Mr Rosenthal’s Selective Memory

To the Editor:

Former first selectman Herbert Rosenthal demonstrated convenient selective memory in rationalizing his latest position on the high school expansion project. The 18-month timeframe of the High School Space Needs Committee to which he refers was delayed in large part due to his insistence that the committee get a second detailed architectural opinion on whether or not it was feasible to expand the high school on its current site.

The committee, which was appointed by the Board of Education, reviewed conceptual options such as a complete new high school building and a stand alone “Academy” on an off campus site, but ultimately settled on a high school expansion recommendation. Although the details of the plan changed as the architects and the Board of Education reviewed it more closely, the basic decision to expand the high school on the current site remains, despite Mr Rosenthal’s assertion that the committee’s advisory work was “completely disregarded.”

Furthermore, for Mr Rosenthal, an elected official, to state in writing for the newspaper that I as superintendent “mismanaged” the planning, without qualifying that statement as his “opinion,” in my view, is characteristic of the negative political tone set in this town under his tenure as first selectman. This was a direct attempt to malign my professional reputation in contradiction to the supervisory “above average” appraisal made by the Board of Education on this specific issue and was unnecessary for the argument he was attempting to make.

 We need our elected officials to stop looking to place blame and to start working collaboratively to find solutions to the problems that exist in our town. Didn’t Mr Rosenthal learn anything from the results of the last election?

Dr Evan Pitkoff

7 Beckett Village, Sandy Hook March 26, 2008

(Editor’s note: The writer was the superintendent of the Newtown Public Schools from 2002 to 2007.)