A Little Here,

And A Little There

To the Editor:

There has been much talk about the “scalability” and “mismanagement” of the high school expansion project.

Expanding the high school in stages is not financially prudent as costs escalate and state reimbursement decreases. The expansion design was based on the educational specifications that were painstakingly developed by our educational experts.

Rather than establishing a strategic long-term plan for our town, many town leaders continue to support the Lego-planning approach of dealing with the long-term needs of our community. The “scalable” sprawling-building-concept of the NMS was due to poor planning and it is an inefficient use of land. Rather than developing a long-term plan for the growing enrollment and ensuring adequate space, town leaders decided to add a little here and a little there. Despite the “scalable” design, the middle school became overcrowded and the Reed Intermediate School was built to move the sixth graders out to alleviate overcrowding. The middle school still needs over $40 million of renovation.

We also added a little here in 1998 and now we expect to add a little more there at the NHS. If we do not approve the special appropriation next week to construct the current high school design, we may be forced to add a little more again in the near future. Meanwhile the taxpayers suffer having to possibly pay three times to address the same overcrowding issue.

Newtown is unable to deviate from the short-term Band-Aid approach of dealing with the infrastructure needs of our growing town. Many past and present town leaders did not have the vision to develop a strategic long-term plan and did not adequately establish priorities for our town. Yet, the same town leaders are blaming everyone else for mismanaging our tax dollars. 

Will Rodgers blamed the Board of Education for mismanaging the high school expansion project and then Herb Rosenthal proclaimed that the expansion project was “ ‘one of the most chaotic and poorly planned’ he had ever experienced in 40 years of public service, including 14 years on the Board of Education.”

This expansion project has been micromanaged for the last three years. On the contrary, there has been no management or oversight of the new town hall project that came in “on budget” as a result of the new roof, permanent electricity connection, fiber optics connection, tunnel demolition, and parking not being included in the price. They even reduced the contingency by almost half to falsely claim that the new town hall bids came in “on budget.”

Mr Rodgers has consistently supported the new town hall project while voting against the high school expansion project. Mr Rosenthal has spent the last three years attempting to derail the high school expansion while refusing to hold off on the new town hall. They have found methods to allocate more money for Fairfield Hills without voter approval. They believe the new town hall is more important for our community than the high school expansion.

I have faith that the voters will demonstrate that the high school expansion project is the true priority for our town with a Yes vote on October 7.

Po Murray

38 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                         October 1, 2008