Public Forums At Issue—

Space Needs Trump Council Agenda

By John Voket

Only four items of business dotted Wednesday evening’s Legislative Council agenda. Council meeting regulars may have expected that such a sparse roster would result in a quick and fairly innocuous 45 minutes, maybe an hour, before everyone headed for the door in adjournment.

Despite the lack of action on business related to a possible Charter Review Commission, discussion and possible action on a Conservation Commission and an ordinance establishing an arts commission, this week’s session was a feisty, even contentious affair. During both public comment sessions and during the meeting, members of the audience and town officials repeatedly reverted to the subject of space needs and particularly, plans for a new or expanded high school that inspired most of the verbal fireworks.

The fuse was apparently lit in early January when the Board of Education discussed the possibility of holding at least one public forum to receive comment from Newtown residents on four ideas that were put forth as possible options to address the burgeoning student population at the high school.

According to “very soft estimates,” provided to the school board and subsequently to the Council by education subcommittee chairman Patricia Llodra, the new school option could top out in excess of $150 million. The four ideas will be on the table for discussion and public comment during two information forums the school board is hosting next Monday and continuing on February 14.

Board of Education Chairman Elaine McClure told The Bee earlier this week that she was expecting town officials to join school board members at Monday’s gathering.

“I’m hoping that members of the Board of Finance, selectmen, and the Legislative Council will come,” Ms McClure said. “We hope to invite everyone so they can hear from the public and gain input on which options might be preferred.”

But during the meeting, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said he was still in the dark about the exact location of the meeting, and it was revealed through a written correspondence that the Board of Finance had not received an invitation to the session as of Wednesday afternoon.

Council Chairman Will Rodgers admitted that the only reason he was relatively certain of the date, time, and location of the forum was because he was told during a lunch meeting with Ms McClure and school board member Andrew Buzzi Tuesday.

During his report to the council, Mr Rosenthal said that despite recent promises from the Board of Education about keeping the lines of communication open, he had only learned of the public forum on Tuesday.

“There was talk about cooperation and getting together. But in reality, the first formal way that I, and Will, and the chairman of the Board of Finance heard about what they were planning to do next didn’t come from the Board of Education, it really came from Pat [Llodra] at the last council meeting,” Mr Rosenthal said.

The first selectman said that he did not hear the forum was definitely set until Tuesday.

“One concern I have is, when one group picks the dates, plans the topics, decides what’s going forward, and then the call is ‘we have to cooperate,’ in my mind that isn’t cooperation,” Mr Rosenthal said. He also complained that the school board scheduled the forum for Monday in conflict with the regularly scheduled selectmen’s meeting.

That selectmen’s meeting, the final municipal budget session, was subsequently rescheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 pm. Mr Rosenthal said he also called for a private meeting with members of the Boards of Education, finance, selectmen and the council Thursday, February 2, to, in part, determine some parameters for any or all upcoming forums on space needs.

“It’s not a public meeting because I would like everybody to be frank with one another about where we are; I want to talk about how we can cooperate going forward on this very important issue, what is the proposed purpose of this public forum, what is the expected outcome, and what kinds of information is going to be presented,” Mr Rosenthal said.

“I believe in order to get an informed response from the public, you have to first give the public information that they can respond to,” he added.

Following the selectman’s report, Legislative Council Chairman Rodgers confirmed he was consulted about the meeting scheduled for February 6, but was also given several other dates as option, all of which he could not make. Mr Rodgers said he was a bit confused to hear later that his availability on the February 6 was one of the driving reasons being used to expedite the quick scheduling of the forum.

“There were some significant concerns as to what the public was expected to do at such a meeting. What level of information will they be provided with? It doesn’t seem that it could be sufficiently refined so that final decisions could be expected,” Mr Rodgers commented. “What’s the rush?”

But once learning that the public forums were not critical to expedite a decision, and that other sessions were likely or confirmed, he encouraged members of the council to attend Monday to hear the opinions being offered on the four high school space proposals.

“To call these four ideas options at this point is to give them too much credit,” Mr Rodgers said. “I know that Herb had no date input [on the forum], and in a strange way I had date input but it led to an outcome that wasn’t to my total liking.”

Later in the meeting, Councilman Joseph Borst had an opportunity to address the remaining agenda item, a motion that the council request selectmen convene a Blue Ribbon Panel consisting of leaders from several appropriate town boards to address space needs including the school system as well as the ambulance corps and Hook and Ladder Fire Company. But he withdrew the motion after learning Mr Rosenthal had already arranged a meeting with members of the two emergency service groups to discuss new facility options.

Mr Borst was also told that the Board of Finance had formally requested a joint meeting with the school board to clarify financial parameters in relation to future space needs. The possibility of reconsidering Mr Borst’s motion at a future date was left open.

The idea for the public forums as well as other concerns specifically about school space needs escalated after a plan to create an addition to accommodate the existing population was determined to be insufficient based on increasing student projections from the state. As a result, on January 17, Board of Education members heard about the pros and cons of four alternatives, as well as curriculum design options.

One idea targeted a satellite program to be used by high school seniors, providing them with core academic offerings in an all-day or half-day time period. Another design suggested a half-day program at a satellite campus open to all grades, targeting course offerings such as culinary, agriculture, computer repair, graphics, video production, as well as a tutorial center and cafetorium.

School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff also provided the board with four sets of building options: off-site satellite program, additions and renovations at the existing building, building a new high school (and moving the middle school to the present high school facility), or building a second full high school for 800 to 1,000 students.