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Community Corner

The wisdom of former school Superintendent Joe Foran

Former highly respected Superintendent Joseph Foran once stated "a high school should never be more than 950 students". Milford is very fortunate to have two high schools at opposite ends of our city each with a number Joe Foran would agree with. Two high schools, Law and Foran, provide twice the number of Milford students the opportunity to participate in character building activities such as varsity sports, junior varsity sports, marching band, color guard, dramatic presentations, cheerleading, student government, student newspaper, and numerous service clubs and other activities.

Jonathan Law is located in the western part of the city while Joseph Foran is located almost in Woodmont to the East. Imagine the time a student would waste on school busses if they had to travel twice a day from say 3rd Avenue in Laurel Beach to Foran High or from Hawley Ave. in Woodmont to Jonathan Law High. Eisenhower Park could never be a site of a 240 million dollar consolidated high school; it was built with Federal monies with "Open Space" strings attached.

Milford's two geographically balanced high schools are the envy of cities such as Hamden where Dr. Frank Yulo tried unsuccessfuly to establish a 2nd high school of the size Joe Foran would approve of, but was turned down. Unfortunately huge Hamden High has been a place where riots have occurred over the years-one even making Time Magazine. Fairfield had two High schools and tried to consolidate only to find the community demanded that the two be returned to a more mangeable size. The Principal of New Britain High School, a high school with over 3000 students, Thomas Reale, was quoted in the Hartford Courant several years ago saying "they should never have closed Pulaski High". Pulaski was closed due to declining enrollment projections only to find "the projections were wrong". Loretta Waldman wrote that principal Reale has heard the comment about closing Pulaski and what a mistake it was "more than he can count".

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Huge high schools have long winding corridors where students can be bullied such as what happened at mega Columbine High school. They also have numerous entrances which make for security nightmares.

Perhaps the most important consideration for keeping the number to 950-1000 students is so educators and support staff will be more likely to know the troubled student. In todays world many kids come to school from broken family situations. They are more likely to get the emotional support they need in a high school the size of Foran or Law. The Gates Foundation only gives money to towns going in the smaller community direction-not the consolidated direction. In Milford we are fortunate to have neighborhood high, middle, and elementary schools. Lets respect that system and do nothing to break it..

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