Ledyard school books survive trip to the trash

School board members dumpster dive after texts are mistakenly tossed

Ledyard — Lori McCullough, who lives near Gallup Hill School in the Highlands neighborhood, said she and her son were out on Sunday and decided to go see the school’s new parking lot.

As they were checking out the lot, constructed as part of the school’s $28.6 million renovation, she spotted books peaking out of the school’s dumpster.

Among other items thrown away in the trash were “some brand new books, still in the packaging,” McCullough said.

She was “devastated,” she said, seeing some of her favorite authors in the trash, and thought of the people who could use them, like the Haitian school her church had donated their own books to not long ago.

After she returned home, she posted a few photos on the Ledyard Community Facebook Forum and asked if any parents wanted to take the books home themselves.

As people on the Facebook page responded with confusion and frustration to her photos, she was reminded by her mother that dumpster diving could be illegal.

She went back over to the school to check if there were any “no trespassing” signs at the school and encourage people not to take anything out until she got more information.

It was then that she ran into Board of Education Chairman Anthony Favry, who was inside the dumpster taking the books out, and board member Stephanie Calhoun. Both had driven over to the school to see what had happened to the books after they saw McCullough's postings on the Ledyard Community Forum.

Favry said he got a message about the books earlier in the day and went over to check it out.

He and Calhoun had a laugh about their circumstances as they began pulling books out of the dumpster.

“It was a great way to spend Sunday evening,” he said.

The mix-up stemmed from the $28.6 million renovation of the school, which began this summer. Favry said the renovation, led by construction manager O&G industries, gave the building back to the district's maintenance team a few days ago.

The maintenance team worked “tirelessly” to get the facilities in shape for the first day of school on Wednesday, said Superintendent of Schools Jason Hartling.

“We had literally four days total to clean the entire building so ... there was sort of a mad rush,” said Gallup Hill Principal Dr. Pamela Austen.

Over the summer, teachers use the time to purge the classrooms of unwanted or old items, and have to also remove all of their classroom materials so the room can be cleaned.

One of the teachers was moving to a new grade level and had boxed up all of her books outside the room, and a custodian inadvertently threw several of her boxes away.

“I think the intention was to get the building ready as soon as possible,” Austen said, and the social studies and science books were unfortunately thrown away mistakenly.

The district's policy for old books that are being retired by a teacher is first to try to redistribute them to other classes and then to families in the community if the books are no longer part of the curriculum.

Books and other materials are often reused by putting them out for others to take in the communal space in the staff lounge, Austen said, and throwing them away is “certainly not procedure,” she added.

For her part, McCullough said she understands it was just a mistake and was glad to know the books will end up back in the classroom. She told Favry that she “wouldn't mind being on the school board” herself.

“This might be my door in,” she said.