Another MBOE Tragedy or Should I say Milford Student

Let’s start from the beginning, Jan 2011. 

CT Post article (Milford welcomes new schools chief) “Elizabeth Feser may have missed her cue and hadn’t yet signed a contract, but when she was introduced as the new school superintendent that she said all the right things”.  She said: “I have no desire to turn the system upside down”

Now let’s jump ahead to Feb 2012

 CT Post article (East Shore renovation bonds approved):  “The Board of Alderman approved bonding $12 million to expand and renovate East Shore Middle School in a Monday night marathon session in which more than 30 speakers urged the project to be up to $16 Million.  It also stated: “The $12 million the Alderman approved makes the East Shore addition the most expensive school renovation in city history, officials said.”

Move forward to July 2012

CT Post Article (Board to hire long-range consultant):  “The city’s public school system is to see its enrollment drop by about 100 students a year over the next 10 years.  This will mean changes are needed. To lead that effort, the Board of Education is expected to hire a consultant at its meeting set for 7 p.m.” 

Move forward to July 2012

CT Post Article (East Shore Middle School groundbreaking is today).  “The official groundbreaking ceremony for Phase 1 of the East Shore Middle School improvement Project will be held today, Tuesday Dec. 4, at the school beginning at 4 pm. 

The project incorporates three phases, which included:

·         New eight-classroom wing (additional 9,858 sq. ft.)

·         New music instruction area (additional 4,829 sq. ft.)

·         New media center (additional 4,141 sq. ft.)

·         Expanded cafeteria (2,183 sq. ft.)

Move forward to August 8, 2013

Formal communication sent to parents by the East Shore administration stating that due to “declining enrollment” there would be a change in team structures in grades seven and eight.  Instead of two grade seven teams and two grade eight teams, there will be on grade seven team and one grade eight team.

Now you may be asking what’s with all these dates.  Well allow me to illuminate you.  First, as we all know, the Long Range Planning committee, who the Superintendent is a member, is going to “turn our town upside down”.  No mystery there but an interesting opening line coming from a new Superintendent.

Secondly, Why in God’s name would the city approve the largest school renovation on Jan 2012, when the BOE put together a RFP looking in May 2012 to hire a consultant to do an assessment to provide recommendations, going 5-10 years out, for the design of a school system in light of declining enrollment?   It should be noted the contract was signed on July 13, 2012.

Thirdly, on June 2013, at the end of the school year, my child came off the school bus telling me that her teacher said that teachers were being moved to Harborside and that the 7th and 8th grade teams were going to be combined.  I immediately sent a note to Mrs. Williams and Mike Cummings about this on June 18th.  I received a wonderful boiler plate response all in BOLD and a reply indicating a communication would be sent.  I sent a follow up note to Mr. Cummings on July 31st as a note was not sent, he replied that one would be sent in the next couple weeks.  Then on August 12, the formal communication was sent explaining.   Of course it was buried within the letter.

My question to the Board of Education and the Superintendents is WHY would you go forward with such an expensive renovation despite of a decline in enrollment?

At the LRPC meeting on March 4th, Bill Silver (Silver Petrocelli and Associates) went over options on various configurations that the committee can review.  One scenario involved building a specialty school into Law and Foran and provided sketches for the committee to review.  I have to say, I really like Bill Silver, he reminds me a lot of Cosmo, in the movie Moonstruck.  The scene where he is visiting a couple who is looking to upgrade the plumbing in their home.  All he does is scrape his pocket knife against the pipe and comes up with the cost.  Very funny.    The sad truth is that the consultants are basically making a sales pitch to the committee and most of the parents really don’t have the background to question it, except for one or two of them.  And the rest are all teachers and school administrators so they are going to go in the direction of the person who signs their paychecks wants them to go.  But during the last meeting, and there is only 1 left before the recommendations are presented to the board on March 24th,  one of the committee members made an interesting comment, he indicated that to this point, every discussion revolved around “FACILITIES”.  Now that should concern everyone.  I would think that these types of comments would be raised after the first couple meetings last year, but the 2nd to last meeting?

In Closing, my observation up to this point is that this whole LRPC initiative is going to be a cluster.  To date, all avenues have not been assessed.  What’s interesting, and not to jump back to East Shore, but in the Jan 8th Permanent School Facilities Building Committee meeting minutes, when one of the committee members asked if all the work on the foundation was going to complete on time, the builder said yes, but Bill Silver (President of Silver Petrocelli who are the architects) chimed in and stated that there was also the possibility of the bath room renovations, if the Committee so awarded a change order, it would take the work thru the summer to complete.   

There was another question from a member asking if there had been any odor issues from the kitchen since the work was completed.  The contractor stated that although there had not been and the plumbing in the kitchen was all done over, their only concern was that they don’t know and never knew what pipes might have been leaking sewer gas.  Mr. Silver, who is a “Qualified Architect and Interior Designer”, stated it could have been micro biological since there was never a constant odor.

I can sit here all day and keep typing, because the facts keep getting funnier and funnier.  Or should I say more TRAGIC.