TOWN
OF ROCKY HILL
BOARD
OF EDUCATION
PUBLIC
FORUM OF SEPTEMBER 20, 2006
Members
Present: Neil Geldof
(Chairman)
Nadine Bell
Peter Arico
Mark E. Carberry
Charles McMonigle
Anne Schmidt
Catherine Vargas
Members
Absent: Jennifer
Viggiano-Grosse
Rene (Skip) Rivard
The Board of Education held a Public
Forum on Thursday, September 20, 2006, in the Council Chambers of the
Chairman Geldof called the meeting to
order at 7:00 p.m.
The pledge of allegiance was recited.
Dr. Vautour and Mr. Arico presented the
Facilities Committee Report &
Recommendations, School Space Needs, June 2006 through power point
presentation (Attachment #1). The focus
of the report was the long term (25+ years) building needs of the school
district. The report contained five
sections: building statistics, enrollment data, philosophical/programmatic
considerations, feasibility study review, and recommendations.
With regard to Stevens Facilities
Inadequacies, “antiquated intercom system – teachers cannot call out from
classrooms,” Dr. Vautour explained that in actual classrooms teachers have the
ability to call the office, however, in several of the instructional spaces
that have been made out of closets or storerooms there is no calling
capability.
At the conclusion of the presentation,
Mr. Geldof suggested everyone take a brief recess.
Moved by Nadine Bell, seconded by Mark Carberry, to take a
brief recess.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Geldof explained that the Responses to Questions Raised at the August
29, 2006 Forum will now be read. Mr.
Arico read the questions and Dr. Vautour read the responses. (Attachment #2.)
With regard to the response to Question
#6: Dr. Vautour said the response should
indicate, “between $699 and $856 per year.”
With regard to the response to Question
#20: Dr. Vautour explained that in a
Memorandum received from the Town Manager it is explained that, the matter has
not been discussed by the Town as the referral has not come to the Council from
the Board of Education. However, without
even looking at plans I foresee a need for added parks and rec staff as well as
additional custodians to maintain a new school.
The cost of two park maintainers and four custodians would be about
$325,000 annually for the first year.
With regard to the response to Question
#21: Dr. Vautour explained that in a
Memorandum received from the Town Manager it is explained that, it would depend
on the size and scope of parking areas and athletic fields.
With regard to the response to Question
#27: Dr. Vautour explained that in a
Memorandum received from the Town Manager it is explained that, the parks
garage would have to be relocated requiring the construction of a new building
to land currently owned by the Town or to be purchased. The cost will not be known until plans are
prepared and a location decided.
With regard to the response to Question
#31: Dr. Vautour explained that in a
Memorandum received from the Town Manager it is explained that, much of the
remaining land at the Veterans’ home is wetlands and is not suitable. If the Town were to utilize some of this land
for a new school they would have to replace it with equal acreage, or pay the
State 50% of the current market value.
At the conclusion of the presentation,
Mr. Geldof asked people who had not previously asked questions or made comments
at the last meeting to come up and speak. He explained that persons who spoke
at the previous meeting would be given an opportunity to speak if time permits. He asked Town Manager, Barbara Gilbert to
speak first.
Mrs. Gilbert wished to reassure parents
that their children are safe in the schools.
There maybe things that have to be upgraded, but that is only because
things were built to a specific code and we are not required to change the code
until we make renovations. The kids are
safe. If there is something involving a
code that needs to be addressed, it is addressed. The Fire Marshal and one of
our fire department members who is a state fire inspector have assured me that
our buildings are safe and when they see a code violation they address it. No one should feel uneasy about sending their
kids to school. The schools are safe or
we would shut them down.
Mr. Steve Aleco of
He explained that he has site planning
experience and has done work on schools, etc., and cautioned before moving
ahead with drawing up plans to first have a site that is good - there aren’t
any major physical, environmental or major infrastructure issues associated
with it. He asked if before the Board
and the Council make a decision and ask people to vote for a referendum to
inform everyone of what the site is and
to see a conceptual layout of what the school might look like on the
property. It’s not going to affect the
price of the property. He explained that he worked on a site in central
He expressed concern regarding
Mr. Geldof explained that we have not
looked at school sites yet and reminded everyone that this is in the “embryonic”
stage and has a long way to go. Dr. Vautour
said potential uses for the space have been listed in the PowerPoint
Presentation.
Mr. Pete Egan of
Mr. Egan feels Rocky Hill is lacking in
a lot of ways and that we don’t compare favorably to a lot of other school
systems. He thinks what the Board is
doing is tremendous. He explained that
as a basketball coach he shares a space that is 4’x10’ with girl’s soccer,
hockey, and track and field. When his
season ends, he takes all his equipment (uniforms, basketballs, etc.) and
stores it in the basement of his home.
Every other coach is the same way.
He doesn’t want Rocky Hill’s equipment in his basement and neither does
his wife, but if he doesn’t take it home, he’s not going to have it the next
year. For example, last year he was late
in moving the equipment, soccer moved, the basketballs were placed in an
unsecured area and all the basketballs (25 basketballs @ $35 each) were
taken. He said this is what they are up
against, they have no place to store things; no place to meet with student
athletes; it’s embarrassing when a team comes in and they have to dress in a
bathroom, garage, or in the hallway. We
do have a big problem and it is his feeling that we need a new high school and
we need to move the school system to the optimum level. He has two children (one out of the school
system and one leaving this year) and believes this is important for Rocky
Hill, that we have to look forward and do this for our kids, our students, and
the future of the town.
Mr. Geldof said the fields, press boxes,
and scoreboards are items that would not be forgotten but it is too premature
to design them into a facility now – it all takes place later, but the Rocky
Hill school system will not be without its athletic facilities.
Mr. Robert Hovey of 25 Heather Hill
said he has lived in Rocky Hill for about 9 years, is a parent of four
children, and his wife is a teacher. He
said it is hard to talk against a lot of the suggestions the Board has made and
that he knows what it is like to deal with limited school facilities. He also said he didn’t know this was going on
until he read about it in The Hartford Courant.
He said it is hard to speak at a meeting like this when you haven’t done
a lot of research. He said there is a
lot he doesn’t know and made the following comments:
·
It seems as though we are focused on enrollment increases;
do we know whether the enrollment projections are correct? Those of us who have been parents for a long
time have seen a lot of enrollment projections that have turned out to be
incorrect.
·
With regard to teacher/student ratio, one individual is
quoted in the Courant as saying that our student/teacher ratio is less than
some of the surrounding towns. Does teacher/student
ratio become the end-all when we are looking at factors that have an impact on
students’ ability to learn? Many teachers would say that is not much of a
factor at all and we use it too often as a basis for moving forward.
·
Where do my elected officials stand on this issue? How do you handle your budget; do you believe
in looking for ways to cut spending or is the approach tax and spend? He said he cannot afford a tax increase. The highest percentage (26%) of his budget
goes toward direct taxes; 12% for the mortgage (less than half of what is paid
for taxes; 10% for food; 4% for health insurance; and 3% on gasoline). He doesn’t know where this is going to go,
but one thing he knows is that is that he cannot afford to pay any more taxes.
For my family we start with cutting expenses and he wanted to be assured that
when the Board moves forward that will be the way in which they handle this
situation.
Mr. Dave Kromas of
Mr. Charles Wisnioski, of
He continued by stating that Dr.
Vautour sent him three years of Dr. Prowda’s State Department of Education
projections. The Nov. 1, 2001, report
which is the most current report states the following: “I believe that the
Mrs. Jane Hiller of
Mrs. Beth DiLoreto of
Mr. Bill Kasprzynski thanked the Board
for answering the questions to this point.
His comments are based on observation of the existing schools not on
studies and are based on options other than constructing a new facility. For example, it maybe feasible to build a
two-story addition at
He said that to him the Schoenhardt
report says that we have done a good job of building facilities in Rocky Hill,
but we may have faltered in maintaining them.
Yet, we want to build more. He
asked the Board to explore as many solutions to their problem as they can think
of and remember the money they are playing with is not their own, it ‘s the
taxpayers.
Mr. John Farnham of
He said other things he wanted to
express is that we have a very big senior population in town and with the
tremendous amount of condo building going in town with mostly all of it being
for 55 years old and older, these people don’t have children that will be going
to the schools. He reminded the Board of
a new Bill passed by the Conn. State Senate asking that a freeze be put on
senior citizens who are 70 years of age and older and with a limited amount of
income. He said that didn’t seem to be taken in great favor by the Council as
to approving that because as they pointed out that could be a tremendous cost
to the Town especially if something like this came in and you have several
hundred people over 70 years and qualify for the freeze program. The majority of the building being approved
in this Town is for senior citizen residences and these people, myself
included, will be taxed right out of the town and you are going to be sitting
with a lot of empty condos that are going to be looking for 55 and over
people. They are buying now because
people are downsizing and taking the cash from their houses. Now, with the market going down, it could and
will have a significant impact on the senior citizens of the town. He doesn’t think they will survive something
like this, so he suggested the Board try to sharpen their pencils, and put
bigger erasers on them, and get rid of those large numbers.
Mrs. Pauline Allen of
Mrs. Marti Stiglich, a Town Council
member, said she agrees with the bulk of the people who have spoken and said
that the Board cannot afford to go forward with a project like this. It impacts a lot of people whether or not
they have children in the schools or not.
People want to live here but they cannot afford to do so if you’re going
to continue with these types of taxes.
We are looking at other referendums coming down the pike like the MDC
one. The money has to come from
someplace and it only comes from taxpayers and a lot of people can’t afford to
go in this direction. She asked the
Board to get out their pencils and look to see if there are other creative ways
in which you can achieve what you need to achieve. One thing to look at carefully is that a lot
of the emphasis is on the number projection of new students that we are
expecting over a period of time. One of
the three numbers that you used came out of the Planning and Zoning Town Conservation
book which indicated that, if the town went to this amount of people then you
could expect 3,300 students. She said
that’s an old number and she doesn’t think that anyone can accurately project
how many students are going to be in a school.
She asked the Board to think about the trending in the country. 20 years ago I wasn’t expected to live beyond
age 69. Today, I am expected to live to
be 85. So, people are living longer and
the emphasis on the part of the government, health care, and communities is not
to take older people and force them to leave their community, but to stay in
their homes. She asked the Board to look
at the numbers again and bring it down by 150 students so we don’t need to go
off in this direction. She said
increasing a class size by one or two students may not be an awful thing to
consider when the flip side is - like several people have told you - they will
have no option but to move out of this community that they have lived in for
20, 30, 40, and 50 years. Yes, we all
want our property values to stay high, but even if they stay high, you sell
your house, you have to go live someplace else. We encourage you as a community to go back to
the drawing board, get your pencils out, and think creatively. I like the idea some people had about going
to a second floor. I agree that if you
put more parking spaces out there people will come. Consider other possibilities. A lot of people out there can’t afford to go
in this direction.
Mrs. Marti Durkin of
Dr. Vautour encouraged anyone who
hasn’t looked at the Schoenhardt report to do so. He said in Options 1 and 2 some of the
creative, out-of-the box thinking that has been suggested such as a two-story
addition at Stevens School, an addition at West Hill School, adjustments on the
Griswold site, are contained in the report.
Mayor LaRosa added that there are copies of the Schoenhardt report
available at the library.
Dr. Vautour explained that the next
step is for the Board of Education as a whole to deliberate on the Facilities
Committee’s recommendations. The Board
has yet to take action on the recommendations of the Committee. Depending on
the action they take, that recommendation will be referred to the Town Manager
and Town Council. Then, the process that the Town Manager suggested will take
place is that the Council will probably review or refer the matter to the
Government Operations Committee for discussion and deliberation. Then, the Council makes a decision as to what
action it wants to take.
Mrs. Kathleen Canaza of
Mr. Scott Coleman of
Mr. Geldof said he feels we have been
successful over the two evenings in obtaining good questions, comments, and
food for thought. He regretted hearing
comments that people did not know about this.
The Board has done everything in its power to publicize these meetings
and that’s why they held two meetings.
He doesn’t know what else they could have done and was glad that Mr.
Coleman spoke because one of the questions in the survey was, did you know
about this, in which slightly over 50% of the population responded that they
did know about it. We’ve made great
efforts to publicize this and we could only get to 50% of the people, I don’t
know what else we could have done. This
meeting will be rebroadcast many times.
Moved by Peter Arico, seconded by Charles McMonigle, to adjourn
the meeting (9:40 P.M.)
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Respectfully submitted,
Juanda J. Simons
Recording Secretary
Accepted by: _______________________ Date: _____________________