Not Enough Land

To the Editor:

Newtown High School, situated on 47.66 acres, considered adequate at the time, opened in 1971 with a capacity of 1,215 students. Fields for baseball, boys’ soccer, a practice area for football and a stadium were built. No fields were constructed for girls’ field hockey or softball. Sports facilities for girls were simply not important. Title IX, enacted in 1972, and the Newtown 1998 Gender Equity study helped propel efforts for girls to gain access to playing fields. Girls and new programs have partially fueled the need for more space and land for a high school.

The addition added in 1998 provided more classrooms, but not more land. Advocates for the purchase of Fairfield Hills, recognizing the impending crisis in classroom space and playing fields, strongly urged our leaders to buy Fairfield Hills and designate sufficient land for schools as part of long-range planning. Instead, they have focused on making Fairfield Hills as a center for business development while ignoring the continuing growth of the US population and of Newtown.

Growth is sure to come. Once Hawley was our high school; the middle school was our high school and we outgrew both of them. Think 30 years from now. Visionaries recognize long-term planning requires 80 acres somewhere for either two new, small high schools or one large school. Fairfield Hills providing sewers and water is the least expensive location.

Nevertheless, the Fairfield Hills Authority is proceeding to approve construction of a new town hall building in the center of the campus. Town offices at Edmond Town Hall already find the movie theater filled with exuberant children a distraction at times. If Bridgeport Hall were saved for community use, the traffic and distractions would dominate the area. An imposing new town hall could be erected farther away from the potential Kent House school site, perhaps on Mile Hill South. The Cochran House area offers some existing parking and a quieter and more dignified setting.

I applaud the efforts of the PTA Council to provide information to the public. That effort needs to continue, but long-range planning must dominate. Councilman Borst has offered a thoughtful plan. First, the Board of Education must choose the education program for: one large new high school, one small new high school with land for expansion, or portable classrooms as a way of life. An additional building on the same 48 acres is a Band-Aid approach and unacceptable in a long-range plan.

Second, the selectmen and members of the Fairfield Hills Authority should turn their attention to developing the almost 80 acres in Commerce Park for economic development and preserve Fairfield Hills for schools and other municipal needs. The valuable flat land is ideal for playing fields and recreational activities that all the townspeople can enjoy

The choice must be sound education, affordable and expandable. I for one will not vote for another addition to the present high school site. Forty-eight acres is not enough land for tomorrow.

Ruby Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                     February 15, 2006