Comments to the Board of Education on School Capacity - September 24, 2013

After the release of the capacity and school population study by Milone and MacBroom, we can finally acknowledge Stamford is in a unique situation, a town in the Connecticut and in the North East that is growing.  We can also acknowledge the fact that your predecessors were wrong and have now left you holding the bag. 

They made bad assumptions about city residential growth, relying on state and regional data that was not applicable to Stamford in spite of the tangible evidence that was apparent as new residential buildings were sprouting up all over Stamford in 2007.  They also were relying on the Thompson/Fletcher report which was then in year 8 of a 10 year study, which like the current study, the accuracy sharply declines after 5 years.

That Superintendent and Board of Education chose to ignore the facts that were staring them in the face, and failed to plan accordingly for the reality we face now, and continue to struggle with how to deal with a growing student population and a limited capacity within our existing buildings.  The parents that debated that board then, myself included, could today gloat stating “we were right” but that is a shallow victory, knowing that vindication and acknowledgement is only the first step in now solving this larger and growing problem.  You now have the opportunity to fix what was not done before, you start with a clean slate to look forward and not be haunted by the past, since none of you sat in those seats 6 years ago.

The long term solution cannot be solved by this board alone.  Dr. Hamilton told the PT council on Thursday that the state permitting process to build a new school takes at least 30 months, before you can even break ground on new construction; this process needs to start immediately, because each passing month brings more students as new residential complexes are completed and families continue to move into our city. 

I challenge this board to reach out to the mayoral candidates, the board of representatives, the board of finance and any other city boards to put together a task force;

•           To determine how we can pay for a new school;
•           To identify a property that could house a school in the future, perhaps in Harbor Point where at least 5 new multi-family high-rises are finished or going up as we speak;
•           To identify any existing property already within the city which could be acquired and/or converted into a school, multiple people have talked about empty office buildings on Long Ridge Road

We also need you to partner with these boards to ensure that from this point forward, any new construction that occurs in Stamford will be accounted for in the grand list, so that there is a sustainable tax base to support new families that this new construction will house.  We need you to hold these other boards’ accountable, preventing sweetheart tax breaks that will drain the city coffers and make it more difficult to fund our schools with more residents and a smaller tax base. 

But we also have to do something immediately, since the report shows many of our schools cannot wait 30-45 months for permits and construction.

If we are going to go through a redistricting or realignment (is that like putting lipstick on a pig?) process that too is going to take time, and is simply going to reshuffle the deck, upset many parents who don’t want to change schools and still not resolve anything long term.    

However, this might be a necessary evil to address our short term needs.  My request to you is to really engage the entire school community, every school, not just those schools impacted by any decisions you make.  Inform the community of the logic and process you have gone through and educate us on why you are making these decisions.  Please do not make politically expedient decisions because that is what bogged down the process last time and turned school community against school community.  Please don’t rush to a solution that cannot be fully planned and implemented before the 2014/2015 school year because let’s face it, haste makes waste.  If you rush to decision you are just going to further alienate the parent community and give us less reason to have faith that you can make a strategic solid decision over our community and our children’s long term needs.

I for one would like avoid the same mistakes that were made last time and I hope you agree too that 2007 was not a pretty process and should not be repeated.  I ask you to be courageous and stand by your decisions, if you believe it is the best solution for the entire district.  If a single school comes out in force because they are being negatively impacted by a decision and you know the majority of the other schools in our community will benefit, then please don’t be swayed.