the selectmen bowed to public pressure, but the negotiations dragged on until 2004 when the town finally took possession.

A larger high school is essential to educate the next generation that must face the looming power of Asian technology. The curriculum must be rigorous, strong in science and technology, but also provide a comprehensive program. American students score 28th among industrialized nations. “We can’t afford to lose the education war. Nothing is more important!” (CEO Texas Instruments, Time, May 2005).

Our present Board of Finance, re-created four years ago, has the financial skills to find a way to fund America’s future. Should we buy land now for a new high school? Would the Fairfield Hills Authority allow 80 acres at Fairfield Hills to be dedicated to the inevitable new high school building? I doubt they will.

Too little planning, too late. History repeats itself!

Ruby K. Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                    January 25, 2006