To the Editor:

In my view, the consideration to close Hawley School is misguided, at best. My wife and I moved here with three children in 1987 because of the school system and the proximity of Hawley to our home in the borough. We often express our appreciation still to Hawley School for the “home” we found in its classrooms.  It was our neighborhood school and is still the neighborhood school to many. The Arbor Day Trees our kids brought home from Hawley are now well rooted, as are our children, thanks to their time at Hawley School.

Accepting $40 million from the State of Connecticut for a new Sandy Hook School, and then turning around to potentially close Hawley, seem at odds with each other and affects the very fabric of neighborhoods. The Board of Education and the State of Connecticut both recognized that neighborhood schools are important when the decision was made after the tragedy to re-build with the help of the $40 million, and not redistrict, with a closed Sandy Hook School. With that in mind, it makes little sense to consider closing Hawley, therefore eliminating a neighborhood school. In addition, Hawley School is a historic property, given to the town as a gift by Mary Hawley, and supported by a trust fund she created. There are other options, if declining enrollment, and facility expenditures are the “drivers” in the school closing considerations.

Closing the Middle School is apparently an option being considered by the BOE.  The physical plant of the Middle School is a drain on the school budget, and the location of ample property on Queen Street can be very attractive for commercial development.  The BOE can redistrict 6th, 7th and 8th grade to Reed, add 5th grade to the four elementary schools.  This eliminates a facility albatross, conserves maintenance money, brings revenue opportunity with a potential sale of the property, and increases the enrollment of the four elementary schools to service the neighborhoods of Newtown in a declining enrollment era. The loss of an intermediate school can be absorbed, and the “newer” Reed School can replace the “aging” existing Middle School.

From a logistical standpoint, closing Hawley School is problematic. Newtown is the largest geographic town in Fairfield County, and closing Hawley increases bus travel for students, uses more gas for the busses therefore increasing transportation expenditures, and eliminates the only Borough elementary school.  Closing Hawley makes little sense, on many levels.

It should be noted here that no school closings is an option!

Sincerely,

Richard English

3 Curry Drive, Newtown                                                  June 17, 2015