Make Your Voices Heard

To the Editor:

I am outraged that Selectmen Herb Rosenthal and Paul Mangiafico voted to not approve the funding resolution for the high school expansion project. The Legislative Council has already acted to approve this project. At this point, the duty of the Board of Selectmen is only to carry out the decision of the Legislative Council and allow the voters of this town to decide. The two selectman have indicated that they believe the current high school renovations are larger than necessary. Even if that were true, and everything I have seen indicates that it is not, if we downsize the renovations at this point, it will cost the town more money to start over from scratch and we will end up paying more and getting less. Downsizing is more expensive than continuing on the current path.

 The overcrowding issue at the high school is serious. There is a video that was made by the high school students and is being played at all the schools. The common theme from these students is that “they feel they are wasting their time at this high school.” They are not able to get into important classes that they need, there is no room for them in the library, the halls and the cafeteria, and there are no resources available to them to complete their assignments. These problems will only get worse with increased enrollment projections for future high school classes. In addition, if Newtown loses its accreditation status with the NEASC because of this issue, colleges will not even look at admissions applications from Newtown students. As we all know, once the high school goes, the property values go with it. We are already seeing families leaving town and new families refusing to buy our homes because of this issue. This is not something that will happen. This is something that is happening.

 Everyone in this town needs to get involved. Even if your children are young, they will someday be at the high school. These problems will not go away. Alternatives to an expansion are to have much larger, unmanageable class sizes or, even worse, split sessions and year-round rotations. Is this the future you want for our children?

Please contact the selectman’s office and make your voices heard on this crucial matter.

Fran Maturo

5 Ironwood Drive, Sandy Hook                                     March 19, 2008

 (Editor’s note: The Legislative Council has not yet voted on the high school expansion funding resolution.)