Board of Education Sends Ed Specs to Council

The Board of Education moved forward with the proposed $44.5 million renovation project by voting to send the to the Town Council Thursday night.

Board member Dilip Desai was not present during the meeting and did not vote.

The specifications, which include , a , a and team rooms, will be used by the architect and building committee to design the school renovations after a referendum is passed. The specifications will be presented to the council in its final form, however it will not be approved until the referendum passes. The council will determine the final cost of the project for the referendum question.

The state is expected to reimburse the town about 44 percent of the project's costs, leaving taxpayers here to pay the remaining $28.2 million.

However, one board member felt he "made a mistake" by supporting the plan.

"The only reason I voted in favor was to move it on to Town Council so they can hopefully find ways to make it more passable and less costly to the taxpayers," said Chris Buckbee in an email to Patch Friday morning. "But for the record I do not personally approve of the plan as constructed."

Buckbee said he supported renovating the high school as new to address the needs of the NEASC report, but he did not feel the current plan would be supported by the voters.

"The plan we have is not the way to go," Buckbee said.

In late March, Rocky Hill High School was awarded continued accreditation, but was placed on a warning list by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges Inc. Commission on Public Secondary Schools.

During the 30-minute public hearing, former Board of Education Chairman Bill MacDonald and other residents urged the board members for an unanimous vote to show the council that they fully support this project.

“Our children have waited long enough,” he said.

Each resident explained how he or she moved to or stayed in town because of the Rocky Hill public school system.

“It is what most people build their lives around," said resident Todd Cusano.

Cusano is the chairman of the political action committee called "Stay Accredited" that was formed minutes before the meeting. The purpose of the group is to support voting in favor of any referendum question that keeps the high school accredited and addresses the .

“So that my kids, who will ultimately go to Rocky Hill High School, like many of these parents' kids have the same benefits that I got from my school system growing up,” Cusano said.

If the high school lost accreditation, residents felt it would cause a negative effect on the tax base, businesses in town and the community as a whole. Many of them were upset at the community in general for allowing the schools to become in such disarray.

Resident John Robertson, who has five children spread throughout the Rocky Hill school system, told everyone about the high school staff.

“The effort is there to give the students the best education to compete in a global economy and get them into the best schools that they can,” he said. “They are handicapped by this circumstance, 100 percent. There is no way that we can move the ball forward in regard to the children in school system if we don’t fix this problem. There is no more time.”

Robertson, who works with residents of Wethersfield, said Wethersfield High School has similar facility concerns, but has not been placed on a warning list.

“We don’t want to be Rocky Hill,” he said echoing Wethersfield residents' sediments. “That is appalling to me and that should be appalling to every single person in this room.” 

Alice Goodrich was frustrated that her nephew was unable to take an engineering course because there was no space in the high school. Her son was worried that the courses that he wanted to take would not be available at the high school.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she said. “Our children are our future. We need to invest in the children, so our children want to come back and invest in this community.” 

Resident Maureen Florer warned the board and the public that Rocky Hill families are starting to apply in large numbers to magnet schools. She added that the town is paying for her two children to go to magnet schools out of Rocky Hill.

“It’s almost a joke how many of us are saying that we got to get out,” she said. 

Maddy Monti was involved with the previous referendums and was upset to be talking about trying to pass another one. She urged those in attendance to tell their neighbors, especially those who are on the fence, to vote in favor of the high school referendum.

“We all have a responsibility to convince our neighbors how important this is,” she said.

Just before the vote, board member John Bedlack, who also urged everyone to go to the polls in support of the referendum, ushered people that the board is “all on the same page.” He told the audience not use scare tactics to sell the referendum and to explain to residents that the school facility needs to move into the 21st century.

"The quality of education in Rocky Hill has never really gone down," he said. "Our concern is we cannot maintain it that way. We are trying to implement new curriculum and our hands are tied. Don't let people convince you that our students there right now are getting a bad education."